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Kobe Bryant inspiring Pascal Siakam's evolving offensive game?

On the debut episode of our new Raptors show, "Strictly Hoops with C.J. Miles," Miles discusses why he thinks Pascal Siakam has used Kobe Bryant as inspiration to evolve his scoring prowess. The full episode can be listened to on the "Raptors Over Everything" podcast feed or watched on our Yahoo Sports Canada YouTube channel.

Video Transcript

AMIT MANN: That man-- he's different, too. I saw you tweeting about it. Go crazy, Pete.

CJ MILES: Very different.

AMIT MANN: Go crazy.

CJ MILES: He's very different.

AMIT MANN: Yeah. What's different? Tell me.

CJ MILES: The first thing is like, obviously, he's like, oozing with confidence.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

CJ MILES: Like, you see it in everything. Not that he wasn't confident before, but he's like ooh-- it's like, falling off of him. It's like, I got a little bit to spare. I can hand you some if you need it type thing.

And he's just sharp. Like, he feels-- you can tell he feels comfortable in every situation that's being thrown on him, how he's being guarded. It's going to have to be doubles thrown at him. Like, it's going to have to be.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

CJ MILES: Like, because we're talking about-- he's going to get sharper as the year goes.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

CJ MILES: And he's going to get even better shape-- even though I've never seen him get tired. He's going to get in even better shape than he is right now. And he's going to get just in a really good rhythm. He's going to see how much his spots are open and how many different situations he can get to.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

CJ MILES: They're gonna have to come get him because right now, the jump shot is the biggest thing. Like you said--

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

CJ MILES: --they put five people in their paint. So him being able to make those pull-ups and the things we're talking about, him barking at PJ Tucker the first few possessions out there-- like, that's--

AMIT MANN: He didn't stop.

CJ MILES: --that's spicy.

AMIT MANN: He didn't stop.

CJ MILES: That's spicy peak. Yeah.

AMIT MANN: Yeah. He was doing it nonstop. And then even when I thought he was done, there was a possession where he bumped PJ Tucker under the rim on like, a little like, a line drive towards the bucket.

CJ MILES: Uh-huh.

AMIT MANN: And he still gave him like, a get off me.

CJ MILES: Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

AMIT MANN: Get off me. Like, he's still doing it.

CJ MILES: Uh-huh.

AMIT MANN: He's not stopping.

CJ MILES: I showed that play to my wife.

AMIT MANN: Oh, you did?

CJ MILES: I did, 'cause I was telling her what was going on. And I was like, look at this. They were about to show the replay.

I was like, come look at it. Because I was-- we were watching like, one game on TV and one on my iPad.

AMIT MANN: Right. Yeah, he's a-- he's different this year. His guy, Rico Hines, spoke before the season. And he was saying that he wants Pascal to get a little bit meaner, you know? He's a little bit too nice.

Because some of the stars out there-- and he's not wrong with this. You think of some of the greats. They do get a bit of a mean streak to them in a way that is conducive to just being very confident in yourself on the basketball court.

And that interaction with PJ Tucker, all of those-- I'm not sure what PJ Tucker did, what he said to him. But he said something that Pascal didn't like. And that got him all kinds of motivated.

CJ MILES: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know. Maybe it goes back to from the summer, too. Like, I know PJ's--

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

CJ MILES: --out there, too. Maybe it has something to do with that, the runs. And maybe they've been getting ready for this. Like--

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

CJ MILES: I don't know. Or maybe he just disrespected the fact that-- Pascal felt disrespected because he--

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

CJ MILES: --backed up off of him or whatever it is. Like, I don't know. I don't care what it was. I like it.

He can say it every night. Tell him to text it to him before every game. Like--

AMIT MANN: Yeah. You said to me the other day that you thought some of Pascal's pull-ups were looking a little Kobe-esque. And then I looked at a little bit closer. And I was like, oh, damn. CJ's right.

Yeah, I see it. I definitely see it. What made that kind of trigger for you?

