Siakam sees ‘special’ moment in reach
Pascal Siakam didn’t have a favourite basketball player growing up, unless you counted his older brothers, and for a long time he didn’t. Siakam still doesn’t have a favourite player, or at least he doesn’t have anybody he wants to emulate. He watches other players when he’s not at work: Anthony Davis, Kevin Durant, Ben Simmons. But he doesn’t want to be like anybody else.
“Like, I just feel like I’m unique, you know?” says Siakam, the Toronto Raptors’ third-year forward. “I want to be me and I want to play the way I play. I’m not trying to imitate one person. I want to be me.”
This past summer, the 24-year-old Siakam worked like crazy, and because trainer Rico Hines attracts a lot of NBA guys and believes in cameras, a lot of the star-heavy scrimmages ended up on YouTube. But Siakam has always worked, even though he fell in love with the game late in Cameroon. He has spent years trying to make up for lost time.
“Why do I want it so bad?” asks Siakam. “I think it’s there. It’s there to take it, why not? I have to want it. And I feel like I have an opportunity, if I work hard and take strides, to be special. Like, why don’t you just go for it?”
Siakam is the youngest of four brothers, along with two sisters, and the Cameroonian famously did not pick up the game his brothers all played until he was 16.
And now on coach Nick Nurse’s Raptors, there should be a chance to stand out, even in Toronto’s impossibly deep rotation. Siakam, who combines six feet nine inches of fast-twitch muscles and an emerging aptitude for the game, has a high ceiling.
“I think that’s something that’s really going to be a big advantage for us, if he finds his groove and how to do it and not be antsy, and just lets the game kind of happen,” says Raptors forward C.J. Miles. “And we’re encouraging it so he doesn’t feel like he’s walking on eggshells.
“There’s so many things he can put together.”
Antsy is a good word. Siakam might be the fastest runner in the league, freethrow line to free-throw line, and his first step, with his improved dribble, is lightning. But that can mean his game can veer outside the lines, too, squiggly and ragged.
“I tell myself all the time, like, relax,” says Siakam. “You can be fast. You’re going to go by somebody, to don’t worry. I always feel like I can blow by my man anytime, so I gotta go slow, and then go.
“It (isn’t easy), but that’s the next level for me, right? That’s something I’m learning, watching guys like Kawhi (Leonard) and how they can just have their own pace. It’s amazing.”
Of course, to really learn to play you need to play. In preseason the Raptors let Siakam loose, and his ability to break down defences and find teammates — or turnovers — was a leap. In the opener against Cleveland he played with the starters and while he had the ball in his hands here and there, mostly, he had to find the cracks in the game. Oh, and defend Kevin Love. You want to play big wing on a team with Leonard and OG Anunoby, you better be able to guard multiple positions.
Then he played 18 minutes against Boston and he had more trouble finding the cracks, the occasional wow pass aside. And then with Leonard sitting out against Washington Saturday, he came off the bench for 10 points and 10 rebounds and octopus-like defence in 26 minutes against the Wizards.
On a bad team, Siakam would be force-fed 35 minutes and the ball. With the Raptors, if he plays with Leonard and Kyle Lowry, the MVP candidate and the all-star, they get proper priority. Anunoby shoots better. Leonard, as he showed against the Celtics, is all-world. Lowry is in charge. Others eat first.
The trick with getting the opportunity in Toronto is, it could limit the opportunity.
Could Siakam could become the best-ever African perimeter player after veteran Luol Deng of South Sudan? He isn’t old enough to have seen Hakeem Olajuwon and Dikembe Mutombo become the first African NBA stars. He has seen Joel Embiid, though.
“Joel is unbelievable,” says Siakam. “Because you know, the narrative with African players is we are all role players, right? And seeing a guy like Joel, he’s the franchise. It makes you dream and want to step out of the box a little bit.
“It’s interesting because I always say that we were unlucky a little bit with Hakeem and Dikembe because they came at a time of no internet, no social media, none of this hoopla that would have given them a bigger audience, especially on the continent,” says Ujiri. “So we missed out on some years there. And then came the generation of Luol and Serge (Ibaka) and (Luc) Mbah a Moute and Bismack (Biyombo).
“They took it to a certain point and now, who’s next? Who’s next is Embiid, and I would add maybe Giannis Antetokounmpo (a first-gener- ation Greek immigrant of Nigerian parentage). And Pascal is trying to join him.”
Siakam will also need a jump shot, of course. He took 17 three-pointers in his two-year college career, seven in his rookie season, and then missed 103 of his 132 attempts last year before going 3-for-4 in the playoffs. Imagine if he could shoot.
“I got to get comfortable with it, obviously,” says Siakam. “And I always felt like my shot is great, my mechanics aren’t broken, I think. So (most important for me) is confidence, just being out there playing. Because when I play free and I’m just playing, it’s unbelievable. And that’s the space that I have to put myself into. Just play. Just shoot the ball.
“Wherever that ceiling is, I’m going to get to that.”
Pascal Siakam didn’t want to be like his brothers until he decided to follow them. He doesn’t want to be like any other player, but hopes to follow in their footsteps, too. He is his own person, trying to find a path. He will be his own player, too, whatever that is. It’s tricky, finding a way to be free.