Everything Pascal Siakam

[DanH]

Thats what they did with VanVleet, worked just fine.

LOL, yeah, Fred VanVleet's market would be the same as Pascal freaking Siakam's. I'm sure Pascal will be perfectly happy to sign a two year, 10M a year deal, there will definitely be no better offers out there on the market for him.

[SkywalkerAC]

I'm curious to see how much time Pascal sees at the 3 next season, with maybe RHJ or Boucher at the 4. Or maybe that's irrelevant with him and OG switching like maniacs...

[Puffer]

From the front piece article "The Raptors Started Rebuilding Last Year." I thought this comment about Pascal was kinda cool.

"He’s already better than anyone on New York, Phoenix, Charlotte, Chicago, Memphis, and New Orleans."

[Puffer]

I am just wondering what a reasonable expectation is for Pascal this coming season.

There is no doubt his usage rate will increase without Kawhi and Danny around. I expect so will Kyle's, Serge's, Marc's, and Norm's. I think Fred's will stay similar to this years. The wild card is OG. Does he make a step up after a terrible past season? One would think so based on his improvement in his first season and an additional summer of work and another training camp.

Pascal finished the playoff by averaging 19.8 points, 7.5 rebounds and 3.7 assists a game over the NBA Finals. That is playing in the highest pressure available in the NBA, widely acknowledged as a significant step up over the regular season. That was against the 11th best defensive team over the playoffs.

Even with higher usage, I would expect those numbers to go up, even without allowing for any major improvement in his game during the off-season. As it is it seems reasonable to expect him to put in a lot of work on his midrange shot, to force defenders to play him honestly. I would guess we can expect to also see an uptick in his 3pt shot %. He shot 36.9% from three in 2018/2019 and 54.9% overall. With an effective midrange game, I would expect to see him flirting with 57% overall. And an improved assist rate. Three fellow starters playing in their contract years, and another in OG who maybe has something to prove.

Going to be fun to watch.

[MixxAOR]

I think his playoff numbers are a good starting point: 22 pts, 8 rebounds and 3 assists is what I'm comfortable with. Really close to Bosh's numbers. Except Bosh did it when he was 21

[Puffer]

I think his playoff numbers are a good starting point: 22 pts, 8 rebounds and 3 assists is what I'm comfortable with. Really close to Bosh's numbers. Except Bosh did it when he had 13 years of organized basketball instruction, coaching and experience under his belt, as opposed to Pascal's 8 years

Fixed it for you.

[GOLDBLUM]

From the front piece article "The Raptors Started Rebuilding Last Year." I thought this comment about Pascal was kinda cool.

"He’s already better than anyone on New York, Phoenix, Charlotte, Chicago, Memphis, and New Orleans."

(It’s a great read for those who haven’t read it)

[G__Deane]

I am just wondering what a reasonable expectation is for Pascal this coming season.

There is no doubt his usage rate will increase without Kawhi and Danny around. I expect so will Kyle's, Serge's, Marc's, and Norm's. I think Fred's will stay similar to this years. The wild card is OG. Does he make a step up after a terrible past season? One would think so based on his improvement in his first season and an additional summer of work and another training camp.

Pascal finished the playoff by averaging 19.8 points, 7.5 rebounds and 3.7 assists a game over the NBA Finals. That is playing in the highest pressure available in the NBA, widely acknowledged as a significant step up over the regular season. That was against the 11th best defensive team over the playoffs.

Even with higher usage, I would expect those numbers to go up, even without allowing for any major improvement in his game during the off-season. As it is it seems reasonable to expect him to put in a lot of work on his midrange shot, to force defenders to play him honestly. I would guess we can expect to also see an uptick in his 3pt shot %. He shot 36.9% from three in 2018/2019 and 54.9% overall. With an effective midrange game, I would expect to see him flirting with 57% overall. And an improved assist rate. Three fellow starters playing in their contract years, and another in OG who maybe has something to prove.

Going to be fun to watch.

The problem is Siakam is going to be the focal point of the other teams best defensive player every night now.
Hint: Kawhi is gone .....
He'll get more usage and maybe better overall raw numbers but his made-rate will potentially suffer; Pascal is not a number 1 carry-the-team-on-his-skinny-shoulders guy yet....

