TORONTO – If you’ve been watching the Toronto Raptors over the last couple of games and have checked Twitter while the game is going on, you’ve likely noticed a certain sidelined-by-health-and-safety-protocols Raptors star in Fred VanVleet tweeting right along there with you.
P locked in
— Fred VanVleet (@FredVanVleet) December 29, 2021
These runs feel different with a crowd. Guys making plays. Good fight
— Fred VanVleet (@FredVanVleet) December 29, 2021
A fun addition to a couple games that saw the Raptors decimated by COVID protocols and suffer expected losses – although the matchup Tuesday against the Philadelphia 76ers was, very encouragingly, spirited and competitive.
If you were hoping this would become a more regular thing from VanVleet, though, don’t expect it. As he put it, he was just tweeting to help kill time and likely won’t be opening up the app again anytime soon to send out more messages.
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“Boredom, for sure. I’m still mad at myself … that’s probably the most I’ve posted and tweeted and been on Twitter and been on the internet in a few years now,” said VanVleet on Thursday. “That’s when I knew it was time for me to get back playing because I was running out of things to do. Just needed some attention, you know how you need that attention you get on the internet real quick, I got my share of it and got off.
“Hopefully, no more tweets from me any time soon.”
And barring unforeseen setbacks, there won’t be any tweets from VanVleet, just like he wants – at least during Raptors games – because he, along with fellow key Raptors OG Anunoby and Scottie Barnes, were cleared from COVID protocols and participated in practice Thursday.
In total, this brings a team that as recently as Sunday could play only four regulars and four replacements, to one expecting to have everyone available for their New Year’s Eve game against the Los Angeles Clippers, with the possible exception of Justin Champagnie and Isaac Bonga, who have not cleared protocols and didn’t practice Thursday.
The Raptors, at long last, are looking like they’ll be ringing in the new year with a team as fully loaded as it’s ever been all season, with coach Nick Nurse having to make tough decisions with his starting lineup that he hasn’t had the luxury to mull since the start of the season.
“I think there’s probably seven guys there,” Nurse said Thursday, when asked who he was thinking of starting on Friday. He listed VanVleet, Gary Trent Jr., Anunoby, Pascal Siakam, Barnes, Precious Achiuwa and Khem Birch as players who are all “what I would consider starters. How it shakes out tomorrow, we’ll see.”
Yes, how things do end up playing out on Friday will be most interesting because it’s something that just about everyone who has tuned into the Raptors at least semi-regularly this season has been wondering about as well.
Siakam began the season on the injured list recovering from off-season shoulder surgery. Anunoby had a pesky hip pointer injury that just wouldn’t go away. Birch has dealt with swelling in his knee. Barnes missed a couple games with a thumb injury. And then the health and safety protocols hit and forced the Raptors to postpone games and play severely shorthanded in others, with, essentially, all of the team’s key players forced to sit out.
The Raptors appear to have moved past that and are ready to finally see what this team can do with all the main ingredients available in the pantry.
“I’m optimistic that it will look good, that it will work, that it can work. I’m not fearful, I’m not nervous about it. We’ve just got to see it. We’ve got to get out there in a game and put it together,” said VanVleet. “Everybody has had their chance. Guys have missed games at different points for different reasons, and now it’s kind of our chance to get back as healthy as possible in this little stretch right here, put together some good momentum, maybe go on a run, and just start playing some good basketball consistently and try to ride it out as long as we can. … I feel like if we have our full team, we have our chance every night. That’s a good feeling to have.”
Currently sitting on a 14-17 record and in a tie with the Boston Celtics for 10th in the Eastern Conference (the final play-in spot), but just 2.5 games out of sixth place (the final playoff spot without needing to go through the play-in tournament), the Raptors are in pretty good position, even if they haven’t racked up as many wins as they would’ve liked.
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So, with the roster returning to full strength, there appears to be no better time than now for the Raptors go on a run to more assertively position themselves for a playoff spot.
“There’s more than enough time,” said Trent. “But it’s hard to win in the NBA. … There is a lot of time left, still much more to the season. We’ve got a lot to prove, we’ve got a lot to go, we’ve got a lot to show from everybody, our players, our coaching staff. We’re ready, we’re ready to get healthy and get into the full swing of things. So, we’re all excited.”
Added VanVleet: “I feel great about what’s going on in this gym and the team that we have and having pretty much all of our main guys be in protocols for a period of time, and now we’re looking and hoping to be on the other side of that soon. Getting everybody back, everybody healthy, because we haven’t really had a full team this year.
“So, certainly, we’re not satisfied with our record and some of the games that we’ve lost this year, but I think this is our chance after kind of a reset period to kind of ramp it back up. Kind of a fresh start to build some positive momentum going forward, and everybody is better today than we were at the start of the season, and that’s all you can ask for.”
No more tweeting from the couch for VanVleet. It’s time to get back out there and try to help his Raptors get back to the post-season.
Quick dribbles
On Friday, when the Clippers visit the Raptors, it will mark the first time since he departed in free agency in 2020 that Serge Ibaka will return to Scotiabank Arena.
An integral part of the Raptors’ 2019 championship run – remember the shot before the shot? – Ibaka will surely receive a loud standing ovation when he gets his inevitable tribute from the Raptors faithful – even with limited capacity.
Here’s Nurse on the impact Ibaka had on the team:
“Serge was really, really important. I throw him in the list of special players that we had. The guys that were just really unique to the game, and, as I said, when Serge got going and was in his A-game element, man, we hardly ever lost.”
And here’s VanVleet on his former teammate:
“Serge is incredible. He was incredible in his time here. He taught us young guys so much about routine. He led by example a lot and taking care of his body, the work that he put in, the time and craft that he puts into himself as a person and as a player is incredible. And that’s before you even get to his play on the court.
“I think Serge is another one of those guys who got caught up in the greatness of what that team was. You don’t really see it until he left. Now you can see how much he did for us, especially on the court. He’s an all-time big man in this league at that spot, with the skill set, the defence, the shooting.”
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