In the latest episode of his Unguarded podcast, Rockets guard Fred VanVleet opens up about the extent of the damage he suffered to his right knee last fall, relays Matt Young of The Houston Chronicle (subscription required). VanVleet missed the entire season after tearing both the ACL and meniscus during a workout as part of a team retreat to the Bahamas prior to the start of training camp.

VanVleet said he was in the middle of a great session and was showing his younger teammates the benefits of having Kevin Durant to lean on in the offense. Then his knee gave out on a drive into the lane and he called it “a shotgun blow.” As VanVleet limped off the court, he tried to convince himself that it wouldn’t be a long-term issue.

“I’m walking around like, ‘Damn, I f— my s— up,’” he said. “But it’s September, so I’m already going like, ‘All right, bet, maybe two, three weeks, I’ll probably miss the first preseason game and I’ll be cool.’”

The reality began to sink in when he woke up from a nap and his knee was swollen “as big as a basketball,” but VanVleet still couldn’t accept the situation. Even after an MRI confirmed the damage, he believed a mistake had been made.

“I said, ‘No, that ain’t mine. No. I didn’t (tear my ACL).’ They’re like, ‘You did, bruh. You tore your ACL,’” VanVleet said. “I said no, so I’m arguing. I did that for like three days.” 

VanVleet added that he plans to return this season with a “chip on my shoulder.”

“Like anything else, just more challenges, more s— to work through, make the story better,” he said. “S—, you know, I got another 10 in me, so we’re going to see, we’re going to get back to it.”

There’s more from the Southwest Division:

• Before trading up to the 31st pick on Wednesday, the Rockets received “overwhelmingly positive reviews” on Ohio State guard Bruce Thornton from virtually everyone they contacted, Varun Shankar of The Houston Chronicle writes in a subscriber-only piece. They had him ranked higher than 31st on their draft board and are impressed by his ability to score in a variety of ways. Shankur notes that Thornton ranked in the 98th percentile in effective field goal percentage as a senior and was in the 93rd percentile in assist-to-turnover ratio.
• After being selected with the third pick, Cameron Boozer talked to Michael Wallace of Grind City Media about how he hopes to transform the Grizzlies (Twitter video link). “You play the game to win,” Boozer said. “That’s what I’ve done at every level. I hope to bring that to Memphis.”
• Robert Williams, Jusuf Nurkic and Mitchell Robinson could be targets for the Pelicans in their search for another center, per Dylan Sanders of Yahoo Sports. New Orleans is expected to decline its $8MM team option on Kevon Looney.