Chris Boucher has nothing but respect for Fred VanVleet

On the latest episode of "Hustle Play with Chris Boucher," the Raptors forward expresses how Fred VanVleet has helped him grow and what he makes of the point guard's shooting inconsistencies. Listen to the full episode on the podcast feed or watch on our YouTube channel.

Video Transcript

CHRIS BOUCHER: It's still there. I think it's just finding ways to get it started early, have all the right players connected and focused on the right thing.

- Now he did mention Fred VanVleet, and people are talking crazy about Fred VanVleet right now. You know, some are completely on his side. Some are completely against it. How quick they forget, you know what I mean? First of all, before we get into him a little bit, what is your-- I don't think I've ever asked you, but what is your relationship like with Fred?

CHRIS BOUCHER: I mean, Fred is the vet. Like, for example, I've been with him for a long time, you know, from Kyle, who was talking to me, Fred was talking to me about the G League and the path he had, the road he had. So we definitely have a great friendship, and, you know, like I said, he's still learning me a lot of things, and how to play and the right thing to do, and showing me how to be a valuable player, not for the team, but for the bench and all that.

So he's always been there for me. He's a great leader. And like I said, he picked up what Kyle did. Kyle teach me a lot of things and Fred is teaching me a lot of different things. And on this team there's probably one guy that-- If there's one guy that could talk to me a different way in a game, that I won't take it personal, it's probably him, because, I mean, I know where it's coming from. And I've been in the heat about it with him for a long time, where I know, you know, where that energy come from and why he's telling me certain things.

- Now he hasn't been shooting like his usual self, but none of you have. Right. Why do you think that is though? What do you attribute that to?

CHRIS BOUCHER: I mean, it could be a lot of different things. I mean, I feel like Fred, coming back from injury and all that, he's probably playing a little bit. He's not playing 100%. That's probably playing a little bit on there. But I also think that it's going to get back to what it is. Obviously, like, a game like yesterday, you can see that he still can make shots and all that.

You know, clearly we're all having a shooting slump right now and we're all feeling it, and that's what makes it worse, is that we all had it the same time. So collectively, it looks really bad when we play a whole game. And I'm not [INAUDIBLE], Scotty, and then you've got OG, Fred-- No, it's hard. If you see one guy having 30 points and he's the only one shooting it well, it explains a lot of the reason why we're losing right now.