Stop trying to take Most Improved away from Pascal Siakam

There hasn’t been a conversation for Most Improved Player because Pascal Siakam has been the runaway favorite for most of the season.

What’s there even to talk about? Siakam went from being an obscure bench player to becoming the second-leading scorer on the Raptors. His scoring has jumped 10 points, he’s kept the team afloat when Kyle Lowry and Kawhi Leonard missed games, and he even has a game-winner under his belt. What more could you want?

But, in rather crass fashion, Richard Jefferson and Tracy McGrady outright dismissed the case for Siakam in Thursday’s episode of The Jump on ESPN. The two former players trumpeted D’Angelo Russell — a worthy candidate given his efforts in leading the resurgent Brooklyn Nets — but the arguments they raised against Siakam didn’t exactly hold water.

“What has Siakam done to save their season?”

The main rebuttal offered by Jefferson (a longtime Nets player who has appeared on several Nets broadcasts this season) centers around Russell’s heroics in leading the Nets, who recently overcame a 28-point deficit against the Sacramento Kings. Russell took over in the fourth quarter and finished with a career-high 44 points, and as Jefferson noted, it was one of the biggest comebacks in NBA history.

Jefferson’s larger point is that Russell is more vital because the Nets need him just to even sniff the playoffs, whereas Siakam gets to coast as a complementary piece. But this argument completely overlooks the fact that the Raptors wouldn’t be anything close to a contender without Siakam.

Not only is he their only viable power forward, but Siakam is second in scoring, and he’s the one constant in every one of the Raptors’ best lineups. Russell made a bad team average, while Siakam turned a good team into a Finals contender. Winning matters for every other award, so why is Siakam being punished for contributing to a better team?

“Did we talk about Caris LeVert going out with injury? Spencer Dinwiddie had an injury.”

Jefferson’s second point in favor of Russell was that he kept the Nets afloat while other key cogs dealt with injuries, but the exact same can be said of Siakam. Lowry missed 16 games between rest and injury, while Leonard’s infamous “load management” program has cost him 21 games and counting. Siakam kept the Raptors winning at a 70 percent clip even as their main stars sat out, while Russell went 6-8 during Dinwiddie’s absence and 23-19 without LeVert. Again, winning should matter.

“Pascal Siakam doesn’t have any type of pressure on him. Zero.”

This was the only reasonable point brought up by Jefferson and McGrady. Russell is the first name on the scouting report, while Siakam still gets left open because defenses prefer to focus on Leonard. That’s a major difference in terms of responsibility.

But as Zach Lowe points out, Most Improved Player isn’t about who carries the bigger load. Carrying a bigger load is a point in Russell’s favor, but that’s not the criteria. Russell has been on the scouting report from the time he was picked No. 2 overall, whereas Siakam forced himself into the conversation. The latter actually necessitates improvement.

And if the conversation is about who can create their own shot, it’s worth mentioning that Siakam has scored 0.99 points per play in isolation — which puts him level with Blake Griffin and Anthony Davis — while Russell is at 0.82 points per play alongside the likes fo Harrison Barnes and Jeff Teague.

Just some food for thought.

“Has he really made an improvement? He just didn’t get the opportunity last year.”

This one is just silly. Siakam isn’t just posting bigger numbers because he’s getting more minutes — he earned more minutes because he improved in every facet of the game. Siakam was purely a run-of-the-mill hustle player, and now he creates his own shot, he’s above 40 percent from both corner pockets, he developed a signature spin move, and he’s just flat-out better.

If anything, this same question should be asked of Russell. He’s having the best year of his career, but isn’t he still fundamentally the same in most regards? Isn’t Russell still a wildly inconsistent scorer who runs hot and cold? His passing is noticeably better, but doesn’t he still shy away from contact and primarily settles for the jumper? Isn’t he still a Russell Westbrook-esque high-usage player with a Russell Westbrook-esque scoring efficiency? Isn’t he still a liability on defense?

None of this is to disparage Russell, who is redeeming himself after being labelled a bust (among other things) in the early part of his career. But this is simply what’s expected out of a No. 2 pick from Ohio State, whereas Siakam is shattering every expectation placed upon him as a 27th selection that started playing basketball at the age of 17.

Russell is meeting his potential, whereas Siakam has redefined his.

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