The Chronicle Herald (Provincial)
Siakam’s superstar ascent
DETROIT — Could Pascal Siakam win the NBA’s most improved player award two years in a row? Nick Nurse doesn’t see why not.
“I don’t think it’s crazy. I think he’s probably got to be in the conversation,” the Raptors head coach said before Wednesday’s win over the Detroit Pistons.
“I’m sure there are a number of guys that have made some nice leaps and are vying for that award, but, you know, if a guy is going from 17 to 25-26 points a game, he’s probably in the conversation around the league wherever they are,” Nurse said.
Most improved might be underselling what Siakam has done so far though. At times this year he’s been bandied about as an MVP candidate, though Nurse indicated that might be a bit too high praise, considering how ridiculous some other players have been.
“He’s certainly up there. He’s trending in that direction, I just think that if you’re really looking at it, there’s a handful of guys that are there and maybe he’s in the next group behind them or something like that,” Nurse said.
“It’s really hard to argue with what like LeBron (James) and Giannis (Antetokounmpo) are doing. Their two teams, their records are unbelievable (Milwaukee and Los Angeles met Thursday with matching 24-4 records) and they’re obviously the driving force. And then you start looking and you go to (James) Harden’s 40 points a night and all that stuff, so there’s some guys I think that are clearly in a serious conversation probably.”
Which isn’t to say that Siakam hasn’t been a revelation. His former coach, Dwane Casey, like nearly everyone else (Siakam himself might be an exception) didn’t see this coming.
“I didn’t see that he will be a superstar, and he is a superstar in our league right now,” Casey said before Siakam backed up that praise with an all-around dominant two-way performance.
“He started in his first year, I think 38 games ... he was that rabbit that comes out and guards their best player. Shooting was his last resort, it was his last offensive option. But again, the young man — I’m going to say this — for those kids out there that want to see how good you can be, go watch him in the summertime,” Casey said.
“He is not worried about load management, the kid worked three times a day. Out there in Los Angeles, they did a great job of developing his offensive game, and it’s on him. He did that all himself to develop his individual game and his mom and dad did a great job with the DNA with the elite motor he has. So, I saw that he was going to be a good starter in our league, and the trade for Serge (Ibaka) took his place (as a starter) — but the rest of it he did on his own in the summertime.”
Nurse said that coming into the season the Raptors hoped Siakam would be ready to take over as the main option with Kawhi Leonard gone and that has come to pass.
“He’s handled it maybe better than anybody expected it to. He certainly takes it on attitudinally. He brings it out there. He’s aggressive. He’s not afraid to use a variety of ways to score. He’s pretty high-volume usage-wise and you’ve got to do it every night. When he’s had a bad one he’s done a good job of bouncing back,” Nurse said.
“He was clearly emerging last year and anytime he’d have a good game it was kind of a surprise and now he always says he’s not surprised, which is a great way to put it. But now he goes out with the idea that he is the primary guy right from the jump and not looking to see how the flow of the game is, or how Kawhi has it going or whatever. He just kind of takes it from the opening tip and goes with it.”
All-star teammate Kyle Lowry doesn’t think Siakam will stop here either.
“He just works his butt off. He’s gotten better every single year that I’ve seen him and he’s just going to continue to get better,” Lowry said.
“I think his upbringing and everything helps that.”
WAITING TO HEAR MORE
Marc Gasol and Norman Powell underwent tests on Thursday to get a better idea just how serious their respective injuries were.
Gasol pulled a hamstring in the first quarter against the Pistons, while Powell suffered a shoulder injury when Blake Griffin caught him on a screen and was in all kinds of pain when it happened and exited the arena wearing a sling.
“We avoided the injury bug last year and that really helped us throughout the whole year but I think it’s pretty tough for our team,” Kyle Lowry said of a recent run of bad injury luck. “But we have a bunch of guys that have to step up now. Hopefully it’s nothing serious. We’ll see what happens.”