[Puffer]

The problem is Siakam is going to be the focal point of the other teams best defensive player every night now.
Hint: Kawhi is gone .....
He'll get more usage and maybe better overall raw numbers but his made-rate will potentially suffer; Pascal is not a number 1 carry-the-team-on-his-skinny-shoulders guy yet....

Any team focusing too much on Pascal is going to have to give up baskets to Kyle, Serge, Gasol, OG, Fred, Norm and Thomas. Those guys will kill with open threes. Pascal passing the ball is bound to be a big part of Nurse's training camp sessions. Everybody on the team and in the league knows Pascal is going to be a focus for other teams. Not hard to put together some schemes to deal with that.

I hope they focus more on him. The team is more than capable of making them pay.

[G__Deane]

Any team focusing too much on Pascal is going to have to give up baskets to Kyle, Serge, Gasol, OG, Fred, Norm and Thomas. Those guys will kill with open threes. Pascal passing the ball is bound to be a big part of Nurse's training camp sessions. Everybody on the team and in the league knows Pascal is going to be a focus for other teams. Not hard to put together some schemes to deal with that.

I hope they focus more on him. The team is more than capable of making them pay.

I love your optimism which must be spilling over from the championship parade still....
Last year when Kawhi was here, resulting in a much higher level of open threes available:
OG was 33%
Marc was 32%
Kyle was 34% and
Ibaka was a horrific 29%

Translastion: NO TEAM is worried about any of these guys "killing open threes" because none of them are very good at it. Only Kyle can truly get hot and he's simply hot and cold. No team will leave our perimeter guys as open for Pascal coverage as they did Leonard, let's be serious.

Oh, the two guys who WERE very good at it? No longer with the team.....

I have a feeling there will be a lot of gnashing of the teeth and rendering of garments this season and over expectations come crashing down. jmo.

[Puffer]

....I have a feeling there will be a lot of gnashing of the teeth and rendering of garments this season and over expectations come crashing down. jmo.

Quite possible. The stats in the playoffs were a bit better. OG was out of course, but I would expect him to do a little better this season.
In the playoffs:
Marc was 38%
Lowry was 36%
Freddy was 39%
Norman was 39%
Serge was a horrific 24%
Pascal was a likewise horrific 28%

I would expect Marc to hold steady or even have a bit of an uptick, having the whole training camp with the rest of the guys. And who know with Matt Thomas, the acknowledged "best 3pt shooter not in the NBA."

The fun bit is in finding all of this out. You are probably correct about my optimism. But I still think it is going to be fun. They have a chance to get to the third round. Who knows what can happen from there.

[DanH]

I love your optimism which must be spilling over from the championship parade still....
Last year when Kawhi was here, resulting in a much higher level of open threes available:
OG was 33%
Marc was 32%
Kyle was 34% and
Ibaka was a horrific 29%

Translastion: NO TEAM is worried about any of these guys "killing open threes" because none of them are very good at it. Only Kyle can truly get hot and he's simply hot and cold. No team will leave our perimeter guys as open for Pascal coverage as they did Leonard, let's be serious.

Oh, the two guys who WERE very good at it? No longer with the team.....

I have a feeling there will be a lot of gnashing of the teeth and rendering of garments this season and over expectations come crashing down. jmo.

Marc shot 44% from three while with the Raptors.
Lowry shot 39% after the trade deadline.
OG definitely needs to work on his threes again, but on aggregate over his first two seasons he is a 35% shooter, and 33% isn't exactly "leave him wide open" territory.
Are we ignoring FVV, who is an elite open three point shooter? 38% on the year, including 41% on catch-and-shoot threes and 43% on wide open threes.
Powell just had his best shooting season at 40% on the year, and he's the guy I would worry the most about.

If the bolded is your point, that teams will not cover Siakam the way they covered Leonard, then isn't that a good sign for Siakam being able to maintain his effectiveness in a larger role? If that defensive attention is not truly going to shift from Leonard entirely to him?

I'm definitely concerned about the offence this year, mostly though because the bench will likely really struggle to score. While the starters probably take a smaller step back. And also because the team is more vulnerable to complete offensive collapse if one of Lowry or Siakam miss any number of games.

[JawsGT]

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.

[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.

[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.