‘Can’t make anyone grow up’: Raptors’ Fred VanVleet’s frustrations boil over after NBA Play-In defeat vs. Bulls

The vibes in Toronto are off—teams don’t get rattled by a nine-year-old girl when things are going super well. Even if the Raptors salvaged some of their pride by finishing 41-41 and sneaking into the play-in tournament, their 109-105 season-ending loss to the Bulls was a fitting denouement to a season that’s carried the stench of team that’s reached its expiration date. Accordingly, the Raptors face a pivotal free agency period and offseason this summer. In particular, it seems like the relationship between the Raptors and longtime point guard Fred VanVleet has grown especially frosty as VanVleet weighs whether to opt-out of his current deal and hit free agency this offseason.

“Talent by itself is just not good enough,” VanVleet told Heavy Sports in the run-up to the play-in tournament. “You know, you’ve still got to do everything right every single day. You’ve got to be able to play as a team. You have to be able to execute and close out games.”

“Like, there’s so many other things that go into it,” VanVleet elaborated. “We could have no talent, so let’s start there. We could be in a situation where we don’t have talent. But like I said, we’ve just got to continue to find ways to be better as a group and do something with the talent that we have.”
Most of all, the Raptors struggled to determine an identity this season, unable to decide whether to build around prime-aged vets like Fred VanVleet and Pascal Siakam or reorient the team around the 21 year-old Scottie Barnes. Torn between whether to commit to winning now or winning later, the Raptors forgot to, you know, ever actually win. As such, the Raptors found themselves in the classic Catch-22 that’s common amongst aimless teams. They couldn’t win if they gave their young players any real responsibility; their young players couldn’t find enough playing time to meaningfully improve if the Raptors were trying to win.
“I think that at a certain point you can’t make anybody grow up,” VanVleet explained. It’s going to happen at their own pace and their own speed, and that’s the frustrating part about maturity and just the development stage is that you can harp on it all you want to.”

The post ‘Can’t make anyone grow up’: Raptors’ Fred VanVleet’s frustrations boil over after NBA Play-In defeat vs. Bulls appeared first on ClutchPoints.

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