Raptors news: Fred Van Vleet joins ist of players out for Wednesday's tilt

Fred VanVleet is the latest addition to the Raptors' growing list of players and coaches that will be out for Wednesday's game vs. the Pistons.

The Toronto Raptors have a bit of a conundrum in their hands. In light of the contact tracing efforts being performed within the team, the Raptors will reportedly be without Fred VanVleet for their matchup against the Detroit Pistons on Wednesday.

Tim Bontemps of ESPN reports that VanVleet is the latest addition to Toronto's growing list of players and coaches who will not be able to join the team for Wednesday's tilt:

The Raptors will be without Fred VanVleet, OG Anunoby, Pascal Siakam, Malachi Flynn and Pat McCaw because of the NBA’s health and safety protocols for tomorrow’s game against the Pistons. That is in addition to Nick Nurse and several other coaches.

— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) March 2, 2021

The league decided to postpone the Raptors-Pistons game to Wednesday. The matchup was originally slated for Tuesday night, but with the contact tracing measures still ongoing, the NBA has deemed it necessary to push back the game. This delay puts the Raptors in a bit of a bind:

This game was originally scheduled to be played today, before being pushed back to tomorrow night. Toronto now has to play a back to back going into the break, including Thursday in Boston, without three starters and most of its coaching staff. https://t.co/pKFvOk7CJZ

— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) March 2, 2021

Simply put, the Raptors will be missing roughly half of their squad for Wednesday's game, and the same is probably going to be the case for their bout against the Boston Celtics on Thursday. This is under the presumption that none of its players or coaches return a positive test result for COVID-19, as such a scenario will cause an even bigger problem for both the Raptors and the NBA.

For his part, VanVleet is in the midst of another breakout campaign for Toronto. He's currently averaging a career-best 20.1 points per game to go along with 4.4 rebounds, 6.6 assists, and 1.7 steals. He's been a key cog for the Raptors this season, and we're hoping that this recent development will not have an adverse effect on the momentum he's been able to build up this year.