With Toronto still close to his heart, VanVleet leading young Rockets by example

HOUSTON — Even in the heart of Texas, Fred VanVleet still thinks about Toronto, still thinks about being a Raptor and what that experience taught him about the NBA.

It’s hard to erase seven years in seven months, not that VanVleet wants to.

His career took a turn this past summer, one that he saw coming and ultimately welcomed, but leaving his NBA home still feels weird sometimes. And as much as he likes his new place of business and his role as point guard and designated grown-up with the youthful Houston Rockets, the soon-to-be 30-year-old still wears the Raptors on his sleeve and the city close to his heart.

“Toronto was like in the future, such a utopian place where it’s just focus on the greater good of everything. I loved that,” VanVleet said as he reflected on his basketball past, present and future with some familiar faces in advance of his first game against his old team on Friday night.

“Living there I learned a lot, it was a huge cultural shock for me and education … I’m just so grateful for my time in Toronto, that’s a place [that] always feels like home to me … I find myself talking about it all the time [and] telling my teammates about it every day.”

So, for the record: VanVleet was never chafing to get out of the one and only NBA city he had come to know, the place where his basketball rags-to-riches story took root and flourished. Where he learned both what was possible to achieve for a true team in a league where money, ego and competing career interests can often create challenges, and where some of the obstacles lie too. VanVleet has always been an old soul, but even they have to learn somewhere. For the kid from Rockford, Ill., who bet on himself, the Raptors were his NBA classroom. He’s ready to pass on his lessons.

“I can definitely say I’ve learned a lot, [what] kind of the things that didn’t work over the last two years and kinda try to do things differently or just be mindful,” he said. “I definitely use my experiences of the last two years as a lead guard up there with young guys who are trying to make their own way, then coming here, it’s like, 'OK, what can I do differently, how can I better.'"

He’s happy to have landed in Houston — appreciates the weather, taxes and price of real estate — and the opportunity with a young, talented team. But he was not driven by an itch to move south after doing his tour of duty in the frozen north, it’s just what happened.

The Raptors represent a crucial chapter of his personal and professional life that remains real to him. Both his infant daughters are Canadian citizens. His roots run deep.

But seven years is a long time, and the business of the NBA is unrelenting. VanVleet was a central figure on teams that in the space of consecutive seasons won 59 games, an NBA title, and set a franchise record for winning percentage. But as time marched he knew that change was coming. As a pending free agent who had tabled discussions of a lucrative contract extension prior to the 2022-23 season, VanVleet was prepared for anything last year: a mid-season trade, a new contract that would extend his time as a Raptor or what ultimately happened — a can’t refuse offer from another team looking to add his specific brand of toughness, basketball IQ and leadership.

So, if the question is: did he ever imagine not being a Raptor? The answer is yes. He had little choice.

“I thought about it a lot last year,” he acknowledged, in reference to last season when it seemed the whole organization was weighed down with the possibility of a seismic shift from something old to something new, which has come to pass this year with his departure in free agency and subsequent trades of old friends OG Anunoby and Pascal Siakam in recent weeks.

“You're just so entrenched in your situation at the time that you just have your head down. You work every day. You're trying to figure [things] out. I was focused on how to make that situation better last season,” he said.

“[But] I got to closely monitor Kyle [Lowry] go through the change, closely monitor DeMar [DeRozan]. Obviously those are two of my closest friends. Seeing those guys [move on] you say, 'OK, it's possible.' Like, if we can trade DeMar, who the hell am I? If Kyle got to the point where it was time for him to go — he's the best Raptor of all time — who the hell am I? You have to be realistic with yourself. It always is a dream of a player to kind of stay with one team his whole career. But it's getting less and less realistic these days.”

And so he finds himself in Houston and with plenty of good reasons why as they signed him to a three-year contract worth $128.5 million. The last season — 2025-26 — is a team option, but even with $83.6 million guaranteed for this season and next, it was a deal VanVleet couldn’t turn down even if some reports had the Raptors willing to offer $100 million guaranteed over three seasons, with a partial guarantee on the fourth.

By the time VanVleet was ready to hold meetings at his Los Angeles hotel on July 1, the opening of free agency, he felt a move was nearly inevitable. When Houston came in strong and the Raptors hedged, it confirmed what he had been sensing all along.

“You could feel the shift … I know the Raptors, we feel like we're the only team in the NBA [going through this], but it's not specific to that team. There's a lot of teams going through it where you're trying to win, you're trying to build, you got young guys, you got a couple of vets and you're just trying to figure it out,” VanVleet said. “I think you could just kind of feel the dynamic shifting a little bit [last year]. When things kind of went a little different than what we're used to in terms of our culture and just the day-to-day, that's when I was like, 'OK, I know Masai [Ujiri] is not going to deal with this forever.' That's when you kind of knew things were going to change eventually.”

And hey, an undrafted guy making north of $40 million a season? Sometimes you just have to give thanks.

“Yeah, I came out of it all right,” said VanVleet, smiling.

But it was only after making the decision that the weight of it hit him fully. Over the previous three seasons, the Rockets had won 59 games combined, or the same number the Raptors won in 2017-18 when VanVleet was running the opposition out of the gym as the floor leader with the "Bench Mob." Sure, Houston was bringing him bags full of money, but they came with the expectation that he could help right a badly listing ship.

“I [was] so much of putting my all [focus] into everything that the night before free agency my stomach was in knots just trying to figure everything out,” he said. “And then, I'm just head on, 'let's do it.' I made the decision.

“And then you got kind of the aftermath, the cooldown period where it's like, 'Oh, this is real.'"

