It’s probably not 10 metres from Fred VanVleet’s designated spot to the doorway that leads to the inner sanctum, shower and treatment area of the Raptors locker room, and to watch him traverse that short distance last Friday night was something else.

Slow and methodical doesn’t begin to explain his gait, his pace, his stroll. It’s not painful to watch, but it sure seems painful to do, and it doesn’t make sense given the fact that VanVleet is a 25-year-old professional athlete still waiting to get to the prime of his career.

But it does make sense because it exemplifies just how hard VanVleet plays every single night, and how much he coaxes out of his six-foot, 195-pound frame.

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He just doesn’t seem to care what the cost is. He goes all out, all the time. And if you can time his short walk from his locker to the showers with a sundial, it’s a small price to pay.

“You get used to it, so it’s hard to describe. It’s just a constant grind,” VanVleet said after Toronto’s ridiculously easy 127-81 win over the Indiana Pacers on Sunday, the most decisive victory ever by a Raptors team. “You go home and your legs are pounding, gotta get treatment and you gotta get massage and you gotta ice.

“You wake up in the morning, your knees hurt and you can’t walk up and down the stairs. That’s part of it. Some days are better than others, and you pray that you don’t have anything serious,” he added.

“You play as hard as me and Kyle (Lowry) and certain guys do at our size, and falling around and flying around like that, there’ s flip side to that. You take a beating.”

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The Raptors have come to expect toughness and a competitive nature from VanVleet for about three seasons now, and fans have come to expect to see him flying around the court at both ends. He gets hammered at the rim while finishing drives more than anyone on the team, and he’ll chase shooters around screens or fight through them every time it’s needed.

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He just plays hard. All the time.

“He’s super tough, and I think he’s one of those guys that has a real high pain tolerance, too. So he’s going to try to play through some stuff, even though it probably affects some things,” Raptors coach Nick Nurse said. “He’ll still go out there and give you as much of a floor game and all that stuff as he can.”

There were those who were dubious at the beginning of the season when Nurse decided to start a non-traditional backcourt of VanVleet and Kyle Lowry. Neither is more than six feet tall, neither is exceptionally quick and it left the Raptors with no proven point guard on the bench.

It turned into one of the best decisions the coach has made this season. VanVleet and Lowry have made him look good since opening night.

They both play far bigger than they are, they are both deceptively strong, and what they might lack in some physical attributes they more than make up for in smarts.

“They’re able to wrestle bigger guys, they rebound really well for their size, they can kind of guard each (backcourt) positions, can both handle (the ball and that) gives them, I think, time on and off the ball, which helps them,” Nurse said.

“I can’t think of any glaring (problems where) we’re saying, ‘Oh, we’re just too small back there in the backcourt’ at all.”

Playing VanVleet and Lowry together so often is critical going into the final weeks of the regular season and the playoffs. They are far more familiar with each other on the court after so much time together, more comfortable with either backcourt role, and they allow the Raptors to throw different looks at teams.

“Sometimes in the games, it just goes back and forth just because of feel, whatever. There’s 10 reasons it might be, depending on what night it is,” Nurse said. “But it’s just a lot of times it’s feel, and it’s really good to be able to kind of combo ’em. I think we’ve done that late in the games. We’ve gone Kyle-Kyle-Fred, Fred-Kyle-Fred, you know. And it’s kind of changed, again, matchups, and changed the look, and we’ve been able to make the key plays out of them.”

Even Sunday, when VanVleet played only 25:46 and had the final 10 minutes of the game off, he wasn’t moving particularly fast in the locker room.

“Won by 50 and still, some of that diving on the floor stuff hurts,” he joked.