Toronto Raptors: How the Raptors build a championship team
By Jade Johnson
Fred VanVleet
When Fred VanVleet went undrafted in the same draft class as Pascal Siakam, he wasn’t going to let that change his focus. He was determined to play in the NBA. And his journey from Rockford, IL to back up point guard for an NBA Championship team is a remarkable one. The title of W5’s feature on VanVleet, Against All Odds, pretty much says it all.
To look at Fred VenVleet, it’s easy to think, “That guy!?” But a quote from Fred himself in a forbes.com article tells you everything you need to know about him as a player that you can’t tell just by looking at him.
"I’m not the most amazing athlete — I understand that. But my character, my I.Q, the way I think [about] the game. Those are my things."
VanVleet was invited to attend the Raptors’ training camp in advance of the 2016- 17 NBA season. The Raptors signed VanVleet to a contract that guaranteed him $50,000 whether he made the regular-season roster or not.
VanVleet wasn’t going to squander this opportunity. He worked hard, he showed what he could do and just days before the start of the regular season, his hard work and attitude were acknowledged when he earned the last available roster spot with the Raptors.
I remember watching the Raptors during the preseason that year. There were a couple of other players who were vying for that last roster spot along with VanVleet and seeing the way he performed when he was on the floor I can remember thinking that he was clearly the most deserving of a contract.
When the Raptors signed him, he became the fourth point guard on the roster behind Kyle Lowry, Cory Joseph, and Delon Wright. Had he displayed a poor attitude with regards the position or given less than 100 percent, it might have been an easy decision for Masai Ujiri to move on from VanVleet altogether. It had been a wildly low-risk deal.
I would say it was his character and I.Q. that caused him to see being assigned to Raptors 905 as an opportunity to prove himself rather than a reason to feel slighted. It doesn’t matter what he’s asked to do. He does it and he’s always ready to be asked.
Even though VanVleet had extensive stretches when his jumper abandoned him in the 2018- 19 season and even layups couldn’t seem to find the bottom of the net, it didn’t cause any noticeable change to VanVleet’s always-be-ready mentality. Between his poise and his habit of making the big shots at the most important moments, the nickname Steady Freddy is beyond apt.
On November 17, 2018, the Raptors gave Fred VanVleet his first regular-season career start. Not because he was the most obvious choice to replace Kawhi Leonard who was out on load management. Not even because VanVleet had been playing particularly well off the bench in the previous few games.
Instead, it was because VanVleet had been struggling and the Raptors are the kind of organization that is more like a family than a business that they picked that game for VanVleet to start. It’s one more of the intangibles that make the Raptors so easy to root for.
VanVleet grew up in Rockford, IL which is about an hour’s drive from the United Center, the Bulls’ home court. Although VanVleet always emphasizes that he’s from Rockford and not from Chicago, the Bulls are, for all intents and purposes, VanVleet’s home town team. I don’t imagine many NBA players who are not drafted by their hometown team (which is already a small group) get to have their first regular-season start under those circumstances.
But more importantly, it’s the place where it’s the easiest for VanVleet’s friends and family to come out and see him ball. And that night, they came out in force with around 300 people arriving specifically to see VanVleet play.
The strategy worked perfectly. VanVleet scored 18 points, made 4 assists, and shot 57 percent from 3 in a remarkable +31 performance.
It was during the NBA Finals that VanVleet was able to show the world what we as Toronto fans already knew about him. He had struggled with his shooting throughout the playoffs. He just wasn’t the Steady Freddy that we Raptors fans had come to know and love.
But that all changed following another event that I can only attribute to the ways of the Force. Because no one could have reasonably predicted that VanVleet’s uncharacteristic struggles during the playoffs would be completely reversed when his second child, a baby boy named Fred Jr. arrived on Monday, May 20 between Games 3 and 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Milwaukee Bucks.
To say that the timeline of those few days we hectic would be stating it mildly.
- Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals in Toronto
- Headed to Rockford to be with his girlfriend and welcome his son
- Back to Toronto for Game 4
- Flew to Milwaukee to be with the team before Game 5
- Drove 100 miles to Rockford and slept overnight in the hospital
- Drove back to Milwaukee in time to grab a quick nap before Game 5
Up to that point in the 2018- 19 playoffs, VanVleet had averaged only four points over the first 15 games. When he returned to the court for Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals, he scored 13 points and there was no slowing him down. He averaged 14.6 in the remaining nine games of the Raptors’ Championship run including 22 crucial points in Game 6 of the NBA Finals.