3 Toronto Raptors ESPN severely underrated in Top 100 rankings

1. Pascal Siakam (30)

Every “Pascal Siakam is underrated” article written since 2018 has some validity to this day. Siakam was an All-NBA performer for the second time in his career, which is the kind of thing that usually puts you in a very elite club across the NBA. For Pascal, he remains outside the top 25.

Brandon Ingram helped the Pelicans make the playoffs, but is it fair to give a No. 8 seed’s best player without All-NBA a slot higher than a No. 5 seed with that adulation? Jaylen Brown is magnificent, as his Zach LaVine, but are they superior players when compared to Toronto’s unquestioned star?

Pascal Siakam is the leader of the Toronto Raptors.

At the risk of sounding like the aggrieved Raptors homer, how many times have you seen someone average 23.9 points, 8.7 rebounds, and 5.8 assists per game in the course of four months, and still get passed by on hypothetical power rankings by players who didn’t make All-NBA?

VanVleet is an All-Star, and Barnes is the future, but there is no question who this team’s most impactful and dominant player is at the moment. Kyle Lowry not only passed the team leader torch to Siakam, but he also handed him the mantle of “player most likely to be underrated by the media despite All-NBA seasons.”