pascal siakam was second best raps player on the championship team, but its worth noting that raps were a stacked team lead by kawhi, while the blazers wouldnt be stacked like the raps were if we get siakam, unless we make more moves and dame isnt as good as kawhi, so siakam probably wouldnt be ideal second option if you dont have dominant 1st option and/or a stacked team... blazers would need nurk (first and foremost) & powell to take a leap in order for us to become the better team, but also add some nice bench pieces and hope that simons & little improve pascal siakam is a better scorer than ben simmons, but thats only thing hes better at, simmons is a better defender (siakam is great, all-nba defender himself, but simmons is elite defender), better playmaker & slightly better rebounder and id take simmons if nurk & powell can become legit scoring options, but as of now, theyre not, so id take siakam as hes proven scoring option on a championship team and nurk & powell arent if dame was dominant as kawhi & giannis are, id probably go with simmons, but we need more scoring and thats why siakam makes more sense than simmons
I hope you don't mind but I don't think I can keep this short. On March 24, Shams Charania reported that Pascal Siakam had been fined $50,000 for arguing with coach Nurse in the locker room. The Raptors denied that Siakam had been fined but did not deny that the argument took place. Siakam had been benched in the fourth quarter in a loss to the Cavaliers (Toronto's ninth consecutive) and was rumoured to be unhappy about that and generally displeased with being blamed for Toronto's post-Kawhi struggles. Gotta go further back in time a little before continuing on. Right after winning the Larry OB Kawhi Leonard and his team (Jeremy Castleberry, Uncle Dennis, maybe others) decided that the Raptors weren't strong enough to repeat. Leonard approached the Raptors about acquiring Paul George from the Thunder. Seeing what Sam Presti squeezed out of the Clippers you've got to assume the deal would've centred around Siakam, Fred VanVleet, and first round picks. Even if they made the deal they would still not be guaranteed that Leonard would re-sign and could make more demands (apparently Leonard's team thought the PG trade was a good starting point only and expected more). Raptors GM Bobby Webster and PBO Masai Ujiri decided to max-out Siakam and keep him and try to sell Leonard on the team improving internally. Leonard bailed but said Toronto were in heavy consideration, more so than the Lakers. Siakam had a great fourth season and was nearly a consensus All-Star starter for the East. Nobody was complaining about him making $30MM that season. (Important to note that Siakam started playing competitive basketball when he was like eighteen! You can fairly take a few years off his career and picture him as more like a fourth-year player than a sixth-year player). Then the playoffs happened. Toronto swept Brooklyn and faced Boston in the second round. It was the first time he played in a series against a good team that schemed against him specifically. Siakam bombed that series, playing hard defence but averaging 15ppg on .382/.125 shooting. The series went to seven games because Toronto was still really deep and experienced and the thought was if Siakam was just slightly better they would've made the third round. This performance brought out a lot of critics of Siakam who started questioning whether he could be the guy. If you compare Siakam's 2019 All-Star season to his 2020 "disappointing" season you'll see he actually improved in several areas (2P%, relied less on his 3PA, increased his free throws per, moved up to nearly 5APG) but didn't show the leaps-and-bounds year-over-year improvement he had over the previous two seasons. Toronto struggled in Tampa, lost more key players, and went into retooling. Siakam still got slandered online for not being what fans wanted him to be. Is Siakam unhappy now? We don't know. When you lose nine straight and the ninth comes against a shit-tier Cavs team, you WANT your star player to be fuming. To me this isn't indicative of an unhappy player in the broader sense. He hasn't come out and said anything like he wants to be gone. Kendrick Perkins said on draft night that the drafting of Barnes meant Siakam was leaving. For starters, Perk is a hot take artist and kind of an idiot, but he is especially supportive of Toronto (like Charles Barkley seems to be) so who knows what his M.O. was. I think he was just referring to the story about the fine and taking that to mean Siakam wants out/hates Nurse. I think that's a stretch. Toronto's been good to Siakam and Barnes looks to be a multi-positional player like Draymond Green or Ben Simmons. I don't think he is a power forward to replace Siakam. He can play with him. But he's kind of a project too so I don't think it matters much this year what position he plays. Trading McCollum for Siakam makes sense for Portland. They probably made an offer. Siakam running the floor with Lillard would be sweet. To me it makes no sense for Toronto. McCollum is going to be 30-years old this season (doesn't fit the core), he's a smallish guard (doesn't fit the type), and he's a Khris Middleton type complimentary star. Complimentary to who? This trade would make him our first option. It also stands to reason that re-signing GTJ for $17MM per year (trending that way) AND trading for McCollum is nonsensical. We DO need scoring but this move is an expensive and temporary way to address it IMHO. But what do I know?
I disagree on your Dame take. While Dame isn't in the same league defensively as Kawhi, he's a better all around offensive talent than Leonard. Dame's a better leader, distributor, and closer. Leonard lucked out on that bouncy ball game winner.
Might have to be a 3 way trade. I think CJ's game would compliment Embiid's in Philly. CJ's game was upped at the beginning of last year. That foot injury at the hand of the lumox Capella changed that. He wasn't the same player after the injury, at either end.
Capella almost took out Giannis as well. Those big clod hoppers end up in dangerous areas around opposing players.
Well shit. Fischer just said the reason he wrote about the Siakam/CJ rumors was because it was something that was talked about by teams around the league, and the reason he wrote it was to basically definitively state that those talks have not gotten anywhere.
Yeah the more I think about it, Ujiri isn’t stupid. Why the hell would he trade us Siakam to build a young team around an aging McCollum who is basically just a scorer
well, if only he'd focus on the first 12 games of CJ's season like so many here are, he'd trade Siakam & Boucher for CJ and Jones
I agree with your overall post, but this one line made me pause: he's a smallish guard (doesn't fit the type) What type? I mean both Lowry, and VanVleet are smaller than CJ. (Flynn as well) I remember games in the finals when they played both together in crunch time (Instead of Green) And Nurse did use NP a lot at SF, so is he really opposed to small lineups? Don't crush our dreams Speeds
Only way CJ gets traded if Powell signd with us. Only way Powell would sign with us if he the starting SG. So I taking my clue if CJ stays or goes is off Powell goes or stays.
Lowry and FVV are both very good defensive players. Powell is a plus defender. Raptors just drafted three 6'5"+ point guards.
Whatever. Raptors just got a championship. They can play a bunch of guards for awhile. We need Siakam dammit.
He’s not good either. I’ve seen opposing PG’s abuse him quite a bit over the years. Doesn’t take away from how great he is. Defense just isn’t one of his strengths
if teams are offering Powell a 3-year/60M deal and Olshey offers a 3-year/80M deal, Powell would almost certainly take the money
The idea that Powell is a plus defender is wrong. He simply an average defender. His DBRM has been slightly negative the last few year. Looking at his raptor rating, it also has been slightly negative. With that being said, he can absolutely be a part of an elite defensive team, better than CJ. His ability to catch and shoot, cut to the rim, draw fouls is what make him a good fit next to dame. That fit would also be even better with an all star type forward
Kawhi is a 2 time defensive player of the year. The gap between Kawhi's defense and Lillards is massive. The gap between Lillard being a better offensive player than Kawhi is there, but nowhere near the gap they have on defense. Lets not forgot Kawhi averages 25+ ppg.
You are basing that conclusion on DBRM? Just watch him defend other guards. Hell his effort alone makes him above average. Most players wait until the 4th to even try....until the playoffs.
