Siakam, Poeltl face taller order second time
Big minutes in game plan for sophomore duo after busy summer — ready or not
VICTORIA— The last thing the Raptors want Jakob Poeltl and Pascal Siakam to be is, unfortunately, exactly what they are.
A couple of young and inexperienced big men are going to have to play well above their circumstances to provide Toronto with a solid backup front-court behind Jonas Valanciunas and Serge Ibaka, a heavy request to make of the second-year players.
“There’s a lot of development that was going on last year, and I kept that going over the summer, and I feel like we reached the next step. We reached a new level as a unit, and I think it’s looking really good for (this) season,” said the 21-year-old Poeltl.
The young forwards do at least have a bit of experience to help them through: Siakam started 38 games and played 55 all told last season, averaging 15.6 minutes; Poeltl averaged 11.6 minutes in 54 games, with four starts.
It’s certainly not vast, and they didn’t see action in a lot of highintensity playoff games, but at least it’s a grounding. And they know that talking about their lack of experience is not something fans are going to want to hear. They need to perform.
“There’s no young guys. We’ve got to be ready to step in and do our jobs,” said the 23-year-old Siakam. “So I think the rookie days and the ‘young guys’ and all that is over. We’ve got to step up whenever our name is called, and just go out there and play.”
The likelihood is that almost half of Toronto’s regular rotation will be players with less than two years’ experience. Along with NBA sophomores Poeltl and Siakam, third-year guards Delon Wright and Norm Powell will see significant minutes. If second-year point guard Fred VanVleet works himself into a10-man mix, that’s half of it in relative neophytes.
It’s not perfect for a team that wants to legitimately contend for a conference championship, but there’s nothing anyone can do about it. Team president Masai Ujiri has given the veteran core basically a threeyear window to see how it performs, but he needs to keep the kiddie corps of backups around as the next wave of regulars.
Coach Dwane Casey would love to have eight or 10 seasoned veterans to count on, but he doesn’t have that luxury and the elder statesmen of the franchise know they have to accelerate the learning process for the kids.
“You’ve got to realize you have an opportunity to take advantage of. No more excuses playing that young card,” DeMar DeRozan said. “You’ve got to go out there and play extremely hard. You’ve got the youth and the freshness and the legs and everything, (and) it’s on us to really put that knowledge into their brains during training camp, during pre-season, so that when we start they understand what it takes.”
Realizing the responsibility was coming, the kids spent the summer working out together as often as possible. It won’t replicate the speed or skill of a regular-season NBA game, but the familiarity should help if four of them are on the court at the same time. Casey is likely to stagger minutes so that at least one of the veterans is on the floor to keep things calm, but there’s no getting away from the fact there will be games when the youngsters have to carry the team.
“We played together all summer long. We were in the gym together — five, six, seven young guys that we have here — almost every day,” Poeltl said. “And I think that’s going to show on the court, that chemistry that we developed, and the fact that we’re just going to go out there and play hard. Doesn’t matter who’s out there, who’s our opponent. We’re just going to play together and play hard.”