Fred VanVleet – Stock Up
Things finally look like they’re starting to click for ol’ Steady Freddie. The past week has been kind to us all as Fred looks like he’s starting to find his groove thang.
Against Washington, VanVleet looked comfortable shooting the ball and running the offense in the second unit. He finished with 13 points on 4-7 shooting, adding an excellent assist-to-turnover ratio of 7:1, that’s fine by me. A plus-23 on the night, a far cry from weeks gone past for FVV.
The Miami game wasn’t as impressive, VanVleet contributed with 10 essential points but only had four assists and three turnovers. Not a great ratio, but he shot the ball well again, and I’m more than willing to accept the turnovers for a small period, especially when he’s beginning to find his shot. It wasn’t a perfect game from Fred, but it was a minor, minor blip on a good week.
Wednesday in Memphis was the game, though. Fred announced himself back onto the big stage in crunch time for the Raptors, draining to three’s to essentially wrap the game up for Toronto. VanVleet stuck with the starters in the fourth quarter, with Danny Green benched after Green had a great game. Fred went 6-6 for the game and looked every bit as good as his Sixth Man of the Year candidate campaign last season.
Admittedly, Fred did struggle against the Warriors last night, having zero points in 14 minutes of action. That’s an issue, but Fred has shown he’s capable of bouncing back from poor outings, I expect him to bounce back from this.
Fred VanVleet had an up-and-down week. Considering how he has played this season, that’s an improvement.