Toronto Raptors: Whose stock is rising, Norman Powell states his case

Pascal Siakam

If you didn’t know by now: Pascal Siakam is really good at basketball. Like, really good at basketball. He’s getting all the plaudits for the improvements he’s made to his game and rightly so. Siakam has been one of the 30 best players in the league this season.

This week was a timely reminder of that statement. He averaged 20.3 points, 5.6 rebounds, and three assists in three contests this week. On top of that, Siakam got his three-point shooting back on track.

After shooting 11-percent from three across his last five games, Siakam shot 75-percent this week. Admittedly, he didn’t attempt a three-pointer against the Bulls but like all the starters, he played limited minutes.

A small slight against Siakam is that he’s turned the ball over 19 times in his last four games. That’ll happen from time to time in his development as a playmaker, he’s still only averaging 1.9 turnovers per game, but it’s only fair to put it out there.

As a scorer, Siakam has become a dangerous weapon when driving to the rim. He’s able to contort his body in different directions so quickly, using his speed and size to navigate his way to the rim at will.

In the clip above, he gets a mismatch against Shaquille Harrison in the post. Harrison tries to overexert himself in an attempt to hold Siakam off, and Pascal doesn’t even need to feign direction, he just drops his shoulder too fast for Harrison and drives into the empty paint for the layup.

The evolution of a scorer before our very eyes.