Pascal Siakam faced a startling first question on media day. He walked through Hotel X in full uniform and regalia, as is the custom of the day, and sat in front of collected media in a large glass room, television cameras trained on him. Such days are meant for easy soundbites and simple optimism, but our own Samson Folk had a real question on his mind.
“During the season, you led the NBA in isolations, and during the playoffs you doubled your pick-and-roll frequency,” he asked. “I’m curious how you see that affecting your role, and how different types of possessions might allow you to ascend to MVP-level status and All-NBA once again?”
To his credit, Siakam took the fairly complex question in stride. He was thoughtful and generous in his response, as he has become over time during his ascension to team star. He didn’t specifically mention running pick and rolls, but the concept behind such events animated his answer.
“It makes it more interesting, having the opportunity to have the basketball in your hands more and kind of command the game a little bit, control the game in a certain way,” he said.
“Something I really didn’t do in the past… Just having that opportunity with the basketball makes the game evolve to another level.”
This is, in many ways, the final frontier in Siakam’s evolutionary path. He was an overmatched starter then an energy big who ran in transition. Then he took a big leap to corner sniper, cutter, and quick-decision scorer during his Most Improved season. In 2019-20 and 2020-21 he took another leap to first-option star who dominated with his scoring. In 2021-22 he became about as unstoppable in single coverage as any player in basketball. He feasts in isolation and post ups. But manipulating the entire court during pick and rolls remains a possible area of growth for the superstar.
In many ways, the Raptors haven’t offered Siakam a parade of pick and rolls because it hasn’t been the best option. It is a nice end-of-game option, particularly with Fred VanVleet ghost screening for Siakam. And he massively increased his frequency in the playoffs, but it didn’t pay off with increased efficiency. Siakam was less efficient when finishing possessions as a pick-and-roll handler than either Scottie Barnes or VanVleet in 2021-22.
Part of that stems from the fact that Siakam is not the most dangerous pullup 3-point shooter. In the past, teams have defused his pick and rolls by switching, having the screener defender meeting him on the other side, and continuing on as normal. Switching formed the plurality of defensive approaches against him, and Siakam was not the most effective against switches.
That changed in preseason.
With the team hardly trying to win in preseason, Siakam didn’t get a huge number of touches in the pick and roll. But when he did, he showed real growth when facing switches.
I combed every Raptors’ preseason game for a pick and roll; they were few and far in between. Siakam initiated eight pick and rolls, and the Raptors scored 11 points as a result. For those keeping score at home, that averages out to 1.4 points per chance — significantly higher than anyone’s mark last regular season, but on a volume so low that it means nothing.
Siakam faced switches on six of those picks. Until he becomes a pullup shooter who can step back behind the arc and punish switches with triples, this will be opponents’ primary weapon to defuse Siakam’s pick and rolls. He used the opportunity to, in general, slow down, put his back to the basket, and push his new defender all the way under the hoop. His bruising style proved to be unstoppable.
“It’s a pretty good answer [to the switch],” said Nick Nurse of Siakam’s post ups. “It’s gonna be an answer until they double that, and then you’ve got to make the next answer. I think definitely we’ve got to take advantage of some of our size. Say, we don’t have a center persay in the starting lineup, but we usually do have a size matchup somewhere along the line at the wing.”
Every offensive possession for Siakam is an expansive decision-making tree. If X gets taken away, go to Y. If Y gets taken away, go to N. The alphabet loses its utility though because he has more than 26 options in the chamber. The player who had been pegged as a one-trick pony actually has more in his bag than nearly every player in the NBA. The lack of a 3-point shot is both what makes people label him as bag-less and what urges the development of creative counters. Fewer than five players his size navigate the middle of the court with a live dribble better than he does. Patient, probing, reactive, and proactive all at once.
Siakam draws doubles, makes the passing read when it’s available, but escapes the double to re-engage his primary defender when it isn’t. He also moves players without elite strength because of his shiftiness. Defenders are scared to dig their heels in and fight for a spot on the floor because Siakam will happily and deftly vacate the premises. If you lean into Siakam to hold him up, he feels where your weight is and transfers his elsewhere. Simply put, he’s a more talented mover than players his size and bigger. The big guys? He doesn’t move them back by bashing into them, he walks them back like he’s holding them at gunpoint. Siakam forces the issue, taking space from players until he’s at the rim or help arrives. He can sink the strong- or weak-side of the defense depending on who he wants to pick out, and he made nearly 50 percent of his shots in the 4-14 foot range. The spin move to his right is feared, so naturally he was able to leverage that into over 70 left-handed layups last season. The middle of the court is an instrument to leverage his talents, and the pick and roll is a bullet train to that location.
“The way we play is all about mismatch,” explained Precious Achiuwa. “If I’m running a pick and roll with Pascal, most of the time it’s because whoever is guarding me is a mismatch for him and he has an advantage. So [I’m] trying to create that mismatch where he can attack.”
When smalls switch onto Siakam, he moves them with the back down. When bigs switch onto Siakam, he attacks angles and gets to the rim with the face up.
