Kyle Lowry May be Gone, But Fred VanVleet has a Lifetime of Leadership Experience Ready to Take Over the Raptors

The Toronto Raptors have undergone a leadership change over the past few years as Fred VanVleet has stepped up to replace the departing Kyle Lowry

Bryan Ott had seen enough.

On Dec. 16, 2011, the wheels came off for his Rockford Auburn Knights team after a promising 7-0 start. Hononegah had eked out a 39-36 victory, and the locker room was in shambles with players going after each other.

Ott called a seniors-only meeting the next day.

"I laid it to everybody," the head coach said. "I identified issues with each and every guy on the team."

One of his players stood up to object. It was the long-time leader for the Knights who just a few years ago was still getting accustomed to speaking up. Now he was ready.

"We've all got to eat this one," Fred VanVleet said.

Nearly a decade later, VanVleet is prepared to take another stand. The undrafted guard who found his voice on the courts of Rockford, Ill., is taking the reins of the Toronto Raptors and stepping into the shoes of the greatest leader in franchise history, Kyle Lowry.

“I was born for it,” VanVleet said in December. “I've been told that my whole life whether I like it or not.”

The young VanVleet had tried to be the leader of the Knights, but he wasn't mature enough in 2009. He'd push basketballs into other players' chests in frustration or slump off the court if teammates weren't playing up to his standards.

"He could be pretty short-tempered with the players, especially if they weren't living up to his expectations or excellence," Ott said.

But VanVleet had learned how to get teammates to listen to him and play up to his standards by his senior year. When he stood up in that seniors-only meeting after the Hononegah loss, something changed. That loss and the chaos that ensured could have been the turning point in the Knights’ season and sent things on a downward spiral, Ott said. It could have sent things spiraling downward. But it didn’t. The boys in that room listened to VanVleet. They bounced back, rallying to the school’s first Illinois state tournament since 1975.

Now VanVleet is taking on that same position, looking to lead Toronto out of a disastrous 2021-22 season and back to the pinnacle of the NBA.

The past few seasons have seen a changing of the guard within the Raptors’ locker room. DeMar DeRozan is long gone, Norman Powell has left for Portland, Lowry is heading to Miami, and those great Raptors teams from the early 2010s seem like a distant memory.

In their place, a new group of players have stepped in. Pascal Siakam, OG Anunoby, and VanVleet have taken over the locker room. Behind the scenes, Lowry began to step aside.

“It's been that way for a little bit now,” VanVleet said during his season-ending media availability. “Obviously, Kyle is the greatest Raptor of all time, but I think that shift started to happen a little bit ago. So I'm kinda already comfortable in that [leadership] role now.”

When VanVleet speaks, people listen. That’s what comes with being an undrafted player who fought and clawed to make it in the NBA and earn an $85 million contract.

“What he’s done in this league, what he’s proven in this league, he has a certain respect and guys listen to him and respect his word,” Gary Trent Jr. said. “I don't know how you could be a young guy like myself or Malachi or Jalen or anybody and not listen to what he has to say.”

There’s a certain fire behind VanVleet, Trent said. He speaks with authority and leads by example. If he’s digging in, diving for loose balls, fighting through pain, it’s hard not to emulate that. To Ott, that’s what made VanVleet so special so many years ago.

“The will that he demonstrates on both ends of the floor are such that if you're a teammate you just can't help but follow you know after his example,” Ott said.

When the Raptors take the court for the first time in October it’ll be with VanVleet leading the way. While things may seem different on the outside, behind the scenes it’ll be business as usual for VanVleet.

He’s been at this a long time, he said in December, but those qualities he learned a decade ago remain the same: Speak honestly, treat people fairly, and play hard. The rest will follow.

Further Reading

Masai Ujiri re-signs with the Toronto Raptors

Raptors announce their Summer League roster

The secret of Kyle Lowry's success was always his instincts and will to win