There was always going to be a bit of newness to Fred VanVleet’s role with the Raptors this year because it is in some ways a new team.
With the loss of the offensive production supplied by Serge Ibaka and Marc Gasol, those points had to be replaced from somewhere and VanVleet, one of the team’s best three-point shooters, was going to be asked to contribute just a little bit more.
He has. And then some.
Going into Monday’s game in Portland — the end of a four-game western road trip for Toronto — VanVleet had been the best and most consistent scorer on the team.