So Where Do We Go From Here: Pascal Siakam

Now that our watch has ended and our title defense is officially over (if you haven’t read my reflections on our playoff elimination and the Raptors season as a whole, then what are you waiting for!), it’s time to start imagining what our future holds and what this team will look like next season (and beyond).

To some, they will say “yo too soon Peter Kaye — chill out for a bit”.

Well, to those people I say: nah this is where the fun begins!

I love nothing more than the mental exercise of imagining what our team will look like next season (especially as we have a bunch of question marks looming over us). We have Siakam about to begin his max contract after an underwhelming performance in his first playoffs as the undisputed man of this team (and the earned questioning of whether he’s a number one guy or if he’s really a number two guy).

We also have Kyle Lowry who has one year left on his deal. He’ll be 36 by the time next season wraps. His trade value is also at it’s absolute peak right now. But he’s a Toronto living-legend. So what do you do with someone like Lowry?

We also have the impending unrestricted free agency of Ibaka and Gasol. We also have to start considering that OG is up for an extension on his rookie deal. Do you extend him this offseason or do you wait until the 2021 offseason so you can maximize cap-space for the purposes of big-game hunting (hello Giannis!)?

Again, to me, these are all fun questions! And what I like about these questions is that you can ask multiple respected Raptors fans, bloggers, or podcasters and they will all give you differing answers. There is no right or wrong here people — it’s just personal opinion and preference.

Again, these are questions that will eventually be answered in due time but speculating on those possible answers is wherein the fun lies. We also haven’t even mentioned the biggest offseason topic of them all: FVV’s unrestricted free agency. The heir apparent to Kyle Lowry. The dude who went from undrafted to Sixth Man nomination to turning into a living-breathing fire emoji against the Bucks and Warriors in our championship season (1 Finals MVP vote people!) to a man about to receive the bag! By all accounts, there will be teams very interested in his services like the Knicks, Suns, and Pistons. What are they going to offer him? Are they going to throw a four-year max his way? Will Masai & Bobby back up the Brinks truck with a max deal of their own? Will it be a four-year max or a five-year max? There’s some who say he’s deserving of Brodgon type money (four years and roughly $80M). There’s some like me who say he’s worth 4 years/$100–$110M. Am I right? Who knows! Are they right? I have no clue! That’s why it’s so fun!

These are all the things that are ruminating around my brain — and we here at Life In Repeat are going to tackle every single one of these important questions as we try to imagine what our team is going to look like next season (and beyond).

But, for the purposes of this first piece in our So where do we go from here? series, we’re going to focus in on none other than Pascal Siakam.

Did Spicy P underwhelm in the seeding games and the playoffs? Absolutely. We can’t hide from that. Siakam isn’t even trying to hide from it. The dude has gone out of his way to own it. Check out these quotes:

“I wasn’t really able to help my teammates. I take a lot of the blame.”

And this one:

“I come from a background of always working hard and fighting my way through everything that was thrown at me. I came into the league, wasn’t supposed to be here, but I fought my way here and I proved that I belong. I just feel like this is another step for me”

And this one too:

“It’s an experience. All the greats go through it and you have to learn from it. If you want to be considered one of the best players you have to be able to rise from these moments, and that’s something I plan to do.”

Sure, we can be disappointed in him underperforming but you gotta respect him for owning it instead of running from it. Will he learn and be better next season? I’d like to think so. I’ll say this though: I was convinced he was a #1 guy but my confidence in that assessment has wavered a bit (it’s also okay to say this).

Does this mean Siakam should be traded? I’d like not to think so. He has the upside to be a legit franchise guy and he’s already shown he can be the undisputed second-best player on a title team. He’s also shown that he is an elite defender worthy of All-Defensive buzz and even Defensive Player of the Year considerations. You don’t trade a player with that statistical profile (especially one who has grown by leaps and bounds every single season). You don’t trade someone of Siakam’s caliber because he’s what you hope any returning assets could actually turn into (that’s why you don’t trade him for draft picks, if you even dare trade him at all).

I trust Masai & Bobby when it comes to roster moves and they don’t strike me as the kind of guys to make a trade just for the sake of making a trade (unlike the majority of Raptors Twitter who want to trade a player after a bad game or retire his jersey after a good one). They also don’t strike me as having a knee-jerk reaction to Siakam’s lackluster postseason. Also, even if they did want to trade Siakam (big huge IF here), Pascal’s trade value is probably at it’s lowest right now and opposing GMs would come in with low-ball offers anyways. No thank you.

But despite all of the above, would Masai & Bobby actually consider trading Siakam though? Perhaps. But the return would have to be something they think is better than Siakam (duh). And guess what? There’s not a lot of (realistic) scenarios out there at the moment.

There are only two players that I would consider parting ways with Spicy P for (keep in mind these are realistic options only): Bradley Beal or Giannis. But the goal should be to try to pair Siakam with a player like Beal or Giannis.

The safe bet is to continue building around him and try to find a SuperDuperStar to pair him with (hello Giannis).

Either way, the future is bright with Pascal Siakam!

Until next time…

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