CJ MILES: Just going back to the sharpness.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

CJ MILES: Like, his footwork. We all know Kobe was a master of footwork. And we all know, like-- and now I think the most person blatant with it after that is now Kyrie. Like, Kyrie is like the mirror of Kobe's footwork in the post, mid post, and things like that.

So it's easy to identify because it's so sharp. Like, it's so-- the counters are ready. the counters are effortless.

It doesn't take a lot of work. Like, the one we talked about-- the step-through to the pump fake to the spin back. Like, that was-- at one time, only Kobe was doing that in the league. Like, nobody was even--

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

CJ MILES: --close being-- to doing that. He did it all the time.

AMIT MANN: Mm-hmm.

CJ MILES: And you see just guys implementing that in that mid post. Because we got so far away from the mid-range. So like, now you have DeMar, Pascal, Kyrie-- those are the top of my-- off the top of my head, those three guys are like--

AMIT MANN: Yeah, KD, KD. Yeah, KD--

CJ MILES: KD's really--

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

CJ MILES: KD's cheating a little bit because he's seven foot. But like, yeah.

AMIT MANN: [LAUGHS] Fair enough. Fair enough, yeah.

CJ MILES: But no, it's still the same. Like, those are just guys off the top of my head that you know it has to be sharp for it to work. And Pascal's got size and that now-- the release is higher in those shots.

AMIT MANN: It's the gathering.

CJ MILES: The arc on the ball.

AMIT MANN: You're seeing--

CJ MILES: Yeah.

AMIT MANN: The gather, right?

CJ MILES: And the gather.

AMIT MANN: Very Kobe-esque.

CJ MILES: Yeah, putting people on their heels.

AMIT MANN: Hmm.

CJ MILES: Kind of like hesitating, and different timing of the pickup to shoot the ball. Like, hanging in the middle of it, picking up early later. Those type of things are things you only get from going through the fire the last year and a half, two years.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

CJ MILES: Like, how can I find more ways? What can make me more creative?

AMIT MANN: Right.

CJ MILES: So who was the guy that was really creative at doing this? Oh, Kobe got his shot off every time. Let me go check that out.

AMIT MANN: Yeah, he did.

CJ MILES: You know what I mean?

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

CJ MILES: Every time.

[LAUGHTER]

AMIT MANN: Every time.

CJ MILES: Every time.

AMIT MANN: Didn't see him get blocked very often. Yeah, rest in peace.

CJ MILES: Yeah.

AMIT MANN: He gave a lot to the game.

CJ MILES: Yeah.

AMIT MANN: Something else that comes to mind with him Pascal, is he looks quicker. And I don't know if that's actually fitness. But I wonder if it's actually, he's faster with the ball in his hands.

You know, 'cause some guys-- obviously, like, if you're sprinting down the court, you're not going to be as fast with the ball. That's just how most players are. A, I would be an exception because it didn't matter. With the ball, without the ball, he was just fast.

But now-- maybe you disagree. I want you to weigh in on it-- but he seems like, more confident with his handle. And so in that degree, he's able to get downhill faster than he was before. You know what I mean?

CJ MILES: Mm-hmm. So it's definitely-- the biggest thing we talk about when we work on ball handling-- smooth is fast. So it comes from him just dropping in the skill, like we're talking about. It's just smoother.

So it's more efficient. That's what it is. The movement is more efficient.

The setup is more efficient. I don't have to-- like, there's a dribble gone. I don't need a third dribble to get into my move. Because now my feet and my hands are so good it takes me one dribble to get to this space to be able to change directions.

Before, I might have had to dribble twice before I could go between-- the length to go downhill. Like, now I've just learned how to take out less to be more efficient. And that's one of the things we teach.

Like, when we-- one of the people that are really good at it, and one of my friends that teaches, Tyler Relph, in Dallas-- like, and there's a lot of guys implementing this type of stuff in their drills--

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

CJ MILES: --is just being smooth. You don't have to boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. It's just being smooth and ready to capitalize.

Yeah.