Earlier this season, Dan Tolzman, the Raptors assistant general manager and director of player personnel, was having lunch in that cafeteria with second-year point guard Fred VanVleet when he noticed something: The imperturbable 24-year-old was showing no signs of stress in any shape or form — same as always, in other words. Tolzman, who scouted VanVleet extensively at Wichita State and pushed hard for the Raptors to sign him as an undrafted free agent in the summer of 2016, took note because at the time VanVleet was mired in a deep shooting funk — the kind that can often upend a young player, particularly early in a season.

VanVleet started the year shooting 30.8 percent in his first 12 games and made just three of his first 18 three-point attempts. Worse, he was struggling to make layups. The sight of VanVleet hurling himself through the paint, followed by a hard landing and the ball rolling off the rim or getting swatted away was becoming all too familiar, but he seemed unbothered. “You’d never know he was in a big slump,” says Tolzman, admiringly. “He was the exact same guy. Who knows what was going on in his head? He’s probably thinking it over and getting up 500 extra shots to get out of it, but he doesn’t let anybody know it and he doesn’t let it impact the way he approaches the game. That’s a huge attribute.”

It’s one VanVleet takes pride in, understanding that it’s a big reason why he keeps marching forward when a lot of more-obviously talented players fall back. “You take a high-energy guy [at a time when] he’s not making shots and he’s getting beat on defence and stuff,” VanVleet says. “Without the IQ, that mental strength, that emotional stability, he’s going to get down on himself. And then he’s not even bringing his energy, that one thing that makes him good, and he keeps dropping and dropping.”