It was a Wednesday night in October of 2017 at quirky Oracle Arena in Oakland, and Fred VanVleet remembers it well.
Toronto would lose that night — 117-112 to the Golden State Warriors in an early-season NBA game of little overall consequence — but as the contested unfolded, the bright future of the Raptors revealed itself.
Pascal Siakam, then just a second-year bundle of energy and promise, had himself a night: 20 points, including a couple of three-pointers, 9-for-13 from the field. All these years later, VanVleet remembers knowing it was a watershed moment.