Pascal Siakam had an awkward moment at Toronto Raptors media day this year. His front office called him and the rest of the team out in front of the media but his response made things worse. This is a look at what this all means for the future of Pascal and the Raptors.
@Toronto Raptors
26 Comments
The Raptors have one conference Championship
I disagree with your take on this 100%
He was not referring to pascal in that comment. Also he hasn't resigned because he can get more if he makes all star this year. You are wrong on so many levels
Terrible take
I’ve always played the game the right way sounds pretty selfish to me
As a Raptors fan, it' super frustrating to see what Masai is doing with the team. It makes no sense to rebuild and "try" to contend at the exact same time. Anyone with a ounce of knowledge would know that the Raptors are not prepared to contend, so either they need to step their game up and make some impactful trades, or blow the whole thing up. Also, I hate how Masai is convincing himself that his plan is going to work. Sure he did make the trade for Kawahi Leonard and drafted Scottie Barnes, but other than that what has he done to improve the teams overall performance. I honestly think we need to rebuild since there practically no chance for a Superstar after the Dame trade not to mention that no free agent wants to go to CANADA! Scottie is a generational talent and it would not make any sense to completely disregard his development for "present contention"
Wish I could comment twice! Love the channel and all the content you make. I like the docs/deep dives too, don’t stop! Keep working brother!
I think he was referring to Fred
VanVleet was the selfish one. When he didn't get extended he started playing for his next contract – When Freddy started playing that way the team unravelled and if affected everyone on the roster
Masai meant the whole team. But Fred and Pascal were selfish because of Nurse's offensive schemes. Fred was the most selfish because he was playing for a contract, Fred was not concerned with winning, he was concerned about money. Fred couldn't hit a shot or an open layup, nobody else could get anything done because the offensive schemes were based around ISO ball from fred and P. Fred was commonly taking the most or 2nd most shots on the team and putting uo just a few points in 38 minutes… bricking completely open shots with OG and Scottie open. Pascal would get tired of trailing or seeing bad 3's and try to play hero ball, dribbling 11 times and taking a contested long mid range shot against a double team and missing. Nobody is arguing Pascal is great. Masai just means no ISO ball this year, the rock has to move. He also doesnt want Pascal to hog the ball like Fred did to try and increase his value before free agency. Otherwise theyll just trade him at the deadline to avoid a repeat of Fred. Also, dont act like Schroder isnt a huge upgrade from Fred bro. Fred is AWFUL. Stats do not tell the whole story, Schroder is a way better fit with the team. Just dont comment on this team, you clearly dont watch any of the games you just read stats and headlines.
Getting rid of Nurse for Darko was essential to everyones development, nobody on that team has developed under Nurse as a head coach bro, the raptors' entire identity is development. So ISO ball and bad development dont fit. Nurse was terrible last year.
Pascal to the Lakers 😮💨 here we go
Masai let the hype get into his head 😂😂😂😂
Nope. I think as a raps fan you hit the nail on the head. I've begun to question the front office lately. Like just doing nothing about the Gary Trent/FVV contracts. Refusing to trade Scottie Barens for KD. Twice! Letting guys walk for nothing at all. That's what I didn't get about FVV. So what? You pay him a little. Then you sign Siakam. Then who knows SGA becomes available and wants to play as the home town hero and fulfill his childhood dream. Now you're at the table with mildly overpaid players and can swing a bunch of multi team deals. All those teams that had 5 second round picks thrown into trades last year can send them to some team dumping a star like Dame to rebuild. Cuz you paid the most valuable players and traded GTJ for assets everyone looks good as they win a bunch more games. Then you take part in a mega trade or two. Like outside of signing Poeltl I don't remember the last great trade made. I don't even think it was the Kawhi trade as much as dumping that horrific playoff coach. Casey is good if you want to get a team out of the basement and winning 40-50 games. But that dude is a master of panic in big games. Masai trusted him for that whole time. Kawhi was defo amazing here but the addition by removal of Casey which it seems he was forced to do was a massive part of it. Getting a real defensive center too. But I have to admit I like almost nothing he's done since they won. A decent draft pick. At 4th so I mean? What else?
