Toronto Raptors: Three ways Pascal Siakam has improved this season

On the heels of a life-changing sophomore season with the Toronto Raptors, Pascal Siakam continues to rise up the ranks of the NBA’s elite. What are some key improvements he’s made to his game following last season’s success?

In the wake of Kawhi Leonard‘s departure, some in the basketball world figured the Toronto Raptors would fall from the top of the Eastern Conference. They thought the defending champs would be fighting on the fringe of the playoffs, and that this team was a seven-seed in the waiting. However, the evolution of Pascal Siakam has changed those expectations, at least to this point in the season. Sure, repeating will take some kind of effort from Canada’s team, but winning another Larry O.B. is not, as they say, impossible.

The emergence of Siakam is the main reason Toronto’s place among the Eastern Conference’s elite is safe. Through seven games this season, the third-year pro is averaging 25.6 points, 9.1 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game while shooting 54-percent from 2-point range and 39-percent from 3-point range. He’s also been automatic from the free-throw line, converting on 33 of his first 35 attempts.

Fresh off signing a $130 million dollar extension that will keep No. 43 in Toronto through the 2023-24 season, Siakam’s game has shown little-to-no signs of plateauing so far this year. Through the first seven games of 2019-2020, it seems absolutely foolish to put a finite ceiling on the 25-year-old Cameroonian’s game. It’s a bit of a cliché, but the sky is the limit for Pascal Siakam.

There will be nights, both this year and in the ones to come, where Siakam’s game will give fans and coaches headaches. He has committed a healthy dose of fouls already this season, partially because head coach Nick Nurse has not been shy to challenge his best player, routinely giving Siakam the toughest defensive assignment, on top of asking him to be Toronto’s main weapon on offence. With great power comes great responsibility.

If Toronto is to win a title without Kawhi Leonard, Pascal Siakam, as good as he was a season ago, needs to be even better this year. Can he be the same tier player as Leonard? It’s a tough goal, but the early signs suggest he has a chance to evolve into a similar type of superstar. Check out Siakam’s 2019-20 stats (small sample disclaimer) versus Leonard’s 2016-17 numbers, both coming when each player was 25-years-old.

The numbers tell will tell you, it’s not so crazy, right? It never hurts to dream big, which is something nobody needs to tell Pascal Siakam, who’s atop the NBA after picking up the sport at 16 years old. Just nine years into his basketball experience, what improvements are we currently seeing from Toronto’s 130-million-dollar man?

Passing

Before we get to drooling over Siakam’s ever-expanding arsenal of shots, I want to shed light on an area of his game that has seen a noticeable uptick this season: his passing. The easiest way to see that improving skillset? A huge increase in assists percentage.

For his career, Siakam has assisted on 12.5-percent of the shots taken by teammates. However, that number through six games in 2019-20 sits close to 20 percent (19.5).

Operating at a usage rate exceeding 30 (30.6), Siakam has the ball in his hands a lot when Toronto is on offence, and he’s been effective at creating not only for himself but also for his teammates. He’s also seen an increase in turnovers, coughing it up 3.1 times per game compared to 1.9 in 2018-19. However, Siakam’s turnover percentage this season remains virtually the same as it was a year ago, indicating that is a result of having the ball more, rather than sloppiness.

After a recent game, Siakam spoke about the challenges of being “the man” for the defending champs:

Part of being a great leader involves elevating those around you — up to this point in his career, Siakam hasn’t really been asked to create for his teammates. He dabbled as an initiator of the offense last season and certainly found teammates when they were open. But it wasn’t a top priority for Siakam.

This year, however, opposing defences are paying far more attention to him than they did a year ago. With Leonard gone, he’s the unquestioned number one guy, and not having Leonard around has forced No. 43 to not only have to evolve as a scorer in clutch situations but also involving his teammates throughout the game.

Seven games in, Siakam has not only done an admirable job of creating his own offence but has also ensured his teammates are able to benefit from the collective gaze of opposing defenders he receives on a nightly basis.

More Shot Variety

As I alluded to on the previous slide, Siakam has seen his role increase exponentially this season. Last year, Siakam’s usage rate was just over 20 percent (20.8). In 2019-20, it has increased to 30.6. Few players in the NBA see that type of usage uptick in just one offseason, and the increased role has forced Siakam to expand the way he looks to score on opposing defences, including hitting DEEP threes.

A season ago, 68-percent of Siakam’s attempts from three came from the corner. This year, that number has dropped to 25-percent, an indication that Siakam is taking (and making) more difficult 3-point shots. Siakam shot just 27-percent of his above-the-break 3s last year; he’s making 44-percent this season.

Another important evolution we’ve seen in Siakam’s game has been more mid-range attempts. According to cleaningtheglass, Siakam is attempting 9-percent of his looks from the “long mid-range.” That ranks in the 70th percentile among all big men. Compare that to 2018-2019, when he attempted just 2-percent of his looks from that area.

Watching Siakam this season, it’s clear that his offensive game continues to grow and expand with each passing game. Remember, we’re talking about somebody who has less than 10 years of experience playing the game of basketball. Siakam’s game still has the potential to grow leaps and bounds from where it is today.

Working towards sustained offensive success takes time and talent, both of which remain on Siakam’s side. His 3-point shot has improved exponentially over the past two years and is the key to unlocking his full potential as an offensive superstar. If he can improve that and his scoring ability within the arc, there’s no reason he can’t be one of the top scorers in the NBA.

Leadership

The third area of Siakam’s game that has noticeably improved is his ability to be a leader, something I’ve talked about a fair bit already in this piece. He remains far from a finished product, but it’s already evident that Siakam relishes the opportunity to be the main man on an NBA roster.

On top of growing as both a playmaker and a scorer on the floor, Siakam has been more involved on the glass this season, averaging 9.1 boards per game in six appearances. Siakam’s rebounding percentage to date is 13.8, more than two entire percentage points higher than his career mark of 11.9. As we came to learn a year ago, “Board Man Gets Paid”.

Good leaders lead by example across all areas of the game, not just scoring, and Siakam has consistently shown a willingness to do that in the season’s early stages, albeit with mixed results at times. In Toronto’s loss against the Milwaukee Bucks, Siakam tried to impose his defensive will against Giannis Antetokounmpo and ended up fouling out. Live and learn.

Overall, it’s hard to take issue with anything we’ve seen from Spicy-P in the infancy stages of the 2019-20 season. There is noticeably more variety to his offensive game and, on defence, besides some early season foul trouble, Siakam has done a good job slowing down whoever he’s matched up with. Sure, he struggled a big against the Bucks; he’s far from the first player to have a hard time with Antetokounmpo. As a whole, Siakam has been as good as even the highest expectations this season.

Not lacking for spice by any metric, expect Pascal Siakam’s game to get even spicier as the calendar turns to 2020.