Friday's game against the Knicks wasmark the 15th game Pascal Siakam has played this season.
After an up and down year and a half of basketball, he's starting to find his groove on the court again.
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Siakam was always going to be under the microscope this season despite coming off a shoulder injury that would require the fanbase to give him some grace and room to find himself again. The expectation was that he'd had put the bad of the bubble and Tampa behind him and would return closer to the player that earned his first All-Star and All-NBA selections in 2020.
It's early, but he's meeting those expectations.
The first area where we can identify Siakam's return to form is watching him produce in isolation. Every All-Star calibre player can not only get their own shot, but they're expected to do it efficiently regardless of what the defence is doing to stop them. In 2018-19, Siakam broke out in that regard, taking advantage of isolation situations to the tune of 0.97 points per possession, ranking in the 73rd percentile for efficiency . Siakam was great at converting when he was one-on-one with a defender, but the circumstances were in his favour — Kawhi Leonard was on the roster drawing the assignment of the opposing team's best defender and with the attention he drew, Siakam could feast.
With Leonard off the roster, Siakam saw an increase in isolation frequency but a drop in production and efficiency over the last two seasons. This year, Siakam is making opponents pay the price for guarding him one-on-one. Going into Friday's game, Siakam was averaging 1.02 points per possession and ranks in the 78th percentile in isolation according to NBA Stats .
Siakam has been working on his handle tirelessly. He's been working on counter moves as well; I'm sure he has heard the criticism that all he does is spin, and so far this year, the work is paying off. If Siakam can continue to score at this rate in iso situations, it could give Raptors fans hope that he can indeed be counted on again in the postseason.
Siakam's success in isolation is also tied to his success in the midrange. Last season, Siakam struggled scoring in the midrange, shooting a shoddy 38.6 percent . This season, that number is up to a much more respectable 46.0 percent .
When Joel Embiid begged Siakam to take midrange jumpers in the 2019 playoffs, it opened many eyes to a deficiency in Siakam's game. Siakam has worked tirelessly again to improve in that area since then and the results are showing up for this year's Raptors.
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It's easy to forget that Siakam came to the game of basketball later than most who make it to the NBA . Some of that he's brought on himself by exploding onto the scene the way he did during the 2019 championship season.
And while he hit a bit of a developmental wall the last two years, it appears we're starting to see the signs that Siakam can be what he once was for the Raptors, an All-Star.
In the three games to start the month of December, Siakam is averaging 24.7 points, 8.3 rebounds and 4.0 assists while shooting 53.7 percent from the field.
That's closer to the player Raptors fans expect to see on a nightly basis.
*All stats as of Friday, Dec. 10
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