The Raptors Are Sucking Right Now. Fred VanVleet Tells Us Why
The Toronto Raptors are currently not playing their best brand of basketball. But there are reasons for their losing record.
The Toronto Raptors season thus far has not been ideal.
After overachieving in 2021-22 by landing on the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference and making their way back into the playoffs, this season -so far- hasn’t followed that path.
Their record is in the negatives and both their defensive and offensive ratings are poorer than the prior season.
Needless to say, the Raptors are playing bad basketball.
And one of the team’s leaders agrees. According to Fred VanVleet, the team is bad right now but there are many reasons for his team’s woes.
VanVleet was on The Old Man and the Three podcast and told JJ Reddick the main reason is a lack of consistency.
He said the team has gone through a lot this season, such as injuries to key players, that have caused a lack of consistency on the hardwood.
“I think we haven’t been able to find much consistency. That comes from a lot of different places, whether it’s injuries or whatever the case may be. But we just haven’t been able to be consistently good.
“We just haven’t been able to put it together so we just got to keep growing and you know find ways to reinvent ourselves. We’re still trying to find a new identity. We had one last year, which was play hard and cause havoc and all of those things. But it just hasn’t been that for us this year.”
He also added that the Raptors’ defence -something that they take pride in- has been horrible and that they are too impatient on the offensive end.
If you look at the team stats, they match VanVleet’s observations.
Last season, their offensive rating was 112.9 (14th) and their defensive rating was 110.5 (10th).
This season, their offensive rating so far is 114 and their defensive rating is 113.7. When compared to the rest of the league, they are 14th and 15th, respectively.
VanVleet On His Game
From an individual standpoint, VanVleet has also not been playing his best basketball.
His numbers and efficiency on both ends of the court are down and his performances have been inconsistent.
For instance, he had a streak of 5 games earlier this season where he averaged 9.2 points on 27 percent shooting per game. Then, for the next 6 games, he exploded and averaged 27 points on 46 percent shooting per game.
But here’s the kicker -immediately after the sixth game, the hot streak ended and he scored 9 points on 20 percent shooting in the following game.
VanVleet said that there are many factors to his personal struggles.
“I think early on in the season, it was definitely an adjustment. I think from a stylistic standpoint, the way we were playing last year was kind of free and easy. I think I was much more of a focal point with on-ball duties and having the ball the whole game and being able to dictate where I wanted to go. And this year, that’s changed a little bit.
“So, I’m just, like you know, catching the rhythm. You know, some nights the ball finds you, some nights it doesn’t. And the nights where it doesn’t, those are the nights I’m struggling this year, where it’s like the out-of-rhythm games.”
He also added that even though his numbers have dropped off since his All-Star season, he does have other responsibilities on the hardwood that’s not scoring -though, he would like his shooting to be better and more consistent.
Final Thoughts
The Raptors are struggling and have a lot to figure out.
But this isn’t something new to them. This group of players has faced adversity before and has defeated many of the obstacles thrown at them.
So, I think once the team gets healthy and reacquainted with one another, they’ll start winning games again.
However, I’m not saying that they’ll make it to the Finals and win another title this season. But they will be playing in the postseason and will be annoying as hell to play against with their pest-like style of defence.
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