VanVleet prepares to take next step in post-Lowry era
There’s just a sense you get when you’re around Fred VanVleet for any length of time. A vibe. One of those hard-to-define feelings that you’re around someone with some pretty special qualities.
It goes far beyond being able to shoot a basketball or dribble or pass.
It’s a confidence, a presence.
There’s just something about him — something coach Dwane Casey used to talk about six years ago, and VanVleet’s Raptors coaches and teammates mention today.
He’s a leader, a force, able to create a dynamic within a disparate group of athletes as they try to mould themselves into a team.
It’s hard to explain, but it’s there. It’s obviously there. And when you ask him about it, he doesn’t go all “aw, shucks.” He faces it head on, embraces it and acknowledges it — not in an egomaniacal way, but straightforward.
“I was born to it,” VanVleet once said. With the Raptors, it’s something that’s been building since he was added as an undrafted Summer League prospect in
“If you put winning first, you’re good in my book.” FRED VANVLEET RAPTORS GUARD
2016. The strength of personality, his utter belief in himself, stood out.
“That was the road I was empowered by (Dwane) Casey and the front office to (take): to be the guy to keep the locker room together and make sure everything was OK,” the 27-year-old VanVleet said as Raptors training camp opened this fall.
“As the leader of the team, it’s important to let guys be themselves. We’ve always got to keep the same focus. If we put winning first, we’re never going to
have an issue. When that gets messed up, that’s when conflict usually happens. If you put winning first, you’re good in my book.”
In this relatively new era for the franchise — with a team that’s good but built for a year or two out, a solid group that has championship experience but a lot of new pieces — VanVleet is going to emerge as the wise old soul and the leader.
“I think that was one of the things that allowed me to be here is, they saw some of that leadership potential, just my character and who I was as a man, a young man,” he said. “My first year, DeMar (DeRozan) really wasn’t that vocal in terms of talking. Kyle (Lowry) is really not as vocal as you might think on a daily basis. He speaks when something needs to be said. He checks things as they go.
“So, there was a void there. You always need the leaders of the team and guys who can lead each other.”
Lowry, who was a force on and off the court in nine years in
Toronto, is gone. The strength of his personality will be missed, but it’s not like VanVleet was a shrinking violet with Lowry around.
“He’s carried a lot of that load already,” coach Nick Nurse said of VanVleet’s responsibility within the team framework. “Will it expand some from a leadership standpoint? I suppose.”
The truth is that VanVleet has been a predominant voice in the Raptors locker room for years. He may not have had the public profile that Lowry did as the face of the franchise, he certainly wasn’t the Type-A oncourt personality that Kawhi Leonard was, and he wasn’t as accomplished as DeRozan in his run of all-star seasons.
But VanVleet has for years been a commanding and demanding presence behind the scenes. He understood the “load management” that Leonard operated under and might have bristled at it privately, but knew how important it was to the team and held his tongue. He let Lowry be Lowry, good and bad, because it was best for the team. Now? Now he’s the undisputed voice of reason.
“I’ve always been comfortable there. I was allowed to have a voice pretty much from my first year, second year, and it’s just been steadily growing,” he said. “And everybody else’s perception or expectations of me have changed, maybe. But for me,
I’ve been vocal in the locker room for the majority of my time here. That’s not really going to change.”
His on-court role will change this year, though.
With Lowry gone to Miami — and it remains to be seen how much VanVleet will share the court with Goran Dragic, acquired from the Heat, in the two-guard system Nurse likes — VanVleet’s going to be the orchestrator of whatever the Raptors become on offence. His three-point shooting will be vital to a roster that isn’t littered with proven shooters, and his ability to get the team organized offensively will be vital.
He also remains the club’s best backcourt defender, and should get consideration for one of the NBA’s all-defensive teams if he maintains what he’s shown in his first five years in the league.
The on-court elements will evolve, and will have as much to do with how others play as they do with how VanVleet plays.
His impact will be on the group as a whole and, as its leader, he accepts that responsibility — welcomes it.
“I think now I’m seeing that my actions have reactions and consequences,” he said.
“It’s a different feel from the other side of the room when people are looking at you, versus just leading with my heart. I’m probably going to have to be a little more calculated and patient.”