Dude! Masai was right about the selfish comment and the players know it already. This is what happens when you don't do the research properly and have no idea what's going on behind the scenes. Even Scottie revisited the comment in a later interview saying that yeah, we were playing selfish ball, no real ball movement and things would get stagnant. The Masai comment was more of a slight to the system and not inididual players, it's was just a wird way of phrasing it.
Pascal took it perssonal but that;s fine. To wach is own and all that. It came out later on that his camp thins this is just posturing and would be water under the bridge if extensions offer come their way. Who do we think we are, Psychic? We don't know anything. We only know what we are shown on the surface. There are tons of storylines behind the scenes that we know nothing about. All we can do is look at the product and analyze the results. Coming up with theories and possible solutions is entertaining at best. The tructh is much more complicated, my dude!
Great breakdown
Jaylen Brown your next video A.M. Hoops 😤😤😤😤😤😤😤
If the raptors signed Pascal to 50m/year just to trade him, they'd have to take back a ton of bad contracts to salary match. Masai either wants Pascal to accept what he'd get on the open market (less than max) to stay in Toronto, or do a sign and trade and get picks and youth and cap space. Money they save if they sign Pascal for less they can use on Anunoby
I am the biggest Raps fan. Thank you for this video. Finally Raps getting some more love. But I disagree about how good this Raptor team is. They will surprise you. Also our new PG won gold medal and was MVP. So Fred was the problem and now he gone. Watch for Scottie B to break out this year as he will finally get the ball. Pascal is a good #2 option on a winning team. Raps should make the playoffs this year. This year we will see how it goes then make a trade or blow it up. Wait and see but don't sleep on them.
I'm a Raptors fan and I far from hate you. You've always been super fair about the team. I absolutely agree with you, extending Pascal should be a no brainer.
Im a raptors fan and I would love a rebuild its about damn time
Pascal Siakam best fit in Dallas, Philadelphia, Heat, Kings or Charlotte 🤔🤔🤔
7:50 yeah a lot of raptors fans hate you because your knowledge of the franchise is surface level but yet you make videos about the team anyways jjst to get some views. Quit talking about the raptors.
As a Raptors fan, I hate to say it but I agree with you.
masai is on crack. The Russell westbrook of GMs
Im sorry, when did he direct any comments at Pascal ?
Pretty sure anyone who watched knows Nurse and VanVleet were the primary culprits.
I hope he gets traded some where good
Everything you said makes sense from a standard NBA practice and asset management perspective. As well as the standard disrespect of the Raptors Franchise from a US media perspective. What you said about Pascal I remember same argument were made with Demar Derozen trade "How dare you lowly Raptors trade a sub par all star player who wants to be there? how dare you wanting to win a championship?" while the same people also mock Demar for choking in the playoffs. Most of you just want the Raptors to be irrelevant in the NBA let's be honest. All the narrative has a negative theme no matter what Masai does. One thing about Masai and the culture of the Raptors is that it's a family here. He said it many times in the past that he doesn't like to look at players as trade chips and assets. When he gives a 5 year deal he expects the players to stay for that period, unless someone makes him a Godfather offer. Masai will also never tank for picks similar to Miami Heat culture. He wants to compete and win every year so the word "Rebuild" is always wishful thinking for most casual fans and media that don't cover the Raptors. The term asset is also overrated, if you are good at turning undrafted players into all stars then who cares? At the end of the day when the smoke clears, Raptors will still be top 6 in East every year.
This is upsetting because I always appreciated your videos – but this is so wrong, its offensive- Masai wasn’t singling out Pascal – and if he was able to land Dame all the haters would be calling him a genius right now – You just went from hero to zero! Unlike & unsubscribed.