The Toronto Raptors 2020-21 season is finally coming to an end with a small handful of games remaining on their schedule.
The 2021 season, as we all know, really hasn’t been the best of seasons for this franchise as they were forced to play their “home” games down in Tampa. Essentially, they played 72 road games, which is absolutely ridiculous. The team was also hit with the injury bug as well, and COVID-19 ravaged this squad.
The season was basically a disaster since the opening tip in game one of the season against the New Orleans Pelicans, when they lost that game 113-99 and they really never found their footing after that “home” loss.
With that being said, although it was a very stressful, annoying and ugly season for the Toronto Raptors, let’s take a look at who deserves to win what award for this team with their play during the regular season this year.
For the first time in eight seasons, the Raptors have been eliminated from playoff contention. pic.twitter.com/uflo0fuBEy
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) May 11, 2021
Which Toronto Raptors players won team awards last season?
MVP: Pascal Siakam
To be honest with you, this one was pretty hard to pick because it could’ve gone to three different players in my opinion. For the three potential candidates for the Raptors MVP award this season, there really wasn’t one player out of the small handful that jumps out to me as a player who elevated his game tremendously this season compared to last season.
However, I’m picking Pascal Siakam, and he’s had a pretty good season nonetheless for this Raptors team. He’s averaging north of 20 points per game for the second straight season and despite being inconsistent at times this season, Siakam has ultimately put together a solid season given the current circumstances with the Raptors in Tampa.
He’s also improved his playmaking ability a ton this season compared to seasons past, with him dishing out the ball very often for a big man that plays the four and sometimes the five when they’re going small ball.
Pascal Siakam is improving for the Toronto Raptors.
With that added ability, Siakam made his offensive game even better, however, the only thing offensively he’s struggled with is his three-point shooting as it’s been downright terrible since the start of the season.
This season he is currently averaging 21.4 points per game, 7.2 rebounds per game, and 4.5 assists per game. On the defensive side of the ball, he’s averaging 1.1 steals per game and 0.7 blocks per game.
The reasoning behind me choosing Siakam as the MVP this season for the Toronto Raptors is because he ranks top three in points, rebounds and assists per game while shooting the ball pretty good from the field too, besides his shooting from three because we all know it really hasn’t been there all season long.
Other than that flaw, he’s had a pretty good season despite the circumstances this team has been faced with since the very start of the 2021 season.