One of the trickle-down benefits of the Serge Ibaka acquisition is about to be realized: Rookie Pascal Siakam can return to a normal development plan.
Siakam was one of three players the Toronto Raptors assigned to Raptors 905 of the D-League on Tuesday. The No. 27 pick this year, Siakam has been forced into a large role earlier than anticipated, a necessity of the team’s injuries at the power forward position. Originally pegged to be the fifth or sixth big man in the rotation, Siakam instead became the team’s opening night starting power forward, ultimately starting 38 games and making 48 appearances overall.
Siakam’s energy is infectious, and his defensive potential obvious, but asking a rookie to play such a big role for a pseudo-contender isn’t exactly fair. Despite Siakam’s best efforts, the Raptors struggled while he was on the court, and his pairing with Jonas Valanciunas proved untenable. Overall, the Raptors have been 11.3 points per-100 possessions worse when Siakam’s on the floor. In 16.8 minutes, Siakam’s averaged 4.4 points on 50.3-percent shooting, chipping in 3.5 rebounds and 0.9 blocks.
Again, it’s not on Siakam that the required experiment with him seeing heavy run wasn’t an abject success. He works his tail off and could always be counted on for high-octane minutes. He’s going to be a quality defender once he figures out the nuances of NBA defense and the game slows down a bit. His range has improved since draft time. But again, late-first round picks aren’t normally counted on to start for 56-win teams for a reason.
Letting Siakam continue to work on his game with the 905 is a nice development for his long-term outlook. NBA minutes are great, but he’ll be able to work on a lot more at the D-League level, get more consistent minutes, and catch up to the game at a more deliberate pace. The 905 have done wonders for other Raptors prospects over the last two years, and in no way should this be looked at as a demotion for the freshman – this was always the most logical plan for him, the team was just forced by injuries to change course.
Joining him with the 905 will be Fred VanVleet and Bruno Caboclo. With the return of Delon Wright, VanVleet is now the No. 4 point guard, and he’ll get the chance to continue to show he’s ready for more than D-League action (he is). Caboclo, meanwhile, will likely spend the bulk of the season from here with the 905. He’s shown tremendous defensive progress this year, and while the offense has seriously plateaued, the defensive development is probably more encouraging than the offense is discouraging.
The 905 play at the Hershey Centre in Mississauga on Thursday, then hit the road for a game Saturday. They also have four games next week. So the prospects will have plenty of opportunity to knock any rust off and work on their games as the team comes out of the All-Star break.