But VanVleet has delivered. His numbers aren’t any different than they were as a Raptor — compared to his four-year averages as a full-time starter, VanVleet’s scoring is down marginally, but his assists are up, and his efficiency is incrementally better. As always, he’s proven difficult to take off the floor, ranking fourth in the NBA in minutes played. Putting up 16.8 points and 8.1 assists is good work, but then again he’s never been a player whose best attributes jump off a box score anyway.

He’s the point guard who will pass, cut, move, and pass again multiple times in a possession to lubricate a stagnant offence. He’s not afraid to miss crucial shots in the clutch, which means he’s been able to make his fair share over his career. He'll create an easy look for a cold shooter and contort himself to get another shot for a teammate on a roll. If his on-ball defence isn’t what it was early in his career, the timing and ferocity with which he attacks the ball in double teams remain unmatched. He’s got a coach’s ability to diagnose and digest a game plan and a knack for communicating it to teammates who don’t. He leads by example but is more than willing to speak up when needed.

The Rockets, who have already won 22 games this year, matching their total from last season, are thrilled to have him.

“He’s been everything [we were hoping for] and more, honestly,” said Rockets head coach Ime Udoka, who pushed for Houston to pursue VanVleet, believing he was the perfect cultural fit for a talented team that had little understanding of how winning happens at the NBA level. As an assistant coach in Philadelphia and an assistant and then head coach with Boston, Udoka had long admired VanVleet’s game, and the appreciation has only grown since. “[Coaching] against him quite a bit in the East the last few years, you get a sense of who guys are, but having conversations [with VanVleet] in the [free agency] process it became even more apparent he was the right guy for our team for myself and the young guys to continue to grow.

“He’s been there before. A guy that wants to play a ton of minutes, doesn't like to come out [of the game] but also checks all the boxes as far as toughness, leadership, edge, IQ, just in general. If he has to score, he has to score. He had zero shots made last game but 14 assists and two turnovers [in Houston’s recent win over the Los Angeles Lakers] so he's happy with whatever comes his way as long as we win and so, that rubs off on our guys and that's the type of leader and point guard that we want.”

VanVleet has always gravitated to leadership roles, even going back to high school and college basketball, but in previous iterations, he’s always gained his status organically over time.

With Houston, he was anointed as such, which was a different experience, but one he was ready for based on the last two seasons in Toronto where he filled that role as the Raptors lead guard in the post-Lowry years.

“It was perfect for me because it was more so, this is what they needed. In Toronto, I kind of just made my own thing. Coming in undrafted and making the team, I had to kind of box my way into the situation,” he said. “Coming in here, it's literally what they brought me here for: to do what I do on a daily basis as a person, as a teammate, on and off the court, as a leader, on and off the court.

"And the guys were very receptive to that from the beginning. They kind of yearn for that and they want that. They let me help them. The coaching staff empowers me. Management empowers me. It was just a good timing for what they needed versus what I was looking for as well.”

Last season, the Rockets had 12 players on their roster in their first, second or third year in the NBA. Their only significant veteran, Eric Gordon, was traded at the deadline. In addition to VanVleet, the Rockets went out and acquired Canadian national team star Dillon Brooks and 15-year veteran Jeff Green, fresh off a championship with the Denver Nuggets. The Rockets are still a young team, built around Amen Thompson, Jalen Green, Jabari Smith Jr., and Alperen Sengun, but they have resources they can turn to now.

“Last year we were kind of learning on our own,” said second-year forward Smith, who was the third pick in the 2022 draft. “We didn't have a lot of veterans but now we have veterans around us to learn from and just, you know, pick their brain, watch different routines they do and just learn from.”

And VanVleet’s example stands tall.

“He’s just a coach on the floor type,” Smith said. “He talks a lot. Always honest, don't let anything pass … whatever coach is saying, whatever coach not saying, [VanVleet is] saying. He’s just a great person [to] learn from [and] he's a great locker room guy. Jokes around a lot, very likable. I'm pretty sure all the teammates like him … you know, what I'm saying? Real awesome. Just a good dude.”

For VanVleet, the experience of having to establish himself with a new team and a new market has caused him to draw on his own experiences and how he can grow and improve. In his last two seasons with the Raptors, he was frustrated at times as the hierarchical culture that he experienced coming in to a veteran-laden team as an undrafted rookie moved away from that. It’s probably an oversimplification to suggest that there was some awkwardness to integrating Scottie Barnes into a system that had never had anyone that young and talented before, but it’s not entirely off base either. VanVleet is now leading a team with multiple high first-round picks, all with expectations of their own and the team’s to manage, but he feels prepared.

Tellingly, the NBA environment he was raised in with the Raptors is the standard he’s hoping to recreate with the Rockets. He may not have been able to replicate it in his last couple of years in Toronto, but it’s still an ideal to strive for. He is not without regrets about how things finished up with the Raptors, but he feels he learned from the experience.

“I don’t think I bonded as well as I would have liked to with just the group in general. On the court chemistry was fine, there was no beef or disconnect there,” he said. “[but I didn’t have] the relationships that I had with Kyle and DeMar and Marc Gasol and Serge [Ibaka] and Norm [Powell].

“[Now] I’m now coming in here as a new guy, how do I create those [kind of] relationships with these guys?”

If he can pull it off, the Rockets will benefit, VanVleet’s considerable legend as the ultimate NBA over-achiever will only continue to grow, and every dollar Houston has invested will be well spent.

If he can pull it off a special part of Raptors history will have been successfully transplanted to the deepest part of Texas, and success will be sure to follow.

“Ultimately, my mind is on winning another championship,” VanVleet said. “And I’m trying to lay the groundwork for that. We got a long way to go, obviously, but that’s what I came here for.”