The NBA, Ranked: #14 – Pascal Siakam – The Ringer
Siakam is a shape-shifting star capable of shining in any role his team needs from him. During Toronto’s championship run, he was a 3-and-D role player who could hit spot-up jumpers while making hard downhill drives, make smart cuts to the basket, and play with a high effort level on defense. Those foundational qualities remain, but in the years since earning a ring he’s built defining skills as a shot creator.
He can spin or knife his way into the paint, and he can also play with pace. If he locks a defender onto his back, he’ll patiently dribble into the paint to navigate into space for floaters or leaning layups. With defenses switching so many screens, the Raptors employ him as a mismatch hunter who can use his speed to get by slower-footed players or his power to plow through smaller defenders. At his size, with a slippery handle and emerging poise, he’s becoming even more potent scoring and playmaking in tight quarters near the rim.
Versatility is the name of the game for the Raptors. Siakam can facilitate out of pick-and-rolls and handoffs, either as the screener or ball handler. He isn’t an elite shooter, but he’s good enough to keep defenses honest and sometimes catch fire. The fact he’s reached this point is a testament to his work ethic. Siakam has come a long way from where he once was, and he still might not be done growing.
Difficult personnel decisions on the horizon for stumbling Raptors – Sportsnet
The opportunity to add via trade is approaching. Players that signed as free agents this past summer can be moved as of Dec. 15, although a smaller subset of those – which happens to include Raptors forward Chris Boucher – can’t be traded until Jan. 15. The trade deadline is Feb. 9.
League personnel I’ve spoken with feel like it could be a busy trade season because there are several teams that can convince themselves they could make a playoff run given how flat the league’s standings are. A whopping 21 teams are within six games of the .500 mark and only five teams – at this stage – look like they won’t be able to compete for a spot in the play-in tournament.
At the other end of the spectrum, the coming draft class is considered to be quite deep, even beyond Victor Wembanyama and Scoot Henderson, the potential franchise changers expected to go 1-2. As a result, there is considerable incentive for teams that are stuck in the middle or worse – looking at you, Chicago Bulls – to start divesting and start sinking.
No one is predicting a flood of deals come Thursday; chances are most of the decisions will be made closer to the deadline in February. But teams are positioning themselves, and yes teams are looking at Toronto as a club that could be active, given some of the holes on the roster and the ambition of the front office. Eyes are on them.
Internally, the Raptors are still very high on their core and believe that Fred VanVleet, Scottie Barnes – each of whom has struggled to varying degrees this season – along with O.G. Anunoby and Pascal Siakam (who have been outstanding), are a strong foundation for an elite team.
If they are sincere in their belief, the Raptors should be aggressive. They are a youthful team, but not young: VanVleet and Siakam each turn 29 this season. Why not attach some draft equity in a package to bring back players that can help them now? The hope was that Barnes would have more to offer sooner – and this season he still might – but in the meantime, supporting the team’s existing veterans would seem to make perfect sense.
No easy fix for struggling Raptors | TSN
If these Raptors are one dimensional, it’s by design. Over the second half of last season, they proved that they could win playing their game. So, instead of addressing their most glaring needs this past summer, team president Masai Ujiri and general manager Bobby Webster doubled down on their unconventional roster build, primarily consisting of 6-foot-8 and 6-foot-9 forwards. They opted against making significant changes to the core group and brought in a pair of complementary players – the 6-foot-8 Porter and the 6-foot-9 Juancho Hernangomez.
Outside of rookie second-rounder Christian Koloko – the lone Raptor to appear in all 27 games this season – they still don’t have a centre. They still don’t have reliable depth behind VanVleet and Gary Trent Jr. in the backcourt. And, most importantly, they still don’t have enough shooting on the floor.
There’s no easy fix. Anunoby – who, shooting aside, is having a fantastic season – will miss at least a week with a hip injury. While Porter won’t require surgery on the dislocated toe that’s sidelined him since mid-November, his return is about a month away. Precious Achiuwa, who made strides as a shooter last season, isn’t expected to get back from his sprained ankle until the new year. The hope is that VanVleet, who’s 12-for-56 from three over the last seven games, is due for some regression and that slumping sophomore Scottie Barnes can rediscover the improved shooting stroke he showed early in the season.
“I’ve got a lot of confidence in these guys,” Nurse said. “It is a tough moment right here. But I’ve got a lot of confidence in the staff, etc. We’ve got to get a little bit of our shooting back on the floor. We’ve lost a couple of good shooters that we’re counting on. And we’ve got to step in and make the plays, man, and I think that’ll boost the defence, that’ll boost energy for rebounding, However, it’s got to start the other way. It’s got to start with defence and rebounding, no matter what’s happening at the offensive end, we’ve got to give ourselves a chance, regardless of whether we’re going to be making them or not.”