Siakam is already equipped to handle virtually any pick-and-roll defensive approach other than the switch. If teams go over, he can dance around big defenders by keeping his momentum hidden and euro or spin in any direction he so chooses. He’s a master of attacking lead feet and creating angles out of thin air. If teams go under, he can splash open, on-balance midrange jumpers forever. If teams ice, he can attack those unnatural angles created by denying him the screen and hit the paint at will. If teams go over (why?), he is so big that he can put his trailing defender in jail and keep him out of the play.
“Basically just get his guy to get into a trail position so he can turn the corner,” said Thad Young about the best way to help Siakam as his screener. “We know Pascal is really good at turning corners and really good at getting downhill and either, if he’s going left, getting to the spin back to the right, or if he’s going right getting all the way downhill and just getting his floater up. Or just stopping and pulling up and getting a wide-open jumper.
“Really [I’m] just trying to get him to be able to turn the corner.”
Siakam has also become exquisite about engaging multiple defenders and kicking the ball to open space so that it can eventually funnel to orbiting shooters. They don’t always hit the shot, but when the double comes, Siakam knows where the ball is supposed to go to hurt the defense most. He takes the extra dribble to open as much space as possible.
Switches in some ways derailed Siakam’s pick-and-roll attack in prior seasons, much like the shift derailed Ryan Howard’s career. The margins are that thin at the highest level of competition. But if Siakam can pound switches into the dust with immaculate skill and power in the post, pick and rolls will open up the entire court for him. It’s a simple way to flow into the aspects of the game he likes so well, isolations and post ups — and against easier matchups, besides. Starting those plays in the pick and roll add elements of dynamism to rote, static attacks.
But attacking switches wasn’t the only strength of Siakam’s game in the pick and roll. He showed some skill in feeding the big in the 4-5 pick and roll. Siakam has always been a good-bordering-on-great passer — or at least for the past few seasons. But attacking passes like an interior pick-and-roll feed to his big while on the move is a relatively new approach. His pick-and-roll assists have usually manifested in kickout passes to shooters on the drive or occasional dump-offs to cutters.
Certainly, Siakam has shown the ability to feed his screener for easy points in the past. But even when finding success there, he often took his time in making the decision, reversing his momentum once or twice to make choices.
This preseason past, his process was based on rapidity. He made immediate choices, and the Raptors benefited.
“I feel like you just got to hit the body of the defender,” said Koloko of how to help his countryman in the pick and roll. “When you hit the body of the defender, now the big has gotta make a choice. Either he’s got to guard the ball more or stay with the big man. It gives Pascal a choice, either he can drive it or he has me in case I’m open. Just try to hit the big defender, basically.”
In addition to Siakam’s tweaked approach was a structural shift as well. Out of Siakam’s eight pick and rolls in preseason, five took place with an empty corner on the strong side, scoring nine points. Usually, having both corners filled is helpful across the NBA. But because Siakam is not the best pullup shooter, and his off-ball players often aren’t the best catch-and-shoot shooters, it’s in Toronto’s best interest to prioritize the rim rather than a triple during Siakam’s forays into the pick-and-roll game. Keeping as few defenders as close to the ball helps accomplish that. It opens up Siakam’s passing lane to the roller or driving lane to the rim.
And if Siakam chooses to slow it down and turn a switch into a postup, it means he has as much time as possible to move his defender under the hoop before the help arrives. The Boston Celtics discovered the downside of waiting to help when they were forced to foul Siakam during a triple team after he moved Derrick White approximately 10 feet in 3 seconds.
Ultimately, Siakam is at his best as a scorer. Some of that is due to his teammates’ limited ability to score, so unless Siakam spoon feeds layups, the team’s offense will usually benefit the most if Siakam himself is the one shooting. We saw that in preseason, as well, with Siakam shooting 100 percent in the three pick and rolls he finished with a shot. He created plenty of good looks for teammates, including an open corner triple for Scottie Barnes that he airballed; Siakam-led pick and rolls are best for Toronto when they create open shots for Siakam himself.
This is the control about which Siakam opined to start media day. Running pick and rolls does give him more control of the floor by opening lanes and angles that are harder to create when attacking in isolation. Pick and rolls complicate the floor, asking defenders to make choices, which benefits Siakam. His individual game evolves to the next level. And when the Raptors manipulate the floor with empty corners or other tricks, it can help his teammates too. But the last frontier is for the Raptors to benefit the most when Siakam passes; for that, perhaps the team will need to add more shooting to capitalize on any decision defenders might make.
More than anything, though, what Siakam needs is opportunity. Last season, he finished just under three possessions per game with a shot or turnover as a pick-and-roll handler. The league leaders used three or four times more than that. By my count Siakam ran two pick-and-rolls per game in preseason (not just ending the possession, but also initiating them). Toronto’s offense could serve to create more advantages, and Siakam’s pick-and-roll attacks are a simple way to bend defenses and take advantage of whatever response they muster. He’s improving at punishing any response, including switches. For Toronto to benefit most, Siakam will simply need the ball in his hands in more of those dynamic plays and fewer static postups and isolations. That, more than anything, is how he can “evolve to another level.”
