Siakam has big shoes to fill in the playoffs
With Leonard gone, pressure will increase on Raps’ new top dog Pascal Siakam had a great season for Toronto. Can that continue into the playoffs?
The time has come for Pascal Siakam to show once again that he’s up to a significant challenge.
With the NBA playoffs approaching, and the resumption of the interrupted season just a few days away, Siakam will once again have to prove he’s able to handle the responsibility the Raptors will give him.
He did it through the first 64 games of the pandemic-suspended season, but these are new and strange times and the coming playoffs are an entirely different beast he’s going to have to slay.
“I think the biggest positive is … he’s been really good down the stretch, either making the shot or making the zip-out to somebody else who’s wide open to make the shot,” coach Nick Nurse said of Siakam this week. “Again, that’s another level up you’ve got to go (to).
“Can you do it consistently, first of all, in the regular season, and then can you do it kind of consistently late in games — because that’s the job of being the No. 1 option — and I think he’s handled it great.”
Nurse was speaking in the past tense because that’s the only baseline test Siakam has had to face, and he did it successfully in the games he played before the season went on hiatus in March.
But this is new, the playoffs are new, the attention the 26-yearold will attract will be entirely new. He is going to be the focal point for the Raptors once they begin to defend their championship, and it will be different.
“I think the goal for us as a team, not just me, is to just peak at the right time,” Siakam said. “That’s what I’m focused on and continue to work gradually toward: being the best, or playing my best basketball, when it matters the most.
“So, it’s going to be a process and we’re just learning every day, getting better.”
History suggests he’ll be more than capable of carrying the load. Everything the Raptors have needed him to do, he’s done. He morphed from an intriguing rookie prospect into a delightful and vital part of a championship team. And, without the crutch of Kawhi Leonard this season, he continued his ascent to among the top dozen or so players in the NBA.
Being the guy every opponent game-planned to stop, Siakam averaged 23.6 points, shot 51per cent from two-point range and 36 per cent from three and took almost every big shot in every close game, a role that true No. 1 options get and relish.
His playmaking and decisionmaking improved — he averaged 3.6 assists and was seldom ball-stopped on offence — and he was just a better player overall as the top dog in 2019-20 than as a second or third option on the ’18-19 Leonard-based Raptors. “Understanding that you’re going to get attention, and know how to be aggressive, and know how to defer, it’s something that I’m learning and continue to get better at,” he said. “It’s an exciting time, just working every day, trying to improve. And seeing things that defences are going to throw at me and adjust, you know, based on that.”
It will be new primarily because Leonard is not going to be there to take the big shots, garner the bulk of the attention and be the guy the opponent is most wary of. Siakam averaged 19 points per game in 24 playoff games last spring and was a huge part of the championship run, but he wasn’t the part like he is now.
“I would be the first to admit they were deferring to Kawhi a lot in the playoffs, or whenever, and rightly so when you’ve got a closer like that,” Nurse said.
It will likely help Siakam that the Raptors offence can be, at times, egalitarian. Teammates such as Kyle Lowry, Fred VanVleet, Norm Powell, Serge Ibaka and Marc Gasol have proven capable of taking over playoff games or series and they will help Siakam greatly.
But, when it comes down to it, he’s the guy everyone will look to and he’ll have to perform. His personality will help — nothing seems to faze him — but the responsibility could be overwhelming.
“Obviously, the playoffs is more specific in terms of preparation, and teams are going to be ready with different things,” Siakam said early in the Raptors’ second training camp. “I think I’m just going to take it a day at a time, and obviously I know kind of like the actions I’m involved in and how teams usually guard me. Definitely working on those things, and making sure I’m ready to adapt to any situations.”