With the Rockets starting their training camp early this season, we've gotten plenty of updates on injuries across the roster. Veteran guard, Fred VanVleet is at the top of that list, with us learning that he'll be resting in back-to-back scenarios. What does this mean for the team moving forward?
Injuries are an unfortunate, but inevitable part of the NBA and the Houston Rockets are all too familiar with that. While they had a successful regular season given the circumstances, playing with Kevin Durant, Fred VanVleet, and Steven Adams proved to be too tough to handle.
It's undeniable that FVV’s absence played a role in their downfall, but how much would it have actually changed things? Would they have advanced to the second round if he returned? What can he realistically give a team at this point in his career?
It’s not a great sign that Aaron Holiday, a fairly similarly sized guard, couldn’t even get an NBA contract this summer. Holiday hasn’t been an All-Star, a consistent starter, or made the kind of money that VanVleet has —— but he is two years younger and fully healthy.
A solid player like that leaving the league is just following a newer trend. Small guards are getting phased out. Even a potential superstar like Trae Young got shipped out of Atlanta and isn’t expected to do much with the Washington Wizards. People are already calling his extension an abomination.
Thankfully the Rockets didn’t give VanVleet an extension earlier this summer, but he is still making 25 million dollars this season. He’s expected to be a starter and fill a big role for this team, but I’m concerned that it will be too much to handle.
VanVleet is a hard-nosed and competitive player, but the body can only do so much. Ages 27-31 are commonly viewed as an NBA player’s prime years, and he’ll be turning 33 near All-Star Weekend. That doesn’t automatically mean his career is coming to an end though, as we see guys play into their mid to late 30’s pretty frequently.
It certainly helps when you excel at one particular skillset though, which I can’t say VanVleet does. He's always been a really solid all-around player, but maybe not elite at one thing. He’s not a big time scorer, and not an efficient one at 40.1-percent from the field, per Basketball-Reference. His sophomore season was the only time he shot above 40-percent from deep, though he is slightly above average for his career.
His best contributions are being a smart and stout defender, and boasting a very impressive 3.43 assist to turnover ratios, per StatMuse. Fortunately, I don’t see why these two skills can’t continue to work in his favor.
In a perfect word, he can teach undersized guards like Reed Sheppard and Bruce Thornton how to excel in their position. Show them how to be in the right places defensively and take some charges, as VanVleet is so apt to do.
While he’s not a sniper, he’s a willing a capable three point shooter and will help open up the floor. He gives this team the much needed point guard stability and depth that they were looking for last season. His stats might jump off the screen at you, but his impact will be felt without a doubt.
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