As currently constructed, this team doesn’t have much room for error.
On Thursday, many of the players who signed contracts over the summer will become moveable, unofficially kicking off the start of trade season around the NBA. Generally, though, the market doesn’t open up until we get closer to the February 9 trade deadline.
Given how difficult it’s been to evaluate this Raptors team – they haven’t had their full nine-man rotation available in a single game this season – Ujiri and Webster could use the extra time to see what they’ve got. They’ll be watching closely and, at this point, it’s hard to rule anything out.
It’s tough to envision them doing anything too drastic. For starters, this front office prefers to do their heavy lifting in the off-season. But also, they believe in the core group and this style of play; they’ve made no secret of that. It’s going to take a lot more than a few bad losses for them to change course.
It’s worth noting that the Raptors had the exact same record, 13-14, through 27 games a year ago before going on to win 25 of 36 games to close out the season. While they currently sit in ninth, they’re only three games behind fourth-place Brooklyn, who they’ll host on Friday.
These next few weeks could go a long way in determining what their ceiling is and how they approach the trade deadline. Are they merely an average team or can they be more than that? Fortunately, 12 of their next 16 games come at home, where they’re 10-3. Unfortunately, their next 13 opponents are currently at or above. 500, beginning with one of the league’s early-season surprises, the 14-11 Sacramento Kings, who are in town on Wednesday.
“We’ve just got to take every opponent [seriously],” Siakam said. “Everybody thought we were supposed to win those two games [in Orlando] but it didn’t happen like that. You can’t just wish it’ll happen. You gotta do it.”
There’s no panic in the Raptors after weekend setback in Orlando | The Star
The surprising thing was how totally out of sorts Toronto looked in consecutive losses in Orlando. Nothing worked and, no matter the level of the opposition, if nothing works, a team has no chance.
“It’s three components there: three-point shooting, defence creating offence and the offensive rebounding,” Raptors coach Nick Nurse said Tuesday, “We can’t have all three of those go missing, right? You probably can’t have two of the … three.
“We didn’t shot-make or offensive rebound down in Orlando this week. The defence wasn’t that bad. We tried really hard, we played really tough, we created a lot of turnovers and probably two of the three didn’t let us get over the hump, right?”
If the Raptors had been scuffling for the entire season, there would be more legitimate cause for concern. But that’s not the case: There have been nights and stretches where they’ve looked quite good, so it’s not as if success is entirely out of their reach.
“I think the defence looks amazing at times and then not so good at times … a little bit of inconsistency, a little bit of maturity needed to get that a little bit more consistently,” Nurse said. “And most recently we’ve had a hard time scoring We’ve had a hard time shotmaking and things like that so its been a little bit of everything.
“I think we started off the season maybe top six in three-point shooting and then, the last 10 or 14, I think we are well into No. 30, so that’s been uneven.”
It’s not like there are a lot of bodies available. Nurse said it will likely be the first of the week before they have any update on O.G. Anunoby’s sore left hip, the end of December before Precious Achiuwa will be able to play on his bum ankle, and perhaps a month before Otto Porter Jr. can put a dislocated toe behind him.
So the Raptors are who they are and they’ll likely figure it out. The momentary dark cloud that’s hovering is mainly over the fans.
“As a team we’re all going through some ups and downs, which is part of a long season,” Chris Boucher said. “I don’t think anybody is too hard on themselves. Obviously we don’t like losing and the energy is not the same as when you are winning, but I don’t think it’s negative energy. I don’t thing anybody is going at each other for the wrong reason.
The Raptors Have Been Here Before and Know the Way Out – Sports Illustrated Toronto Raptors
What did you expect? Highway to Hell? It’s the End of the World as We Know It? Burn it Down?
It’s been a rough week for the Raptors. Consecutive losses to the Orlando Magic have dropped the team below and the panic meter, if you will, has certainly gone up for onlookers as this team fails to meet early-season expectations. Inside the team, though, nothing seems particularly different.
Toronto has been here before. It was just a year ago that the Raptors sat at 14-17 on December 29, the 11th-worst record in the conference, and seemingly on a train bound for nowhere. But then the storm passed. Pascal Siakam refound his footing following offseason surgery, the COVID-19 issues went away, rotations stabilized, and Toronto finished the season going 34-17 over the final 51 games, the sixth-best record in the league over that stretch.
“I know that a lot of people do hit that panic button real quick,” Siakam said Tuesday. “As long as we in here, in the facility, are not doing that, we’re looking at each other and helping each other, there’s no finger-pointing, we’re all in this together no matter what’s happening. Those guys in here, I love them and I want everyone to succeed. I want us to succeed as a team and I think we’ve all got to do it together. Everyone in this together and we gotta get out of it together.”
For Nick Nurse-run teams, that starts with three things: Defense, rebounding, and a little bit of shot-making.
