VICTORIA, B.C. — As you would expect in the case of a good team and one of its best players, the RaptorsThey were much better with Fred VanVleetLast year, they were more successful on the floor than off it. They were more offensively savvy. They were also better defensively. They were a better shooter team. They were less likely to turn the ball over. It continues.
Looking at his last season’s game log, however, there are some noteworthy exceptions. A few of those exceptions grabbed you by your collar and pulled you close. The Raptors lost in Atlanta and Charlotte by 32 points and 27 respectively after the All Star break. The Raptors were outscored 70 times in the 64 minute VanVleet spent playing those games. The point of attack was LaMelo BallParticularly Trae YoungVanVleet was roast, who is on his best days one of the top pick-and roll defenders on the league’s perimeter.
“He had me in a blender,” VanVleet said of Young on Wednesday, speaking to The Athletic following his scrum with the media after the second day of Raptors training camp. “I lost the most confidence in my defence because I took some beatings that I’ve never taken before, being scored on in ways that I never did.”
Young and Ball are powerful guards who can give defenders fits even in the most mundane of circumstances. VanVleet thought this was an unusual situation. This was the period when VanVleet, as he said Monday in Toronto in his media day news conference, “kind of zoned out a little bit in terms of listening to my body.
