Raptors: Fred VanVleet’s tweet shows he wants Pascal Siakam to stay

Even though Pascal Siakam might be starting the season a bit later than everyone else due to his shoulder injury, he figures to be a major part of what the Toronto Raptors want to build around. Siakam, Fred VanVleet, and Scottie Barnes all figure to be major components of Toronto’s offensive attack.

While Siakam is projected to be a star for Toronto, that hasn’t stopped teams from the Western Conference trying to poach him away from the Raptors. The Sacramento Kings have been after Siakam for a long time, and now even Golden State is getting in on the fun.

The Sacramento Bee reported that the Kings, Warriors, and Clippers are all “enamored” with the prospect of adding Siakam via trade. After weeks of seeing ceaseless Siakam rumors, VanVleet finally made his feelings known on Twitter.

VanVleet confirmed that he is also “enamored” with Siakam, as he is doing everything he can to convince Masai Ujiri to hold on to him. The Bee’s article already mentions that a trade of Siakam is “unlikely”, but with VanVleet’s support, it seems even less likely Siakam will be sent away.

Fred VanVleet doesn’t want the Raptors to trade Pascal Siakam.

Siakam averaged 21.4 points per game last year despite injuries and a COVID-19 positive test. In a season back in Toronto with less bad luck, a fully healthy Siakam should be back to playing like an All-NBA player, and VanVleet knows this.

Raptors GM Bobby Webster has also hinted that neither of these two players are for sale, as he envisions a core of Barnes, OG Anunoby, VanVleet, and Pascal leading this team for the next decade.

Trading Siakam just because of the Barnes selection, like Kendrick Perkins suggested on draft night, would be both an egregious miscalculation of Pascal’s value and a misjudgment of Barnes’ skillset.

Sacramento is unwilling to part with De’Aaron Fox in a trade, Golden State would likely send back an uninspiring package headline by another wing scorer in Andrew Wiggins, and the Clippers lack both the assets and draft capital to even construct a feasible offer. It looks like Siakam is going to stay.

The rest of the NBA must have some short-term memory loss, because a somewhat downs season despite a tidal wave of injuries and bad luck has apparently wrecked Siakam’s value. he is one of the best power forwards in the league and worthy of being Toronto’s franchise player.

VanVleet, like Raptors fans all across the globe, knows the potential that a Siakam-led core has.