Nothing Fred VanVleet does should be a surprise any more.

This is a man who went to the Final Four as a freshman at Wichita State, then led the Shockers to an undefeated regular season as a sophomore. This is a man who won an NBA title with the Toronto Raptors in 2019 and became an All-Star in 2020.

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“Fred VanVleet is the reason we lost to Toronto in the Finals, so we know what he’s capable of,” Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green told reporters after VanVleet had 29 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists in Game 6 Friday to force Sunday’s Game 7 in the first round of the NBA playoffs. “Not surprised at all.”

The Associated Press was calling him Postseason Fred after he totaled 55 points in Games 5 and 6. And that’s not even counting his 8-for-9 performance from 3-point range in a Game 4 loss.

More: Behind the scenes look at Fred VanVleet

More: Tracking Fred VanVleet’s journey to NBA stardom

How Fred VanVleet made Houston Rockets history

VanVleet couldn’t lift the Houston Rockets to the second round of the NBA playoffs. Houston lost 103-89 in Game 7 Sunday, but the Rockford Auburn High School grad added another chapter to his legend the last two weeks. He had 17 points (on solid 6-for-13 shooting), seven rebounds and three assists Sunday, but his biggest splash came in the three games before that.

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VanVleet made 18 of 27 shots from 3-point range in games 4 through 6 to help Houston fight back from a 3-1 series deficit. That was a Houston Rockets’ playoff record. Think about that. This is not any team record. This is a team that employed James Harden for the prime of his career. Harden won an MVP with Houston. He finished in the top five in MVP voting six times in nine years with Houston. He made over 2,000 3-pointers with the Rockets. He is second all-time in NBA history in 3-pointers. And yet in 173 career playoff games, James Harden has never made more than 16 3-pointers in a three-game playoff stretch.

Fred VanVleet has.

And he has done it twice. VanVleet also made 17 3-pointers in the first three games of a four-game sweep against Brooklyn in the 2020 playoffs for the Toronto Raptors. And his best stretch might have been making 14 of 17 3-pointers in the last three games against the Milwaukee Bucks in 2019 to help Toronto rally from a 3 games to 1 deficit on the way to the Raptors winning their only NBA Championship.

“Nothing he does surprises me any more,” said former Freeport star Luke Norman, who played against VanVleet in high school and now coaches a 17-U AAU team sponsored by VanVleet along with VanVleet’s nephew Amir Danforth. “He did his thing at Wichita State. He did his thing in the NBA. Now he has $120 million, the highest contract by an undrafted free agent in NBA history. He’s just got that “it” factor.

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“I honestly didn’t think he could make it (in the NBA),” said Norman, who also played with VanVleet on a local AAU team. “Everybody knew he was a winner, but in the NBA, if you are a 6-foot guard, not that athletic and not that fast, it’s hard to make it. But everywhere he’s gone, he’s made it. He just has the ‘it’ factor. He’s a winner.”

Fred VanVleet’s future with the Houston Rockets

Auburn coach Bryan Ott texted his former star after his standout performance in the Game 6 win. Ott complemented VanVleet as much about what he said in his televised postseason interview as he did about how well he played. VanVleet drew notice for his colorful quote about low-scoring 6-11 center Steve Adams, who had turned in one of the best games of his career with 17 points. VanVleet called him a “big caveman in this era of small basketball” and said ‘we’re gonna play him until he dies out there.”

But VanVleet also said the Rockets hadn’t done anything yet. Game 7 is what mattered.

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“Amid all the enthusiam, he had to go in the locker room and tell them we haven’t done anything yet. It’s a mature response but a real response,” Ott said. “He’s a real pro. He sounds wise beyond his years when you hear him speak. There is nothing that he is not willing to say to a teammate if that is the difference between winning and losing. He raises the level of professionalism around him, as well as the level of play.”

VanVleet’s stellar play came at the perfect time. Houston holds a $44 million option on the last year of VanVleet’s three-year $120 million deal. Sports Illustrated, among others, speculates Houston will decline that option on the 31-year-old VanVleet, but offer him a longer deal with more guaranteed money at a slightly lower per-year number — probably three years for close to $100 million.

Ott made it clear that he is no expert about NBA contracts, but agrees VanVleet will sign another multi-year deal.

“He’s a consummate professional,” Ott said. “He knows how to win and is a valuable commodity for any NBA team. He is the kind of asset you want. He puts it all on the line out there. When you see how hard he plays on both sides of the court, it inspires his teammates and earns respect from opponents. I think he has quite a few years left.

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“And I think he has at least one more big contract coming his way because of how he can lead a team and consistently show up in big games and make people better. He has been doing that for a long time.”

Matt Trowbridge is a Rockford Register Star sports reporter. Email him at mtrowbridge@rrstar.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @MattTrowbridge.

This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Fred VanVleet’s latest playoff heroics sets stage for another contract