VanVleet: Scottie Barnes ‘one of my more challenging projects’

Fred VanVleet appreciates how high Scottie Barnes’s ceiling is in the NBA. And that’s exactly why he’s hard on him. VanVleet discussed Barnes’s improvement after the Raptors’ win over the Knicks, as well as what it’s been like to be a mentor to a young, promising player.

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Video Transcript

- [INAUDIBLE]

- Yeah, [INAUDIBLE]. So I think you've said a few times this year that you never worry about the offense, and all you worry about is the defense. So that's what's your favorite [INAUDIBLE] Sorry, [INAUDIBLE]

FRED VANVLEET: Yeah, hey, listen man. Considering how the other one went, and we're not going to talk about, yeah, I'll take it. I'll take it. I thought we played hard. I thought we were locked in to the game plan that we executed, wasn't a perfect game by any stretch but I think we've-- some of us understand the offense is going to be an adventure at times this year. That's what me and Nick like to call it, but defensively, man, we really fought and scrapped, and I thought that we just deserved to win tonight.

- And yourself, after Wednesday's game where maybe it's quite fitting since you've been this year, and then there was no practice yesterday, obviously, if you like the response, and I know it's sort of silly to ask this, but do you think you can avoid that pattern you were talking about the other night?

FRED VANVLEET: Yeah. I mean, we could definitely avoid it. You know what I mean? We could definitely avoid it. Again, it's part of the growing pains and it's all the part of the learning process. It's kind of hard to have that perspective 20 minutes after the game, which-- I came in here pretty quickly. I didn't have much to say, but I have much positive to say at that point. So you go home, you watch the film, you realize it really wasn't that bad. There was a 25 to 3 stretch there, and you just can't. We're not good enough to overcome that at this point.

So you just try to look at the films see where we can be better, I thought we did. Again, they made another run tonight after we got a big lead, which is fine, but we're able to bounce back and we just kept punching.

- That sequence at the end where they kept-- you kept getting a stop, and the ball kept rolling out of bounds, but it seemed like every time they did fall in inbounds, you were there on a double, someone else was coming, ball on the floor, people were there. That's got to be the kind of thing you're looking for.

FRED VANVLEET: Absolutely. You've got to keep making plays. At that point in the game, is trying to make a play and we talked about before the game, just by any means necessary, and it doesn't get much better-- like, that's exactly what it was there. We had double and triple the amount of stops we needed. We couldn't get the ball. There's probably a jump ball that should have been caught and went, the ball went off my foot. You know, it was all that type of stuff going on there.

But we just kept making play after play and you know, Julius had a good look. He missed it. So it was great defense, and you know, we'll take it and move on to the next one.

- He had that pass in the third quarter under the basket finding you for 3. He ever surprised you with some of those things?

FRED VANVLEET: No. It surprises you guys. But you know, I'm hard on him. He's going to be a really good player in this league. He has a really, really high ceiling, and it's definitely one of my more challenging projects that I've had. But he makes some plays sometimes that, you know, you could see the vision in the field and some stuff that's hard to teach, and he had a lot of big plays tonight. There's really nothing he can't do out there on the court, it's just about confining that into winning basketball because he has a huge role on his team, obviously.

- [INAUDIBLE] wondering how.

FRED VANVLEET: Because you have to be a part of their growing process in the moment, and you can see certain plays and certain tendencies and certain lapses and lack of mental-- lack of detail at times that you would expect from a young kid. But again, he's in a primary role on this team, and it's harder for somebody like me who's come in, how I came in, and then was a part of a really good team to be a part of that process where you just kind of got to keep clapping and tell them good job when you know he's out there.

So, me and him, definitely, you know, I'm on his butt about being great and he's been steadily improving all year. So I think that he's going to be huge for us going forward.

- [INAUDIBLE] that's more maybe focused rather than just [INAUDIBLE] and its--

FRED VANVLEET: Yeah. Absolutely. He had a couple of games where he didn't have the energy, but more than that, it's just being loose and just understanding like the value of possessions and time to score, and how quickly the momentum can change. So just because we're up 18 or 17, it's not time to start trying stuff, and you can go on the wrong end of that run real quick.

So he's been great. We have great conversations. I think he leans on me a lot, as far as just someone to learn the game, and how it's played, and I certainly lean on him a lot on the court. He's been really, really good for us this year.

- Is he always receptive to the criticism?

FRED VANVLEET: No. Nobody is, but--

- [INAUDIBLE] for the most part?

FRED VANVLEET: Yes. Absolutely. He's a great kid. He might not realize that in the moment, and me, personally, I just-- I always just wait. There's time, we wait. The film is coming at some point, whether it's during the quarter, during the time out, halftime, after the game. The film is always right.

