Raptors’ lesser lights defy the critics
Athletes feed off negative expectations
Tell a professional athlete he or she can’t do something and chances are within a short period of time they are back in your face showing you just how wrong you were.
That and whatever god-gifted talent they are born with is primarily what separates the greatest athletes from just the run of the mill types.
Collect enough of that type on a team and you have the makings of a championship contender.
The Raptors just happen to have plenty of it at both the top end of their roster and the developing bottom portion.
It starts with Kyle Lowry, a guy who defies anyone to best him whether it’s on the court, in conversation or we assume running for a bus ... assuming Lowry actually still runs for buses.
Lowry has never lost that desire to prove doubters wrong.
The same can be said for DeMar DeRozan. DeRozan’s game runs counter to everything the NBA experts say it should be. Shoot 3’s, long two’s are a fool’s game. You can’t win that way.
And yet DeRozan night after night beats teams with that midrange game. Sure, his ability to get to the line is among the elite in the game and a big factor, but a large portion of his game remains knocking down those shots that the analytics crowd insists you can’t win with.
But there is equal parts defiance coming up through the ranks as well on this Raptors roster.
And for that, you can thank all the four-year college naysayers who insist it’s pointless drafting fourth-year players because they have already plateaued and can’t get any better.
Norman Powell and Fred VanVleet are two guys who will fight you in the street countering that argument.
Fortunately for both players, Masai Ujiri and his management team do not follow the crowd. They make assessments on a player based on that player and what they see, not based on some myth that four-year players are finished products and won’t get any better.
Powell, a second-round pick who spent four years at UCLA, feels it even now with a year and a half in the NBA under his belt. VanVleet, who went undrafted after a stellar four-year career at Wichita State probably feels it even more.
“I feel that is the overall concept especially during the draft process,” VanVleet said recently. “He played four years so he can’t get any better and you hear potential and all that.”
VanVleet just uses that kind of talk as fuel.
“I think it helps. I’m glad it’s like that because you keep the chip on your shoulder,” he said. “We’re the guys who are in there early and staying late and just keep grinding and getting better.”
And anyone who has watched Powell will agree. He’s still getting better.
And as irritating and frustrating as it must be having someone else place false limits on your abilities, the Raptors are likely a much better team because of it.