VanVleet's wisdom shining off the court for the Raptors

Toronto Raptors coach Nick Nurse paused for a moment in the middle of discussing the brilliance of Fred VanVleet on Monday night.

"He's certainly wise beyond his years," Nurse said. "He's got an incredible basketball..."

Then he stopped, wishing he could take back the word he had just used.

"You don't even have to qualify it," he continued. "He's got an incredible mind, period."

That misstep lingered with Nurse. As he began answering the next question he went back to make amends for what he saw as a mistake.

"I just think it's silly that I qualify it," he said. "That's totally on me."

VanVleet is indeed a brilliant basketball mind. He's the kind of player Nurse said he can go to bounce ideas off of during the year.

"I exchanged a lot of conversation with Freddie," Nurse said. "He's usually, no matter what the moment in the game, he's able to converse pretty calmly. He's got a really cool head out there."

That is certainly part of what has made VanVleet so special to the Raptors organization for the better part of his four seasons in Toronto. It's allowed him to grow from the overlooked point guard who went undrafted in 2016 to a key member of the organization who will be in line for a payday at season's end.

But to Nurse, it's the other side of VanVleet that is even the most impressive.

That off-the-court brilliance was on full display Monday night when VanVleet was asked about the NBA's decision to allow players to wear social justice statements on their jerseys. Specifically, if he felt the decision went far enough considering the restrictions to a pre-approved list of 29 statements.

"I thought they missed on the jersey situation a little bit," VanVleet said. "I get it from a corporate side of things, but it was just a little distasteful to me personally. But it is what it is, you move on. I mean, I'm not losing sleep over putting something on my jersey."

To VanVleet, the jersey question is just one minor issue of a much bigger program. The point of the jersey statements is to promote social change and ultimately it's creating justice that VanVleet really wants to see.

"There are real issues going on," he said. "Breonna Taylor's killers are still walking around and living a very free life, so I think there are other things that we can worry about more so than what we're putting on the back of our jerseys."