It has been a terrible span of 30 or so days for the Toronto Raptors and its fans as the team has now fallen to 16-21 on the season after yesterday’s 122-114 loss to the Indiana Pacers. A big part of their struggles this season among other things has certainly been the overall play of point guard Fred VanVleet. Since last’s year’s All-Star season his shooting numbers especially have dropped dramatically from an already quite low starting point after he shot 3-12 from behind then arc yesterday, some fans are looking for a drastic change and shake-up with the organization.
Many mock trades have been floated around different media outlets with Raptors fan bases and many are looking for any way to get the player off the team but is a decision like this for the best. The Raptors are in a really difficult spot with Fred VanVleet, especially after how good the team looked with Scottie Barnes as the primary initiator of the offense yesterday. With his contract expiring at the end of the year fans know he is going to be expecting a payday. The Raptors can re-sign him, let him walk for free, or look to trade him, but the latter is going to be a lot more difficult than you might think..
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0:00 – Overview
1:02 – Fred VanVleet continues to struggle
2:22 – Raptors vs Pacers performance
4:09 – The biggest concern with FVV
5:16 – VanVleet in December
6:08 – When the Raptors are at their best
7:10 – Is the team better without him?
8:19 – What can the Raptors do with him?
10:20 – Why a trade is almost impossible
12:02 – Can you let him walk for free?
12:28 – There are a lot of games left
This is Amateur Hour Sports. On this channel, Jacob Gramegna analyzes and breaks down the latest on the Toronto Raptors NBA team from trade rumors to post-game reactions, analysis and much more. By subscribing to this channel you will be there first to watch and enjoy 3-4 videos a week all focused on this team and on game days Jacob goes live on the channel for a watch party where he interacts with chat, answers your questions and analyses the game as it happens with play by play and commentary. Join the Amateur Hour Army today by subscribing and consider becoming a member to give the extra support to the channel and help create better content more often.
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36 Comments
Off the bench or trade him. Simple
Fred is literally the worst starting guard in the league right now. No offense and defense. I will take Westbrook over him in a heartbeat
its the rotation issue. fire nick nurse period
Raptors is a transition team, it need to play fast, FVV is not that guy. Also, the packing order is messed up, unless FVV accept his role that being a 3rd or 4th option
Each game in January will be a decisive test. How many Raps are playing with injuries? How good and how quickly can the coaching staff integrate returning players to their respective roles and minutes? What are the immediate and long term plans for Porter Jr, Birch, Hernangomez, Flynn and Boucher? We need better production from the bench. Project 69 is stuttering. Hampered by inadequate 3 pt production. Poor rim rebounding , both offensively and defensively. At crunch time, insufficient scoring options. Other teams seem to find players that accept the challenge to score.
Against Indiana, we failed to control pace and tempo. Giving up cheap turnovers by making bad decisions. Towards the end of the 4 th quarter, key players lacking the confidence to shoot. Or not able to score. Finally like last year, we are seeing NN limiting starting players or bench rotation. Heavy minutes for few players and repeated low or no minutes for others, diminishes team confidence and morale. It is also a contributing factor to inuries, physical and mental fatigue. Seems players are tuninng out.
On paper we added depth and had high hopes for a better season. In reality, we are slipping down the league, rather than progressing upwards. So the gamble on Precious, Delano, Koloko, Scottie as a point guard, Hernangomez all need reevaluating. Low utilization of Boucher, Flynn, Dowtin and releasing Champagnie, questions the direction moving.
This is not all about Fred. On more than one occasion he has proved himself. Has carried this team and contributed to exciting, entertaining, winning games. Some club levers need to be realigned. Players are not stepping up or not allowed to step up to fill current voids. Injuries, lack of development, poor bench depth, limited bench time, unreasonable expectation for jr players to perform at elite NBA level.
Fvv is better then scottie barnes, trade that bum instead
The Raptors scare Noone
The hat, where do we get the hat
Trade Fred quick. He's is horrible. The most overrated player in raptors history. He's the worst FG% even getting all those wide open shots and he can't play D with those slow feet.
