Vanvleet’s performance no surprise
Record scoring achievement took hard work
Kyle Lowry mentioned it almost in passing, but it says a lot about the kind of individual Fred Vanvleet is that his teammates enjoyed the Rockford, Ill., native’s record-setting night more than he did.
Vanvleet went into the record books with his 54-point scoring barrage against the Orlando Magic surpassing Demar Derozan’s old team mark by two and establishing a new NBA mark for scoring in a single game by an undrafted player as he bested Moses Malone’s old record by a single point.
If you haven’t already seen it on social media, do yourself a favour and go back and watch the video (Open Gym tweeted it out as did Raptors’ assistant coach Jamaal Magloire) of Vanvleet entering the locker-room after his post-game interview.
His teammates are waiting behind doors or out of sight until Vanvleet breeches the final doorway and they pounce as one, showering him with water, literally pushing one another out of the way to get close to the man of the moment and make sure he knows how happy they are for him.
Through it all Vanvleet is smiling but looking somewhat uncomfortable with all the attention.
There is real excitement and pride throughout that room but also a level of surprise underneath it all that Vanvleet could do this.
Fact of the matter is the least surprised man in the room is probably Vanvleet and this is where the narrative in the moments after the game and even a day later gets a little skewed.
People want to celebrate the long-shot nature of the accomplishment, but by doing so you almost diminish the amount of work and effort that went into this.
It’s not that Vanvleet had one night of unimaginable good shooting that makes him a player every team in the league covets.
It’s not that one 54-point night that suddenly puts him on an all-star level.
It’s the body of work leading up to that night that puts Vanvleet at that elite level.
But, it’s natural in this inthe-moment generation to overreact to one night and while neither Vanvleet nor any other player to ever don a Raptors’ uniform has reached these heights, Vanvleet has been playing at a super high level really since the midway part of the championship run almost two years ago.
Tuesday’s number is huge and historic but the performance shouldn’t be that surprising to anyone who has watched this young man progress from undrafted rookie paying his dues on the bench to basically sharing the leadership and court direction duties with a 14-year vet in Kyle Lowry in just his fifth season.
To go from undrafted to this level would appear to be a real mark against all those teams that passed on him, but people tend to forget Vanvleet helped orchestrate that insult.
When he didn’t get picked in the first round or by a certain spot in the draft, Vanvleet and his representation made the conscious decision to warn teams not to draft him. Teams not wanting to risk a pick on a guy who didn’t want to be there acquiesced and just like that Vanvleet had some leverage.
He went from settling for someone to take him, to picking among teams looking to scoop him up in the post-draft frenzy.
He wasn’t alone. Also in that undrafted category and looking for an NBA home were the likes of Alex Caruso, Dorian Finney-smith, Bryn Forbes, Derrick Jones Jr and Danuel House all of whom have gone on to solid NBA careers.
The Raptors had Vanvleet at the top of their list with Finney-smith right behind him.
But the undrafted badge of honour or uniqueness of making it to the league undrafted is definitely wearing off. Consider the Raptors own roster. Of the 16 men on it, including two two-way players, six of them were drafted in the first round, three were drafted in the second and a majority seven weren’t drafted at all.
That list includes of course Vanvleet, Aron Baynes, Chris Boucher, Terence Davis, Matt Thomas, Yuta Watanabe and Paul Watson.
The point being that Vanvleet’s path to the NBA, while impressive considering the lack of investment the team initially had in him and the subsequent ease a decision to go another way with his roster spot would have had, isn’t remotely as impressive as what he did with his opportunity.
Vanvleet is the poster child for what self confidence and believing in one’s own abilities can do for a player. Yes, the hard work — real hard work — has to be there too, but just the determination to keep going and keep improving when it’s really only you pushing yourself is a quality we can all aspire to.
That, more than the unlikeliness of an undrafted player going off for 54 points in a game, is what we should be celebrating today.