If there's one team that has been gravely affected by COVID-19 ahead of the 2020-21 NBA season, it's the Toronto Raptors.

Although all NBA teams have been forced to put in some sort of health protocols and quarantine measures to help mitigate the rise of the global pandemic, it's only the Raptors who have actually been forced out of their home city of Toronto. The Raps will have an unprecedented experience of hosting all their “home games” all the way to Tampa Bay, Florida.

Ahead of all these developments, Raptors guard Fred VanVleet wants to make sure his entire team and organization knows the gravity of the situation.

“We can't turn getting COVID into an indictment. We can't turn getting COVID into, ‘We did something wrong,'” Fred VanVleet said on Sunday (via TSN). “Now, if you're going to pool parties at night and nobody's wearing masks, that's one thing. But if you have to go to the grocery store, or you have family in town, and you get it, you get it.”

The coronavirus pandemic has seen non-stop rise in active cases in the US since it first entered earlier this year. The NBA was forced to play inside a bubble environment just so the league could properly finish the 2019-2020 campaign. Given all the logistical concerns of coming up with another bubble for the upcoming season, the league has decided to carry on with some sort of normalcy and continue with the usual home and away set-up for the shortened 2020-21 season.

With that said, VanVleet noted that the situation gives players no choice but to be completely accountable and responsible for their actions.

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“(But) everybody has to be responsible in their own right because the way it's passed, and we're together a lot of the time. I don't want to take that home to my children and my family.” the Raptors guard added.

There have been a lot of talk about how the lack of health protocols  ahead of the 2020-21 NBA season is a bit worrisome for a lot of members of the league. The NFL, who went ahead with the usual travel schedule in their respective regular season, has already encountered a handful of scheduling concerns due to certain teams and players contracting the virus.