Since coming into the NBA undrafted out of Wichita State in 2016, Fred VanVleet has carved out a solid career with the Toronto Raptors. He's been the team's starting point guard for the past two seasons with the departure of Kyle Lowry and last year he was named an All-Star for the first time. And on Saturday, he reached a new milestone becoming one of the quickest players in a Raptors jersey to reach 5,000 points as per Sportsnet's Stats page.
Fewest games to 5,000 points, Raptors history
Vince Carter 204
Chris Bosh 279
Kyle Lowry 289
DeMar DeRozan 323
Andrea Bargnani 342
Pascal Siakam 346
Fred VanVleet 361#WeTheNorth— Sportsnet Stats (@SNstats) November 26, 2022
The two players at the front of that list, Vince Carter and Chris Bosh, are arguably the two greatest players in franchise history. It took Vince Carter only 204 games to reach that milestone and Chris Bosh only 279. The only other player who took less than 300 games to reach 5,000 points in Raptors jersey was Kyle Lowry at 289.
Fred VanVleet had the opportunity to leave the Raptors in free agency during the 2020 off-season but chose to remain with the team that took a chance on him. He re-signed then on a four-year, $85 million contract. He is eligible to sign a contract extension with the Raptors up until the end of this season at which point he will once again hit unrestricted free agency.
During his 2021-22 All-Star campaign, VanVleet put up 20.3 points per game, 6.7 assists and shot 37.7 percent from the three-point line. This season, VanVleet is putting up 18.5 points and a career-high 6.8 assists while shooting 37.5 percent from three-point range. He will have no shortage of interested teams in the off-season and should receive a nice pay-day.
Not bad for an undrafted player.
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