Raptors' Pascal Siakam is back in his comfort zone

Amit Mann is joined by William Lou to discuss Darko Rajakovic tweaking his offensive philosophy so the Raptors can the best version of Pascal Siakam. At the same time, Toronto also needs Siakam to find consistency at the free-throw line and beyond the arc. Watch the full episode on our Yahoo Sports Canada YouTube channel or listen on the 'Raptors Over Everything' podcast feed.

Video Transcript

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AMIT MANN: You mentioned Pascal Siakam not being a reliable source of offense. And do you quibble with the idea of the offense kind of diverting to what it was last season to a way-- like, we saw it early in the season, Pascal was taking a lot more 3's, a lot more spacing opportunities for him. And it kind of felt like him and Scottie were taking turns.

Like, one of them was going to be a spacer, the other one's at the top of the floor. But now with this addition, it seems like, and obviously, Pascal, if you didn't hear the quote, he was pretty happy about how things have gone over the past few games. Because this is his wheelhouse. This is his game.

But is it 0.5 basketball? I mean, I feel like Darko's had to kind of change the game plan a little bit to appease and get the best out of Pascal Siakam. But I think, to some degree, that's how it has to go.

WILLIAM LOU: That's-- I think that's coaching. That's management at any level. Like, you definitely have an idea in mind. You definitely want to stick to your principles. You want to be firm, but you also want to be flexible. And you want to be pragmatic in this case.

Pascal is just not going to be a good player or very effective player if you're just asking him to play as a spacer. He's not a good 3-point shooter. And not only that, like, he's in a really bad 3-point shooting slump, to the point where like he made a 3 against the Pistons, and he, like, threw his hands up, like, finally, thank you.

And it's like, yeah, I mean, that's not the sign of a most confident 3-point shooter. But, you know, I think there are lots of ways that the Raptors can use Pascal. And I think Darko is learning, sort of, as he goes on that front. But to me, that's an encouraging sign, that he's found ways to get past them.

Like, the last, what-- so he had, like, two really quiet nights, 10 points against Philly, 8 points against San Antonio. In the six games since, he's averaged 24 points, eight rebounds a game, five assists, shooting 56% from the field.

AMIT MANN: A few games ago when, I think it was Blake Murphy, actually, he was asking about, you know, working in the post. And Pascal, like, you made a point of saying he's, like-- the best part about it is, like, yeah, we're going to get a good touch out of it. But also, we can just, like, get our spacing right.

Like, and it's kind of slowing down the game. To speed it up eventually, once we're able to draw that double, then it's kick, swing, swing, and then you're getting a good shot. And they ran that all the time last season. And it worked for them, especially when they got Jakob Poeltl and they had the pick and roll with Fred. So--

WILLIAM LOU: Now, of course, he's got to get his 3-point percentage up. I mean, I think he's hit, like, two 3's, maybe one in this range. Once again, wow, pathetic fallacy in the room.

And then I think the other thing too is his free throws, right? I think there's, like, a noticeable, like, hitch in the free throw, which is leading to a lot of points that are being left on the board for somebody who should at least be in the 75% range.

But yeah, like, what's the problem here? Like, the Raptors' half-court offense was really in the dumps. They weren't really able to find anything out of Pascal on a consistent basis when you mostly asked him to be a shooter.

So you do this thing now where I feel like it doesn't really eat into Scottie's opportunities. And that's what I'm, like, ultimately looking at. Scottie's been able to be great. Pascal's been able to be great. If you have two All-Star-level players, then this team actually has a chance to be competitive.

Like, long term, like, do you want to only have guys with 0.5 principles? Probably. Like, probably, that is the vision. But until the front office changes the personnel, if the ask from that front office is for this team to be competitive and also to-- well, to be competitive but also to develop, that this is the way to do it. And I think Darko's actually found that time.

So I appreciate that he's been flexible and firm at the same time. But on Pascal's own perspective, like, he's got to find a way to get that jumper going, man. Like, long term for him and also long term for the Raptors, like, they're going to need Pascal to not shoot, like, 1 for 20 from 3 and also to make his free throws, at the bare minimum.

AMIT MANN: Yeah. Going back to when he finally did make a shot, did you see Jama's reaction on the bench? He gave, like, that look to his-- he gave this, like, look to your homies when they do something-- when they see something cool. They're like, yo, look what he did, look what he did. His eyes got all big.

Everyone's been waiting for it for him to hit that shot. He's currently shooting 24.5%. If you need a reminder, last season was 32%. And on catch and shoot 3's, similar number, 31% this season. Last season was around 34% as well.

Like, look, like, the shot, I mean, I dissected myself, I talked to CJ about it. Shoutout "Strictly Hoops." he says that it feels like it's more of a mental thing than anything else, because the flow looks good. But then I look at also the way he misses shots. Sometimes it's very long.

WILLIAM LOU: It's erratic.

AMIT MANN: It is. And I find sometimes it's his guide hand, it's shooting-- it's going a little bit left. And other times, it's really deep. But it seems like the stroke is what it should be. So it does kind indicate to me that there's just, like, a mental thing.

And also with his free throws, I don't know, maybe it's just me, when guys have a lot of movement, like, upper body to lower body, with their free throws, it just doesn't-- it's like a higher chance that they're not going to go in. And he has, like, a lot of movement, a lot of coordination between everything for them to go in. And then he just stops, like, right at the top, and then he follows through. Like, a nice little smooth motion.

WILLIAM LOU: That's the thing, it stops. That's why there's a hitch in the free throw form. It's, like, so noticeable when he does it on the free throw.

Less so when he shoots the ball from 3, but like, there was a game, I think-- which game was it? Against the Celtics, and I think he might have-- he did a good job in the Celtics game. Also, he scored mid-range and also around the basket. But--

AMIT MANN: Yeah, only one free throw in that game.

WILLIAM LOU: He was-- there was a stretch there where he, like, missed, like, 10 straight, like, warm-up 3's in a row to the point where he's like, all right, let me just break out my warm-up practice and then just get a layup just to see the ball go through the basket before I go back to-- yeah.

AMIT MANN: You watched this?

WILLIAM LOU: I love watching warm-ups. But it's like, yeah, to me, that suggests, like, look-- I mean, you know, he's always been inconsistent as a 3-point shooter. But like, closer to average, I would say, maybe slightly below average.

Right now, it became, like, he just-- it just eliminated that from his shot diet. And yeah, I mean, it's going to need to be there no matter what system that they run. Because you just need your All-Star-level player to be able to knock down some 3's.

He's done it before in the past too. So whatever it is, whether he needs to find his old rhythm, change up his training, whatever it is specifically, but yeah, he's got to get back there. That's pretty vital.