- [INAUDIBLE] film sessions, is that when most of this happens?

FRED VANVLEET: No. It's in the moment, when it happens. It's in the moment where the conversation is. It's not a big thing where I'm yelling at him, or anything, but I'll come to him and tell him, you know, should have do this, should have do that. And you know, he takes it in, and he learns from it, and I learn from him as well, just as far as how he plays and some of the plays and things he's expecting, and we do that with all the guys. But obviously this guy is getting a lot of attention, as he should. He's a special player.

- Do you enjoy that, with a player of his caliber? Like bringing him up?

FRED VANVLEET: Not all the time. Not all the time. But yes, it's been fun. You know what I mean? It's been fun to embrace the challenge that this year has brought, in many ways for me, personally, it's definitely tested me and making me better. I have to bring something different every day, every game. And I think it's just it's bringing the best out of me as a player and as a leader, and it's not always perfect, but I think we have great chemistry and we're locked in together as a team. We'd get through all of the tough moments. It's that sometimes, it's hard to make it through.

- [INAUDIBLE] have a guy like that [INAUDIBLE] right? [INAUDIBLE]

FRED VANVLEET: Yeah. A lot of them. A lot of them. But the difference is in college, is you've got the head coach doing it for you. So Coach Nurse definitely has to pick his spots, and that's the difference in the NBA. It's definitely a player-driven league. So the coaches can't harp on every single detail every day. There's a few guys that have done it in history. Coach Nick is not really one of those guys. And so it's my job as the point guard to be that headache sometimes, and also be there as the cornerman, and boosting confidence the majority of the other time.

- [INAUDIBLE] it's a short shelf life for a coach.

FRED VANVLEET: Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely.

- [INAUDIBLE] Pascal's defending those Randle post [INAUDIBLE] as well as he was. How much easier does it make it for you to time the double [INAUDIBLE]?

FRED VANVLEET: Yeah it changes the whole geography of the floor, to be honest with you. You just got to put up a fight, put some resistance there, jam them a couple of times, and then obviously, the difference in posting up at 17, 18 feet versus 8 or 9 feet can change the difference, and getting a shot off.

I thought P was great tonight defensively. Obviously, his shot wasn't going for him, but he continued to play hard. He was in the right spot. He has some big plays late. He did a great job drawing and kicking, and had a couple shot creations for other guys. And that's what we need him to do.

- [INAUDIBLE] Justin Champagnie is someone who's have to fight for his opportunity every night, the other night, [INAUDIBLE] for defensive purposes [INAUDIBLE]

FRED VANVLEET: Justin's being great, man. He's been great. He was a first guy I liked that summer league. Just somebody you could see right away that could fill a role right away. He can shoot a 3. He really has a talent for rebounding, and just making plays around the rim, and he's learning our game plans and attention to detail as well. So he's growing pretty fast, and I think he's somebody that could help us going forward, especially when we got a lot of guys out.

- [INAUDIBLE] covering for [INAUDIBLE] spots with you guys, plus that last game when I asked why Justin was playing down the stretch, he said basically, [INAUDIBLE] the other guys [INAUDIBLE] 2% of what he says to you guys. How much does that stuff capture the [INAUDIBLE] do you guys ever need to talk about it as a group, or [INAUDIBLE] how [INAUDIBLE]

FRED VANVLEET: I haven't been one of the guys yet, and that Nick has spoke about in the media, publicly, so I can't tell you. I think for the most part, guys take it in stride. He's usually telling the truth, and you know, it's hard to be mad when coach is telling the truth. So he definitely digs into us in practice and film sessions and things like that, but we're great shootaround. We're great in practice. We're great in the film room. It's just those certain moments in the game where you know, we just hit our dry spots.

This group has been really receptive to Coach Nick, and I think the coaching staff has done an amazing job getting us ready to play and putting game plans together for us. So there's been ups and downs, but there's definitely a lot to be positive about going forward. It's just-- it's hard to have patience when it's not going right.

- [INAUDIBLE] about Nick, but I know noticed you switched your sneakers at the half. Is it superstition, a vibe thing, a sponsorship thing? Any reason to why he switch them?

FRED VANVLEET: Maybe superstition. I don't know. Sometimes you just have to fill it out, you know, I'm big on like, energy, and how I'm feeling and all the shoes are made differently now. So some feel better than others. I don't really like how I looked on film at halftime. So the white shoes make me look faster sometimes, so I switched up to the white ones.

It didn't really help my shooting that much, but we're able to get the win. So I'll take it.

- [INAUDIBLE]

FRED VANVLEET: Yeah. I think so. Yeah.

- [INAUDIBLE]

FRED VANVLEET: Thanks, guys.

- Thanks [INAUDIBLE]