Everything Pascal Siakam

[Maury]

DeMar definitely had the physical tools and the work ethic to be a much more complete player, but we built around his flaws instead of forcing him to improve them at an early age. Those habits are too deeply ingrained now that even the vaunted Popovich can't change them.

I still believe that if he weren't traded in Nurse's first year, although we wouldn't have won the chip, he would have been vastly improved. Nurse planned on making him guard the other team's best player, something I was advocating for before he was traded. He probably would have continued to launch threes and just gotten better at it. He would still have a ceiling and I'm not sure how it would have worked out in the playoffs, especially with Lebron gone, but I think he would have been better than when he played for Casey.

It's ok though, I'll take a championship.

[LJ2]

One thing i was hoping we would see from pascal this was a pull up jumper off the dribble. He seems to be hitting them at a pretty good rate. theres a couple time this season where he come down the court and gets that shot off he looks like durant. I know some just want to see him post up but that jumper is going to a big step in his game. If the defense has to worry about him pulling up for a jumper and driving the lane then their in trouble. If you have a guy his size coming at you and your not sure if he's going to pull up in your face or hit the burners and drive on you, it's almost impossible to guard. All in all really happy with what we have seen from pascal thus far

Siakam will likely won't begin to peak for another year or two considering how late he started playing. It doesn't seem like it but this is only his 4th year in the league.

[Puffer]

Siakam will likely won't begin to peak for another year or two considering how late he started playing. It doesn't seem like it but this is only his 4th year in the league.

"SCHOENE found the typical peak to be about 25-27, and I know of at least one other study that found 28 to be the "peak". General consensus is that a player's PRIME is about 25-28, which seems reasonable; most players best seasons will be one of those four."

Considering Pascal's late start, plus his lower weight (less wear and tear on the lower body joints and ligaments) I would definitely agree his peak is likely to be at the older end of that spectrum. Given that experience is a huge factor and more reps allow a player to play "smarter" I wouldn't be surprised if 28/29 is when he reaches his prime. He could continue playing at a high level for another couple of years after that, maybe starting to decline 31/32.

Exciting times.

[golden]

"SCHOENE found the typical peak to be about 25-27, and I know of at least one other study that found 28 to be the "peak". General consensus is that a player's PRIME is about 25-28, which seems reasonable; most players best seasons will be one of those four."

Considering Pascal's late start, plus his lower weight (less wear and tear on the lower body joints and ligaments) I would definitely agree his peak is likely to be at the older end of that spectrum. Given that experience is a huge factor and more reps allow a player to play "smarter" I wouldn't be surprised if 28/29 is when he reaches his prime. He could continue playing at a high level for another couple of years after that, maybe starting to decline 31/32.

Exciting times.

Yep. Pascal is about 1 year away from being 1 year away....

And according to Nurse, the best is yet to come for the athletic forward who won last season’s most improved player award.

“I say it all the time, with Pascal, he shoots the ball pretty well. But he’s still 18 months or 24 months away from being really good,” Nurse said. “There’s some years that go into it ... you guys have seen a lot of guys that have come into this league and all of a sudden they’re 30 years old and they’re unbelievable.”

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/spor...-at-early-age/

[Puffer]

"And according to Nurse, the best is yet to come for the athletic forward who won last season’s most improved player award.
“I say it all the time, with Pascal, he shoots the ball pretty well. But he’s still 18 months or 24 months away from being really good,” Nurse said.”

And he has five months left in this season (excluding the playoffs) to get better based on additional experience. I wonder what his production will be like in the playoffs this year. Looking forward to finding out.

[007]

That Dude

[DanH]

Damn, Pascal is such a likable star.

[SkywalkerAC]

Winner.

[Puffer]

Pascal deserves his own thread as well. For a 27th pick, it's incredible that we can basically pencil him in for significant production with the 2nd unit this year. He's one of the best open court rim runners in the league, has a motor that won't quit, and comes across as a first class teammate/young man. The big question is whether he can be an impact defender in just his 2nd season.

He doesn't get enough talk.

Maybe we have a large enough sample size we can revisit this again?

[Jclaw]

just listened to the Simmons podcast where they we're ranking their top ten. Not much doubt about the top six (in no particular order, Doncic, Kawhi, Lebron, Giannis, Davis and Harden). I kind of expected him to go with one of his Celtics to round out the top ten but both him and his guest agreed on Siakam as number 7. It's crazy what he has become and that there was ever some debate (if there was) about giving him the max. They brought up another interesting point when they talked about him and MIP....shouldn't we be talking about VanVleet for MIP?

[S.R.]

just listened to the Simmons podcast where they we're ranking their top ten. Not much doubt about the top six (in no particular order, Doncic, Kawhi, Lebron, Giannis, Davis and Harden). I kind of expected him to go with one of his Celtics to round out the top ten but both him and his guest agreed on Siakam as number 7. It's crazy what he has become and that there was ever some debate (if there was) about giving him the max. They brought up another interesting point when they talked about him and MIP....shouldn't we be talking about VanVleet for MIP?

Yes on all accounts.

FVV should be in the MIP, though I'd doubt he'd win. His raw per game numbers are seeing big jumps but a lot of that is due to a massive spike in his role/usage jumping into the starting lineup and now with Lowry out for weeks. Some of that will level out a bit when Lowry's back for the remainder of the season.

But just raw numbers aside, the fact that Fred's been asked not just to step into the starting lineup as a complimentary player but now to step in for 5x All-Star Kyle Lowry - Fred's been amazing. That's a huge leap in role and he's been great. I'm not sure why we're not more hyped about him, he seems to draw skeptics and fans in equal measure even after everything he's done on-court.

[golden]

There will be nights like last night, but this is pretty cool....

[KeonClark]

There will be nights like last night, but this is pretty cool....

Wow, a list with 4 generational players












and James harden

[RandomGuy]

Growing pains, Siakam is going "to be good, man". He needs to be in those situations in the first place, now he is. The next step, develop moves to counter them. Knowing his development progress, that's a matter of how soon.

[inthepaint]

There will be nights like last night, but this is pretty cool....

Yeah that is pretty cool. Starting to hear more and more Siakam's name in different places when they talk about MVPs and stuff. If you really need a top 7ish player in the league plus a solid supporting team to contend, with a quarter of the season played, it looks like we got that.

Siakam is visibly growing by the month. Growth is never linear and there will always be duds like yesterday, precisely because not only he's the No.1 on opposing scouting reports, but his own coaches put him on increasingly challenging situations to stimulate his growth even further. The reality is though his game has been exploding in many different ways.

As a team, the sense that I get now is similar to what I felt at the beginning of last year: It sounds crazy to think that there is such a thing as "too much depth", but sometimes that's the feeling.

Last year Nick dealt with this "abundance of depth" by experimenting a lot, which rubbed a lot of people the wrong way (including me), but in the end it worked. This year, there's less experimenting, but the challenges in incorporating 12 players that can all play impactful minutes in single rotation remains. Good problems to have