VanVleet, who went undrafted in 2016 out of Wichita State, now leads Toronto in fourth-quarter minutes. When the Raptors made their first American national television appearance of the season earlier this month, they were led not by DeMar DeRozan or Kyle Lowry, but by VanVleet, who scored a career-high 22 points off the bench as the Raptors blew out LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

“People were probably like who the fuck is this kid, coming into the game, picking us up full court,” VanVleet told VICE Sports. “I don’t look like an NBA player to most guys.”

When he first came into the league, Toronto Raptors guard Fred VanVleet wondered at times if opposing players even knew who he was.

That feeling is exactly what has connected the Raptors bench. They’ve grown closer over two-plus seasons of practices, summer leagues, offseason workouts. They’ve watched each other fall in and out of the rotation, and on and off the roster, slowly building mutual respect, the respect of their more established teammates, and opposing players.

Toronto's second unit—which includes Norman Powell, Delon Wright, Jakob Poeltl, Pascal Siakam, and VanVleet—has both been the engine behind the team’s success, and a metaphor for Canada’s team constantly being overlooked by casual NBA fans. The Raptors are in the midst of the best prolonged stretch in franchise history, yet fans continue to believe that the team’s lack of exposure in the United States has motivated everybody—from refs, to the media, to the league itself—to write them off.

At 31-14, the Raptors are the second-best team in the East, and are once again led by Lowry and DeRozan. But they’ve reinvented themselves on offense, with a modern emphasis on ball movement and three-pointers. After losing Cory Joseph, Patrick Patterson, DeMarre Carroll, and P.J. Tucker this offseason, Toronto needed to replenish its depth. They acquired 30-year-old C.J. Miles in a trade, but Masai Ujiri ultimately decided to bet on internal improvement from the secondary core that took him years to build.

Two nights later, Toronto’s second unit led the team back from a 27-point halftime deficit against the Warriors, falling just short in the fourth quarter in a 127-125 loss.

“You play better and harder with guys that you really enjoy being around,” Miles told VICE Sports. “It’s a brotherhood, a friendship. When you’ve got guys that you lean on and would do anything for off the floor, it’s going to be the same thing on the floor. It’s not even a thought. It’s an instinct.”

Miles, the veteran of the group, saw quickly just how close the second unit was, and believes it’s a huge reason why the Raptors bench have, per NBA.com , the third best net rating in the league behind only Golden State and Houston, outscoring opponents by 6.3 points per 100 possessions.

Wright’s relaxed approach didn’t always strike the right chord with scouts, who wondered when he was being recruited out of high school whether he was trying hard enough on the floor. “That was the furthest thing from the truth,” Wright told VICE Sports. “I’m able to make more decisions when I’m playing at my own pace. Once they started watching me more, they could see what I was doing. I’m glad I never changed the way I played.”

“He’s just a kid from Los Angeles, always wearing skinny jeans and Vans,” Powell told VICE Sports. “I would always have to pick the restaurants we were going to because it never mattered to him where we went. He was more chill than I was, which was weird.”

The current Raptors bench began to take shape three years ago, when the team selected Wright and Powell 20th and 46th, respectively, in the 2015 draft. The two quickly bonded as teammates at summer league. Each had played all four years in college. Powell, a reserved personality, was surprised to find that Wright was his equal in terms of demeanor.

There was one time when Wright was particularly emotional during college—when Powell tripped him on a drive to the basket in a game between Utah and UCLA. Wright confronted Powell during the game about the incident. Powell claimed it was an accident. When the two became Raptors teammates, Powell finally revealed that he had done it on purpose, to throw Wright off his game. “I knew I wasn’t crazy because I always thought he did it on purpose,” Wright said.

Powell felt slighted with how far he fell on draft night, and made a statement as the only rookie to be named to the All-NBA Summer League first team in Las Vegas in 2015, which helped to earn him a three-year contract with the team.

“I was overlooked,” Powell said. “There were all these different variables about my game that made people think I wouldn’t be a good player in the league.”

In each of his first two seasons, Powell has become a local playoff folk hero. As a rookie, he helped lead the Raptors to a fourth-quarter comeback win in Game 5 of the first round against the Indiana Pacers, just as the team was staring at a potential third consecutive first round exit. Last year, Powell scored a career-high 25 points in Game 5 of the first round against the Milwaukee Bucks, which helped put Toronto ahead 3-2 in the series.