Start punching from this is slam dunk

Chapter 231 The counterattack of the undrafted pick
The Raptors' starting lineup for this game is point guard Kyle Lowry, shooting guard Fred VanVleet, small forward Norman Powell, power forward OG Anunoby, and center Pascal Siakam.

Unlike Paul, Lowry has gorgeous dribbling skills and gorgeous direction changes. He sprints in a straight line more often, and then makes a large left-right change to kill the basket; his passing is far from as gorgeous as LeBron and Doncic. Strong body, enough physical confrontation when switching defenses, and even a master of offensive fouls.

Kyle Lowry can score 18 points, 5.5 rebounds, 6.5 assists and 1.2 steals this season.Compared with this data, it can barely be squeezed into the All-Star bench lineup. For Lowry, it has been relatively stable in recent years.

The core of today's Raptors is Siakam. Dating back to Toronto's championship season, Siakam is still almost unknown in the regular season, but in the playoffs he has become a surprise player for the team, a point that no one in the Warriors can hold.

The championship is always accompanied by the championship effect. After Xiaoka left, the Raptors helped Siakam become the core of the team and gave him more possession and trust.

Although his performance in the 19-20 season was not that good, but under the double blessing of winning the championship and the team's future hope, fans also have great expectations for him, and this expectation seems to exaggerate his upper limit and prospects...

But this year, after the Raptors were no longer the favorites for the championship and Siakam failed to make further progress, his popularity receded like a tide.

It can be seen from his declining All-Star voting year by year that most fans do not have a fixed player to follow, they only like to vote for the strong, which is also the truth of the NBA.

Sika scored 20.1+7.5+4.8 this season, which is not as good as last season's data. The Raptors' results and lineup are not as good as in the past. Although he once said that he will work hard to return to his best condition and hope that people will remember his name.

Another scoring point for the Raptors comes from a former undrafted pick-Fred Van Fleet.

VanVleet entered the NBA draft in 2016 but was not selected by any team. In July 2016, he joined the Raptors and has been playing for the Raptors since then, and won the NBA championship with the Raptors in 7.Van Fleet currently holds the record for halftime three-pointers in team history, the highest scoring record in a single game of 2019 points in team history, and the highest scoring record in a single game for an undrafted pick.

Speaking of which, a very miraculous thing happened to Van Fleet.

Van Fleet, who just joined the NBA, after a season of training, he showed a good competitive state in the 17-18 season, and his statistics have steadily improved. He averaged 8.6 points, 2.4 rebounds, and 3.2 assists per game. After the end of the season, he was shortlisted for the best sixth man candidate list.

However, what is unexpected is that Van Fleet, who signed a big contract, seems to have lost his magic power. In the 18-19 season, he completely lost the demeanor of the best sixth man.

This situation continued until the playoffs. Before May 19, 5, he took 20 three-pointers in the playoffs, but only hit 41 goals, and his shooting percentage was a disastrous 8%.Van Fleet, who performed sluggishly, was pushed to the forefront.

Dramatically, since the birth of Van Fleet's son, his touch has miraculously warmed up again. In the three games after the Eastern Conference Finals, he averaged 16 points per game, including 17 of 14 three-pointers, helping the Raptors to bite the score.In the finals, Van Fleet continued his wonderful performance, scoring 16 three-pointers in one fell swoop to break the record of three-pointers made by substitute players in the finals.In the most critical Game 6, Van Fleet made 5 crucial three-pointers to help the Raptors beat the Warriors to win the championship.

Due to the departure of Danny Green, Van Fleet, who performed well, was put on the starting position. At the same time, he was able to hand over high-quality data of 18 points, 3.8 rebounds and 6.8 assists. He played the best performance of his career. He has become an indispensable part of the Raptors.

The benefits to the Raptors after Van Fleet entered the starting lineup are also very obvious. The lineup of double point guards makes the Raptors' offense smoother. As of now, the Raptors' average assists per game of 25.6 can rank ninth in the league.

At the same time, it is worth noting that his assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.8 is better than Lowry's 2.6. That is to say, Van Fleet is a more stable organizer among the two point guards. In fact, Van Fleet's passing has always been particularly stable.

At the same time, Van Fleet's performance outside the three-point line is amazing. Whether it is the bottom corner, 45 degrees or the top of the arc, his shooting percentage is not lower than the league average.His stable three-point shooting rate also makes him the most reliable three-point shooter in the Raptors.

From a defensive point of view, Van Fleet's defensive effect is not outstanding, but in fact his personal performance on the defensive end is also remarkable.Van Fleet averaged 1.9 steals per game, ranking third in the league, averaging 3 interceptions per game also ranked third, and averaging 4 interference three-point shots per game ranked seventh.When he defends one-on-one, the opponent's two-point shooting percentage can drop by 3%, and the overall shooting percentage can drop by 4.1%.Based on the above data, Van Fleet is enough to be called a high-quality defender above the standard.

Compared with those players who are known as geniuses, Jiang Bei pays more attention and attention to this kind of players who rely on their own hard work.

Although their upper limit may not be very high, as long as they can be stable, then they will be the most stable and most willing players on the team.

After all, the overall strength of a team depends on the barrel effect. The role of stars is more reflected in critical moments, and they are indeed the most solid part of every game.

(End of this chapter)