Pascal Siakam has often been featured as a primary or secondary ball handler, at times been seen as a post hub, an isolation scorer, a bailout guy at the end of the shot clock. The data suggests he’s even really good at some of this stuff. Better individually than anyone else on his team. But there’s a very strong reason that modern offenses are leaning away from the post up, and while it takes a very special set of skills to do it.
So why can Luka Doncic, Kevin Durant, Shai Gilgeous Alexander and Michael Jordan do it and Pascal Siakam can’t?
#Raptors #Mavericks
25 Comments
Why does darko allow this?
This team is too in love with Pascal. I have trouble believing they’ll ever trade him or demote him to role player. All anyone sees are his 20+ points or 30+ points against mid teams.
I wanna see footage of this guy hooping hahah,, everyone in the Toronto "media" is trash themselves at ball…..you, will Lou will and his cohosts including Blake Murphy.
Good analysis of how Scottie compromises defenses.
I kinda took his comment as a way of saying he’s not going to buy into Darko’s 0.5 second offence
Unless this team makes some wholesale changes they are and will not be contenders period…..the teams ahead of them are just too good
this is a convincing breakdown. it's disappointing Pascal has failed to adapt. he's taking threes and missing but it's more so the lackadaisical approach on both ends of the floor that's upsetting. bobby webster once mentioned the front office wants all their players to be like Pascal ie to do it all on the floor. it's a shame how that player profile no longer applies to Pascal. the concern is we've seen him be an incredible scorer for for the past 4-5 years even though it's not the best offence that would result in becoming contenders. the fan base hasn't' seen enough of an alternative.
You can have one non-3 pt shooter on the floor. Having 2 or 3 complicates things. The whole discussion around efficient vs inefficient shots is a lot more nuanced.
Well Well , I guess this season is the Pascal Hate Show.
Great analysis! This is why Pascal struggles in the playoffs
Question do you genuinely think Scottie has anything that can generate more points than a Pascal post up currently? Siakam had his way with Jrue/White/Tatum/Brown in the post yesterday probably the leagues best collection of wing defenders Scottie got anything that’s putting up points against them?
The majority of raptor fans needs to watch this video until the information is burned into their brains.
Everyone can see the obvious except Toronto fans
Because Siakam has a poor face up game, he resorts to spin moves often which takes up too much room to execute and reduces space for everyone. I actually think the league is ripe for efficient post scorers to excel. There just isn't many right now.
Dennis shooting 3s at 37%. On this team I'll take that
Loved this and I feel badly about the rather ugly responses. One thing you didn't mention is that the Raptors organization is promoting Pascal over Scottie. Listen to Matt Devlin's responses to Pascal scoring versus his responses to Scottie scoring. That's a lot of propaganda for Pascal and it influences people. Scottie is the most talented player on the Raptors but you won't hear that from Matt. It worries me that an employee is saying this stuff because I think it represents what the team executive believes. As soon as the trade restrictive period ends this must be fixed.
If this requires cleaning out the executive; fine with me.
“Are you gonna build around Luka Doncic or are you gonna build around Kristaps Porzingis?”
Really puts it into perspective 😂
good analysis, iam a 90s style homer but this hit home well.
The key is what FO amd Coaches thinks
Maybe because Canada is still a ice hockey first market. Hence basketball knowledge is too behind for fans in general
Number one problem with Siakim post ups that you mentioned. Teams can turn that off against Siakim at will in a meaningful games or in the clutch this is why he struggles in clutch situations.
Pushed narratives on this team are so nasty in both directions. Scottie's developing himself into a 3 level scorer but apparently he doesnt work hard enough. Siakam's come back with the same skill for 3 season's now but he's the most hard working person they've ever seen. Nasty work by the Toronto mainstream media. Both these players put in the work, but one is working smarter and the media is propping up the other guy to insane levels. It's crazy.
You seem to think it is either or. It is the job of the coach to get them working together- not just hand the ball to Scorrie and forget about our best proven scorer who is one of the best Raps of all time- better than DeRozan. I'm not a Pascal fan boy but from the outside looking in you're think you were talking about the worst player in the league – he's an all NBA player – comparing him to Simmons is ludicrous. Sounds like you are hating- I know you like to be outside the standard narrative but this is so esoteric – we need to create more space for a terrible shooting team – the only time our offense hasn't been one of the worst in the league is when Saiakam is scoring. You've assumed that Scottie is going to be an above average 3 point shooter this early on – I don't think he is yet. You're talking like he is selfishly sabotaging the team – he over bought in and was passing up advantages and our offense was pathetic as a result. Scottie is a great player but so is Siakam. Sakamoto can't shoot so it is smart he is not looking for that shot.
Pascal will not go anywhere. I am one of those who have been hard and critical of Siakam's game. We have to understand that Pascal started playing basketball late. Where moving without the ball and spacing are some of the most basic fundamentals to do when you learn to play the game in mid and high schools, Pascal does not execute those naturally (unlike Gradey, for example). Even his defense stance is a bit sloppy at times: unstable feet shuffle, unnecessary hand reach which sometimes result in foul troubles. Visibly , Pascal lacks these skills. True, he has his weaknesses but he has tremendous strengths: his athleticism, and more importantly he is a true raptor and he is one of the top scorers in the team. He will "take a bullet "for the Raptors, metaphorically speaking. He loves Toronto and Canada. It's the coaching team's responsibility to figure out a workaround around Siakam. This isn't rocket science.
Problem is against certain matchups, Siakam is still the best they got. But we’ve seen the limits of that offence. If we hand the keys to Scottie it might be rough certain games. But he’ll get better over time.
this was a phenomenal breakdown.. in my 20 years of watching this team you’re the best raps content creator i’ve come across, super glad i found your channel a week or two ago