Everything Pascal Siakam

[G__Deane]

I guess you have to define superstar then.. Paul George is not what you consider a superstar.. neither are Jimmy or Beal or Kyrie IMO . It's a handful of guys in the league like Lebron, Steph, Kawhi and Kevin. You could throw Giannis, Harden and maybe Davis in there. But my point is that you don't need to be a traditional superstar to attract another.

I think Pascal can be an all-nba guy. I think he can be the best player on a decent (but not championship caliber) team. His issue is age. He's already 25.. and by the time he might blossom into a George/Butler type of player.. ie, get to his third contract.. he'll be in his 30's. And that might dissuade some future superstars to want to play with him.

The good thing is that he's not a US born player. Let's just hope his growth curve is more in line to some of these top 15 players as opposed to someone more middling like DeMar or Middleton.

I'm my vocabulary, lebron, Curry, Kawhi, Giannis and Durant are the elite guys. Yes maybe Harden and Davis.
After that you have guys that to me are still superstars like George (becuase he's 2-way), Westbrook (because he's not 2-way), Kyrie etc. PG may not be as flashy or get the headlines because of where he played his numbers don't lie.

The elite guys don't necessarily have to team up since there are only so many of them. But the supertars do with them or other superstars.

The jury is still out on Pascal, there's a lot of homerism on him here. I just don't see him becoming elite (so rare that's not a slight on him). Whether he can become a superstar and attract another remains to be seen. He's got a long way to go to be as good as a Paul George or Anthony Davis or even Bradley Beale..

[Joey]

I guess you have to define superstar then.. Paul George is not what you consider a superstar.. neither are Jimmy or Beal or Kyrie IMO . It's a handful of guys in the league like Lebron, Steph, Kawhi and Kevin. You could throw Giannis, Harden and maybe Davis in there. But my point is that you don't need to be a traditional superstar to attract another.

PG averaged 28ppg, 8rpg, 4apg, and 2spg, and was an MVP Runner Up ... I think that's Superstar level.


But I also think Pascal has it in him to have a similar trajectory as PG. In their third years, both averaged around 17ppg, 7-8rpg, 3-4apg, and Pascal doing it at a much more efficient rate.

[planetmars]

Sure, agreed.
But, that's not what we're talking about. These days, it appears to attract a superstar, you already need one or else you have to attract two together. I love Pascal but just don't see him developing into that kind of a superstar. Superstars haven't been signing with a team because they have a "sidekick" ....

I guess you have to define superstar then.. Paul George is not what you consider a superstar.. neither are Jimmy or Beal or Kyrie IMO . It's a handful of guys in the league like Lebron, Steph, Kawhi and Kevin. You could throw Giannis, Harden and maybe Davis in there. But my point is that you don't need to be a traditional superstar to attract another.

I think Pascal can be an all-nba guy. I think he can be the best player on a decent (but not championship caliber) team. His issue is age. He's already 25.. and by the time he might blossom into a George/Butler type of player.. ie, get to his third contract.. he'll be in his 30's. And that might dissuade some future superstars to want to play with him.

The good thing is that he's not a US born player. Let's just hope his growth curve is more in line to some of these top 15 players as opposed to someone more middling like DeMar or Middleton.

[G__Deane]

Superstar? Maybe not, but I think he has proven he can be a dependable sidekick to a superstar. He was the second leading scorer on a championship team, and he will continue to get better.

Sure, agreed.
But, that's not what we're talking about. These days, it appears to attract a superstar, you already need one or else you have to attract two together. I love Pascal but just don't see him developing into that kind of a superstar. Superstars haven't been signing with a team because they have a "sidekick" ....

[A.I]

I'm not in the camp that Pascal will become a superstar .... yet. The kind that other superstars would move to play with.

Superstar? Maybe not, but I think he has proven he can be a dependable sidekick to a superstar. He was the second leading scorer on a championship team, and he will continue to get better.

[DanH]

I'm not in the camp that Pascal will become a superstar .... yet. The kind that other superstars would move to play with.

We've got two years to find out. If he does, great. If he doesn't (and we strike out in 2021 free agency), we've got all the flexibility in the world on where to move from there.

[Puffer]

I'm not in the camp that Pascal will become a superstar .... yet. The kind that other superstars would move to play with.

Let's revisit this topic in February.

[G__Deane]

Why can't we sign one? Biggest factor is having a star to attract the second star with. Pascal might get there eventually, ideally over the next two seasons. If he doesn't, yeah, we'll need to find another way to get that homegrown star.

I'm not in the camp that Pascal will become a superstar .... yet. The kind that other superstars would move to play with.

[DanH]

But then who do we trade to get the superstar (ie DD for Kawhi)? Because it appears we can't sign one.....you likely need to sign TWO to get one to come here

Why can't we sign one? Biggest factor is having a star to attract the second star with. Pascal might get there eventually, ideally over the next two seasons. If he doesn't, yeah, we'll need to find another way to get that homegrown star.

[MixxAOR]

Where do you think Masai gets his ideas from if not the ranks of RR General Managers?

realgm obviously

[G__Deane]

That's for Masai to figure out. Thankfully not my problem.

Where do you think Masai gets his ideas from if not the ranks of RR General Managers?

[MixxAOR]

But then who do we trade to get the superstar (ie DD for Kawhi)? Because it appears we can't sign one.....you likely need to sign TWO to get one to come here

That's for Masai to figure out. Thankfully not my problem.

[G__Deane]

If his efficiency falls Pascal will have to learn to draw fouls ala Derozan. If we build a competitive team around Derozan than we can do it around Siakam. Siakam is not going to lead the team to championship but he just needs to bridge the gap before we get the guy who can.

But then who do we trade to get the superstar (ie DD for Kawhi)? Because it appears we can't sign one.....you likely need to sign TWO to get one to come here

[MixxAOR]

If his efficiency falls Pascal will have to learn to draw fouls ala Derozan. If we build a competitive team around Derozan than we can do it around Siakam. Siakam is not going to lead the team to championship but he just needs to bridge the gap before we get the guy who can.

[G__Deane]

The biggest issue offensively is that we do not have an established and reliable one one one scorer, and at some point during a game all teams defer to and rely on a player to initiate offence in that manner. Pascal will be that guy for us, so it will be interesting to see how he will handle that. My guess is that his efficiency will suffer somewhat with increased usage, which is perfectly logical. However, if he improves his 3pt shooting and gets to the line more, his efficiency may actually improve despite the increased usage, and both those things are plausible as well. For me this is the excitement for the upcoming season...to watch the development of Pascal to see if he can reach all-star status (which seems very likely) while maybe getting into the all-nba conversation. I'm also looking forward to watching OG play again...the kid has got serious potential as well as a 2-way player. He'll get some opportunity with the ball in his hands, so fans should be a little forgiving for how this team plays/performs as the coaching staff place a little more emphasis on development for some of these younger guys. There will be some hiccups, and guys on here will blow up after a loss saying we need to move the ball more and not let OG or perhaps Powell have the ball so much, which is stupid. We all know by now that the regular season is basically practice, and realistically, we have no shot at the title anyways so why not give the younger players some more freedom to learn and figure things out.

NBA has to at least make a show of somehwat even foul calls so Pascal could find himself at the line more this season. Kyle too.
We don't have a lot of players that like to drive/take contact.