The RoundHouse | 6/13/2019 11:57:00 AM

 
Fred VanVleet is short and slow. 
 
We know this because it's become the third part of the Fred VanVleet story told during the NBA playoffs, accompanied by his three-point shooting and the recent addition to his family that preceded the hot shooting. 
 
The commentary on VanVleet's athletic skills is mostly harmless and part of the process of national media telling his story to a new audience. 
 
That part of the story, however, fails to give VanVleet credit for the athletic gifts he does possess. They're real, the product of hard work and just as helpful to Toronto's success as are length and soaring.
 
Much of the game is played below the rim and that is where VanVleet's talents – lateral quickness, body control, strength, hand-eye coordination – keep him on the floor in the game's biggest moments. His athletic gifts might be less obvious than others in the NBA. They are equally important and made more vital because of his smarts and hustle.
 
"Most people, as they're talking about it in the playoffs and the championship series, say that he's not very athletic," said Kerry Rosenboom, Wichita State's strength and conditioning coordinator. "Fred, to me, is very athletic laterally. That's how, in my mind, he can defend the way that he does. He is also a very strong person; probably stronger than most people he will play against. When you combine those things, Fred, to me, is athletic defensively."
 
When you see VanVleet chase Steph Curry around a screen and bother his shot – that is lateral movement, strength and body control paying off with a contested shot and no foul. Those attributes helped force Golden State's DeMarcus Cousins into bumping VanVleet to draw a foul while setting a screen late in the Monday's NBA Finals game. 
 
When you see VanVleet drive to the basket and use his body to hold off a defender so he can score – that is agility and strength. When you see VanVleet strip the ball from an unsuspecting opponent – that is hand-eye coordination, agility and strength.
 
"He brings every attribute has to the table every day," Rosenboom said. "He's just never going to be termed as the NBA athlete, because they term that as finishing every break with an incredible dunk. That's not going to be Fred."
 
When VanVleet arrived at Wichita State, Rosenboom said he could not bench press 185 pounds. When he departed four years later, VanVleet improved to 18 repetitions. Some of his athletic ability is harder to measure – how quickly he finishes an agility drill, how he times his hands to deflect a pass or steal a dribble. Rosenboom said VanVleet improved during his time at Wichita State because he took every shuffle drill seriously.
 
"He was always pushing, he was always doing the things he needed to do at 100 percent," Rosenboom said.
 
The NBA is sometimes played vertically, with great athletes rising above the crowd to block shots, rebound and score. VanVleet excels at the parts of the game played horizontally – cutting off dribblers, passing, driving, boxing out bigger opponents.
 
"If people want to consider Fred an athlete or not an athlete by the normal eye test, Fred would be in the bottom 50 percent," Rosenboom said. "If you look at what an athlete does when they're on the ground and how they move, now Fred becomes an upper-half athlete, probably upper 25 percent in my mind."
 
VanVleet's mind enhances those athletic attributes. He knows, instinctually and through study, where to go and how to get there. He recognizes his limitations and embraces them as part of his Rockford-tough, Bet On Yourself story. There is a part of him that relishes being under-estimated and overlooked and he is wise enough to use it to his advantage.
 
It helps that VanVleet is on a team with several elite defensive I.Q. types – Kyle Lowery, Marc Gasol, Danny Green – who also might lack typical NBA size or burst. Then there's Kawhi Leonard, who owns it all.
 
Together, they make a fearsome defensive unit and VanVleet fits perfectly with a group that is happy to make plays and win the game below the rim.
 
Paul Suellentrop covers Wichita State Athletics and the American Athletic Conference for university Strategic Communications. Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.