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"You can't hide energy": VanVleet discusses final meeting with Raptors

Adam Laskaris
Adam Laskaris
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Dec 4 2023, 4:30 pm
"You can't hide energy": VanVleet discusses final meeting with Raptors
Winslow Townson/USA TODAY Sports

Fred VanVleet isn’t denying it: the energy around the Toronto Raptors was a little off at the end of his tenure.

In an episode released Monday morning of The Woj Pod, the current Houston Rockets point guard spoke to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski about his free agency process this summer that ultimately saw him leave the only NBA organization he’d ever known since signing as an undrafted free agent in 2016.

“I think my meeting with the Rockets was my first ‘welcome to the NBA moment’ where it’s like, there is another team that values you as well. There’s other teams that value what you do, and they don’t even know you, the way that somebody that has been with you for seven years would know you,” VanVleet told Wojnarowski.

“But I remember meeting with Houston and just kind of hearing their vision and hearing how they see things and being excited about the new possibility.”

Toronto had intended to re-sign VanVleet to a new contract, but he opted for the three-year, $128.5 million deal with Houston that was far more than the Raptors were willing to pay.

“I also remember meeting with Toronto and kind of leaving that meeting and feeling refreshed, because I was so uncertain about making a change. I felt that meeting kind of sealed for me, it was like, it is kind of the right thing for me to do, because you can’t hide energy,” VanVleet added. “Just being in that room, everybody that was in that room can attest that it just felt like everybody understood what was about to happen.”

Toronto finished VanVleet’s final season with the team with a 41-41 record and the ninth seed in the Eastern Conference before crashing out of postseason contention with a play-in loss on their home court to the Chicago Bulls.

This year with Houston, VanVleet has averaged 16.5 points, 9.1 assists and 4.2 rebounds in 16 games, in comparison to 19.3 points, 7.2 assists and 4.1 rebounds in 69 games a year ago in Toronto. His three-point shooting is up to 37.7% this season, where he shot a career-low 34.2 from long distance in his final year in Toronto.

“Could we have traded Fred [VanVleet] at the trade deadline? If that was a failure, we take responsibility for it, but sometimes it also depends on opportunity and respect for the player, and we respect Fred,” Toronto president Masai Ujiri said at the Raptors’ media day earlier this season.

In total, VanVleet played 417 games as a Raptor, while adding 52 playoff games across his seven seasons with the team. A key member of the 2019 NBA championship squad, he was named to the NBA All-Star team for the first time in 2022.

“I have a great relationship with those guys, obviously,” VanVleet added of his connection with Toronto’s front office of Ujiri and general manager Bobby Webster. “I always give Masai credit for shooting straight and being honest and upfront, and you gotta commend him for that. And we’ve always had a great line of communication and he was pretty, pretty straightforward.”

The Raptors and Rockets face off twice this season, with the games taking place a week apart in February. Toronto will travel to Houston for a matchup on February 2, before hosting VanVleet and his new team a week later on February 9.

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