One Raptors player who has gotten off to a surprisingly slow start this season is Pascal Siakam.
Siakam was a huge talking point this past offseason since he and the Raptors didn’t agree to a contract extension.
He is now set to become an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2024. If he makes the All-NBA Team this season, he would be eligible for the supermax contract.
However, with the way he is currently playing he is not heading towards that reality.
During the Scottie Barnes leap, Siakam has been well below his season averages from a season ago. Through 7 games, Siakam is averaging 15.4 points, 6.1 rebounds, 4.7 assists on 41.2 percent shooting from the field and 33.3 percent shooting from deep.
Siakam has felt like the team’s fourth option with Scottie Barnes, O.G. Anunoby and Dennis Schroder having more impact on games than him.
He’s had two bad performances against the Philadelphia 76ers on Oct. 28 and Nov. 2. He’s coming off his worst performance of the season against the San Antonio Spurs on Nov. 5 where he only scored 8 points on 2/12 shooting.
It was Siakam’s fewest points in a game since Feb. 2022:
Pascal Siakam’s 8 points tonight were his fewest in a game since February 28th, 2022.
It’s just 9th time in his career that he’s played 30+ minutes & been held to single digits.
— Keerthika Uthayakumar (@keerthikau) November 6, 2023
Early on this season Siakam has felt like the odd man out. He is not taking many shots, he has been carless with the basketball and he has run into foul trouble.
With Barnes’ continued development and both Siakam and Anunoby in contract years, the Raptors need to make a decision.
Siakam’s fit with Barnes
So far O.G. Anunoby has looked like a solid fit next to Scottie Barnes, but the same can’t be said about Siakam.
One of the concerns entering this season was if the two could co-exist and both play at a high level.
Masai Ujiri didn’t offer a contract extension to Siakam and many other players on this team because he likely wanted to see how this season played out. After 7 games, this looks like Barnes’ team so now we will see what direction management takes.
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