Nick Nurse and the Toronto Raptors had to extinguish a five-alarm fire during their sluggish start to the season. Power forward Pascal Siakam, expected to take a step forward, couldn’t buy a basket for the first chunk of games, as his shooting percentages were down across the board. Luckily for Siakam and the Raptors, the Cameroonian stud has turned things around.
Siakam, who is averaging 19.2 points while setting new career-highs in rebounds (7.9) and assists (4.6) per game in 2020-21, is averaging 24.7 points over his last three games, two of which were 30-point outbursts in a loss against the Sacramento Kings and a win against the Orlando Magic that included a thunderous posterization of Aaron Gordon.
Early in the season, Siakam was chucking the ball as soon as it ended up in his hands. However, over the last few games, Nurse has instructed Siakam, who is shooting just 23 percent from three-point range, to stay in the paint and go to work in the post. Naturally, Nurse’s adjustment has Siakam playing his best offensive ball of the season.
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Toronto Raptors star Pascal Siakam has been dominating in the paint
Siakam might’ve shot six threes per game last year, but that isn’t the best part of his offensive package, as evidenced by his 32 percent career clip from beyond the arc. With Siakam struggling from deep, Nurse told him to get his 6-9 frame down in the low post, and that philosophy change has both player and team thriving.
Siakam might not be the most muscular big in the world, but he possesses uncommon quickness and ball-handling ability for someone his size. Siakam using his flexibility and speed to blow by opposing bigs while showing off his soft touch around the basket has made Toronto’s offense much more varied. Siakam, Aron Baynes, and Chris Boucher are all starting to mesh well together.
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Siakam has been playing in a role not that dissimilar to what Marc Gasol did last season. As evidenced by his career-high assist totals and eight distributions during Fred VanVleet’s record-breaking 54-point night, Siakam is proving to all the haters that his offensive game is more complex than just spot-up shooting and spinning.
In addition to his play on the offensive end, Siakam, in tandem with Baynes, have beefed up Toronto’s interior defense. Going against frontcourt studs like Gordon and Nikola Vucevic is no easy task, but the former Dunk Contest star and All-Star both struggled against Siakam and the Raptors’ big man rotation for the last few nights.
If the Raptors want to get serious about making a postseason run this year, they can’t just rely on VanVleet to challenge the franchise scoring record every single night. With Siakam staying in his newfound role, Toronto cold craft a more balanced offensive attack that helps separate them from the rest of the Eastern Conference playoff hopefuls.
Raptors: Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan salute Fred VanVleet after 54-point night
DeMar DeRozan gave Fred VanVleet his props after the former Wichita State star broke his Toronto Raptors single-game scoring record, as did Kyle Lowry