Let’s say they gave Dwane Casey an afternoon in the laboratory where they manufactured basketball players — pretend it’s NBA’s version of Build-A-Bear — and they told him to construct the guy he’d want on his Toronto Raptors.
It’s even money the head coach would leave after a few hours of work, having constructed a player who greatly resembled Fred VanVleet.
He might be a bit taller and maybe a step or two quicker but the rest — the heart, the fearlessness, the multi-faceted game, offensively and defensively — would unquestionably have the same character traits as VanVleet
“He has all my respect,” Casey said of the Raptors’ backup point guard.