Yea agreed with u about PS, OG, Scottie, GTJ and a rim protector line up.
Unfortunately VanVleet is not playing up to a top tier contract.Raptors either trade him or he will have to make the decision to walk and that's on him.
Just watch, masai will be dumb and trade Gary and not fred
Traded him now get a scorer who can catch and shoot or a rim protector like Poetle or draft pick
if the Raptors are tanking anyways, might as well keep the Tank Commander Frederico Vanvleet.. but dont give him a long extension tho, just a 1-year deal.
Fred is struggling HARD to accept that him being off-ball is the only way he can be a "leader" and contributer on this team. If he doesn't thrive in this reduced role soon then Raps need to move on. Like you said though, unfortunately for him it seems like his "Bet on Yourself" mentality may hold him back from ever being the guy they need him to be.
If they don’t move Fred he’s gonna get booed when he touches the ball and nobody wants to see that.
A smart player knows he is in the funk n should address to his teammates n coaching staffs willing just seat back n let new blood 2 get a real “reps”. Than that’s a smart player who is so call a”lead by example “😎 #Taiwan Raptors hardcore fan
you need to learn more about basketball. Fred is not worth more than 23 mill a year.
Never mention pass Raptors players never mention spencer, never mention a bad trade. People would think Raptors fans are dumb.. this team is better without Fred unless he comes off the bench and take less money. Thats the only way.
The money you get from, Fred, Bouche, Thad, Birch and Porter is about 50 million dollars a year
Plus a high draft pick so far they have 7 th pick……Think
Raptors are the route of their own problem
Time to blow this thing up raptors bbq chicken 🍗 siakam Is the only player that can get them the most In return. Nobody is gonna trade for fvf dudes not even worth a 3rd round pick right now lol
No mention of pascal who is and will continue to be the main ball handler on this team. Above scottie, who you want the offense ran through.
Interesting.
Give jeff dowtin jr minutes before he excels in another team seriously
Barnes has been looking real nice. And now that he’s trying on defence, he looks back to himself mentally
Masai trades Freddy at deadline for a haul.
Some potential contending team will over pay huge. Trust in
Masai and Bobby.
It’s obvious.
Easy fix move him to shooting guard
But no way I'm giving him another big pay day … we move him , I disagree , I actually think he would command a huge return
Give Jeff control as staring pg and Scottie as the secondary, bring Fred off the the ball sg
Scottie running the offense ft is a road straight to a top 5 lottery pick , he is far from ready for that level of leadership
If there was ever a year to tank, this would be the one. I’m honestly perfectly fine going for another high draft pick rather then playing 1 playoff series…
yup thank you for being the truth , from last game, all fred did is to finish the easy wild open catch and shoot, finish the job, but yea it s disappointed to watch him missing all those easy shot. if he can't even finish the easy task, I think he need to be traded.. also realized pacers kept attacking on fvv's side getting buckets.. like every nba teams fvv s the hole on the defence
The bench needs Fred…
He’s been very adamant about wanting a max. If that’s the case he’s GONE. Love Freddie but no chance in hell
another fred homer
Did you see the plus/minus on FVF vs when Flynn was in? I don't think people realize that Fred actually gave the Raptors a chance to win, As did Barnes with +16. A lot of the Raptors do not care about playing both sides of the ball. I feel the criticism he gets is too much, like Lowery, Fred does not always need to have massive offensive numbers to affect the game, he did a great job when he was in, and Flynn did a very poor job, basically the Raptors had to play catch up from when they took Fred out… but Raptors fans don't give a lick about D or properly running a team. Fred is the only general this team has at the moment, and he is playing through injuries too.
FVV not getting more then Brunson 😂😂😂😂 one is far better than the other
No matter how good pascal the way he plays and how many points he gets he will be the second best in the team. Barnes proves why he is going to be the number 1 player.
Our bench really sucks right now. We need a real backup pg Flynn and Banton need some time, it would be good if FVV Stayed on the bench and Koloko takes the C. Give Koloko more time