The last a truly casual NBA fan will have seen of Fred VanVleet is him dominating the Bucks in the last half of their series before going on to help dominate the Warriors on his way to a championship. They will think that VanVleet is some sort of stud All-Star point guard, basically the Canadian Stephen Curry (I would call him “Maple Curry” but that nickname is currently in use by noted sharpshooter and actual Canadian, Jamal Murray).
This game will not disabuse them of that notion. While nearly everyone else on the Raptors either feigned injury or played so poorly that it might have been better had they feigned injury, Fred VanVleet attempted to put the team on his back like he did in last year’s playoffs. It didn’t work this time, due to the dead weight that was too much even for his strong back, but the end result is that he had a very nice statline, which is all that really matters for the purposes of DownToBuck.
I really, earnestly, truly thought that VanVleet’s extremely high minutes per game would go down with Kyle Lowry back in the fold, but I guess not. He “only” played 36 minutes in this one, slightly below his average, which is still a ton of minutes for a guy like VanVleet. Nick Nurse must really like him, probably on account of how he saved Nurse’s season and is one of the main reasons he has a championship. But if you really like a player, is the best way to show that appreciation to run him into the ground until he’s an injured husk of his former self? It hasn’t happened yet, but give it a bit, and it totally will.