The rebounding has been the least concerning of Nurse’s trinity. Toronto has been a very good offensive-rebounding team, though that number has dipped a little bit over the past couple of weeks. Even on the defensive glass, where they rank at the bottom of the league in defensive rebounds per game, the Raptors are still grabbing their fair share of rebounds and actually rank sixth in the NBA in defensive rebound percentage, well above league average.
Part of the reason that the defensive rebounding equation looks so unusual is Toronto’s equally strange defense. The Raptors have been a pretty good defense this season, but when they’re not forcing turnovers, things get ugly quickly. Opposing teams are shooting 48.4% against the Raptors this season, the fourth-worst defensive field goal percentage in the NBA. Particularly problematic is Toronto’s interior defense where the Raptors have struggled to stop anyone from getting good looks at the rim.
“I think the defense looks amazing at times and then not so good at times,” Nurse said. “A little bit of inconsistency, a little bit of maturity [is] needed to get that a little bit more consistently.”
And then there’s the shot-making part of Toronto’s struggles. The Raptors are shooting just 32.3% from three-point range this season, 26th in the NBA, and their effective field goal percentage, a metric that accounts for the extra value of a three-point shot, also ranks the fourth-worst in the league.
SIMMONS: Raptors are in a state of disarray | Toronto Sun
If there is reason to panic around the Raptors, no one is precisely saying so. Their record may be the same as it was after 27 games a year ago but it sure doesn’t feel that way; it feels broken. The Raptors are 3-11 on the road this season, where once the road seemed to be their friend. They’ve won one of their past 10 road games, including back-to-back losses in Orlando, against the last-place Magic.
Right now, nothing is trending in the right direction for Nick Nurse’s team, including Nurse’s annual ability to coach his way out of trouble. The Raptors aren’t shooting very well, rebounding very well, passing very well, or defending very well. They don’t have one thing to fix; there is a long to-do list here.
“We have to stay positive,” said Siakam. “At the end of the day, we know what we can do. We have to try to get better.
“We can’t hit the panic button; a lot of people do hit that panic button real quick.”
About a year ago, later in the season, the Raptors began to morph into one of the most confusing and surprising teams in the NBA. They didn’t play traditional style basketball. Positions weren’t so easily defined. They were bigger than most teams across the starting five, quicker and longer, some said at the time they were inventing a new way to play. And maybe this was the future arriving just a little bit early.
The size and length haven’t changed this season, only the health of the bodies has. Maybe the Raptors scrambling to find a lineup every night in an NBA where everyone seems to be scrambling to find a lineup has hurt them. Not having Siakam for 10 games has hurt them. Even his getting back and needing to find his game has hurt them. And the only player who has been close to great all season long, O.G. Anunoby, is now out for another week or more.
It’s not necessarily about the schemes they’re using defensively or the philosophies they have adopted on offence. That’s for coaches.
“It’s not my job,” said Siakam, who wants to play the game, not necessarily think it. “I’m here to play basketball no matter what the conditions are. To me (schemes) are not really my focus.
“I’m not so good at those (coaching) things. I focus on us playing every single night. Maybe you were hoping for a smart answer, I don’t know. I don’t do schemes. I’m a hooper. I go out there and try to play basketball. I’m not trying to see what everybody else is doing. That’s not my job. My job is to play.”
It starts, Siakam did say, with better one-on-one defence.
“We have to get better across the board,” he said.
On Wednesday night, the Raptors play the best version of the Sacramento Kings they’ve seen in years. After that, it’s games against Brooklyn, Golden State and Philadelphia. All four of those games are difficult. The Raptors team that lost twice in Orlando can lose all four of these games.
Raptors Provide Injury Updates on Anunoby, Porter, & Achiuwa – Sports Illustrated Toronto Raptors
The Toronto Raptors got some good news injury-wise Tuesday morning but it’s going to be quite a bit longer before their core rotation players return to the court this season.
O.G. Anunoby will be out for at least a week as he battles through a left hip strain, Raptors coach Nick Nurse said Tuesday following practice. There’s nothing “majorly wrong” with the imaging, but it’ll be a week before there’s any further information, Nurse said.
Precious Achiuwa, meanwhile, returned to the court for some limited practice Tuesday. He’s not at 100% but he’s getting back into game shape following a severe ankle sprain. He’ll likely be out until late December or early January, Nurse said.
Otto Porter Jr. saw a specialist who ruled out imminent surgery on his dislocated toe. The team is going to start ramping him up for game action which will take at least a month, Nurse said. It sounds like he won’t be back until January.
Finally, Juancho Hernangomez should be back on Wednesday against the Sacramento Kings.
Expect Gary Trent Jr. to continue starting in Anunoby’s absence. Achiuwa could slide into that spot to provide a little more rim protection should he return before Anunoby.
