Toronto Raptors guard Fred VanVleet is being fueled by his individual career goals this season.
The departure of Kyle Lowry meant that Fred VanVleet will have to take the lead role in the Raptors‘ backcourt. Fortunately for Toronto, the 27-year-old was up for the challenge. In fact, he even got bigger thing s running through his head apart from filling the void Lowry left.
According to VanVleet, he fancies copping as many individual recognitions in the league as possible, particularly being an NBA All-Star.
“I think this is the year where the expectations match the work,” VanVleet said via The Raptors Show with Will Lou. “I just went super hard (working) my butt off all summer trying to get better.”
“I definitely would like to be an all-star,” he emphasized. “I want to win all the awards. I want to be All-Defensive … Those are all goals that I have. The good thing for me is that I probably won't achieve any of those if we aren't a good team or a top team.”
VanVleet finished the last season with All-Star type averages–19.6 points, 6.3 assists and 1.7 steals per game. Raptors head coach Nick Nurse was certain his backcourt ace deserved the All-Star call up but unfortunately, VanVleet didn't make the cut.
“I'm very disappointed,” Nurse said of VanVleet's All-Star snub via NBA.com. “I take nothing away from the guys that made it. I'm sure there's some other guys on other teams that are very disappointed as well. But I mean, I think he's played his guts out and our team’s played pretty well and he's been a big reason for it.”
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