Fred VanVleet is taking a step back and finding perspective on a season that, on the surface, might look like a roller coaster of highs and lows. In a candid reflection, the veteran guard summed up the wild journey of his team's campaign: "If you told me in September that I would miss the whole season, Stephen would miss 75% of the season, and we would win 52 games and play the Lakers in a four-five matchup, take them to six without KD, I would probably say, 'Okay, that doesn't sound crazy to me.'"

For VanVleet, the big picture reveals a season far from a failure. "It's not a failure. I wouldn't feel bad about that," he emphasized. But living through the grind is a different story. "Now, while you're in it, it's crazy, right? It looks bad some nights. You've got the blown leads, you've got the mishaps, you've got guys' performances up and down. So, if you're riding that roller coaster of emotion, then yeah, you're going to feel some type of way."

He acknowledged the passion of fans, who often expect perfection every night, but urged everyone to look at the bigger picture. "I know fans struggle with that sometimes because they're just so passionate. They want everything to be perfect all the time."

Instead of dwelling on the setbacks, VanVleet focused on the bright spots that defined the season. "All in all, especially now as I get older in the league, you have to be able to take away the positives: KD playing 78 games, Amen taking the growth that he did as a full-time point guard, Reed making a big jump in his development. We saw a lot of flashes. Alpie was up and down, but the way he started and the way he finished, you kind of saw it. And he's still pretty damn young. Jabari, you know how I feel about Jabari, to see his progression. To see Tari's progression in a real role, being a starter sometimes and playing real minutes."

Ultimately, VanVleet sees a team that weathered the storm. "I think there are just a ton of positives that you can take away. We went through a lot. We tried a lot. We went through adversity. We had to come out of adversity. We had to battle through injury. We saw what worked and what didn't work."