Pascal Siakam called the Raptors’ bluff
Welcome to P basketball live today we’re going to be talking about something that I didn’t want to talk about because every single time we talk about Pascal SE yakum bad things happen noticed that I’ve been a little reluctant to offer too much on Pascal yakum so today I want to explore where
We are with Pascal SE yakum the trade discussion what’s happened over the last few years and I want to talk about seven questions that the Toronto Raptors should answer before they approach the table for an extension and why they need to have very good positive and conclusive answers to these questions before they
Sign the contract before they offer the contract before they sign that five-year deal that he has rumored to want you should never be scared to tell the truth about a subject regardless of how controversial regardless of the push back back regardless of how many people say terrible things about you for doing
It I want to say this just for the fan base I don’t hate Pascal SE yakum I actually liked Pascal SE yakum I liked him a lot I consider him one of the best development stories in the NBA probably the best development story in the NBA he’s one of them he’s he’s
Top five top five all time development stories in the NBA the type of guy that should go top five in most drafts he didn’t because he was late to basketball during this live I want to also address implicit biases biases that I might have biases that you might have
Biases that other general managers might have biases that pertain to players like Pascal seaka for a variety of reasons I want to have a Nuance discussion about this because last time I made a video about Pascal seak and it was only about SE yakum and it was like this extended rant last year
Which went on for like 30 minutes in which I laid out my case for why he wasn’t as good as Raptor fans think he is well it really tainted the perception of me everywhere I went I went to raptor games looking over my shoulder at people giving me dirty
Looks I was worried because people really hated that video they didn’t want to hear it at that time and I don’t think I said it very well I don’t think I was lying I don’t think I said anything that was untrue I don’t think he’s ever going to be a top five player
Top 10 player whatever and I think I was generous in that by saying that I think he could be a top 20 player he hasn’t been not last year not the year before and not this year he hasn’t been that type of player and if
You want to go down the list of 20 players in the NBA that are better than him it’s a pretty easy one to construct if he was a top 20 player I think I can guarantee you there would be at least a couple of teams exploring bringing him in as a first option
But that’s not how teams see him teams see him as a great supporting player do the Raptors see him as a great supporting player worth noting I think to start the Pascal seak story you have to go right back to the draft why was he overlooked again biases
Carry there are players who are overlooked and underlooked for a variety of reasons maybe they arm you in the interviews maybe they have a particular way about them maybe they’re very elegant when they move around the basketball court maybe they have Elite measurables maybe they have a game that
Reminds you of something you’ve seen succeed before and it sells you on why this player will be the next the next Luca like Cade or the next great point guard like Dante exm or the next Dwight Howard like Jaylen Duran am I just picking on Detroit Pistons prospects
No but then there are prospects every single year that fall for a variety of reasons upper classmen International Players historically this has been the case this is the market inefficiency that teams like the San Antonio Spurs have tapped into for years and I’ve always thought of the Raptors as a very
Good team at looking past the obvious looking past the bias looking past the bias about someone’s age their stature as in with Fred Van bleet maybe their basketball origin story like with Pascal sakam when Pascal yakum was drafted most mock drafts had him in the 40s the same people who constructed
Those mock drafts same people who passed on him 26 times are still the same people who are running front off officers that’s that’s they knew about him is there an anchoring bias to who other front offices think Pascal sakam Miss I’m going to say that that’s at
Least 5 to 10% of any perceptive disrespect that he experiences as a basketball player at least 5 to 10% is the second rounder who will eventually become a scrub it’s too good to be true you know if you look at his career analytics they’re not jumping off the
Page to be completely fair with you he has marginally more win shares in his career than bismack bomo does that shock you it probably should his career is weird because you weren’t expecting it and typically when you don’t expect things you have a bit of a harder time trusting it it turned
Out how you weren’t expecting it to turn out with Pascal cakam his Draft Day story should have been Raptor’s reach for role player role player becomes excellent role player hustle big but that’s not where the Pascal seum story ended he didn’t become an elite role player he became g-league
Champion he became a starter in the NBA he became a guy with a bag like not a big bag but a bag he also became an all NBA guy he became an NBA champion he became a guy who hit a buzzer beater gamewinner whatever in the game six of the NBA
Finals his clutch analytics last year and the year before were not great clutch analytics this year Primo solid why is he not talked about in that way why do NBA front officers not respect Pascal cakam enough like they respect a Jason Tatum well certainly he’s not quite on the level of adjacent
Tatum but I feel like with Pascal cakam very often the conversation still comes back to what he can’t do it’s almost like every single person who overlooked him at the draft is still waiting for him to become the player they thought he would become I’ll say this anchoring
Bias is a little bit there I’ll tell you what else is there there is a mistrust of African prospects maybe you look at me and say rob you have no business talking about this maybe you’re right but it’s true sergy Baka to this day to this day deals with allegations of changing his
Age it is worth noting however that this is not necessarily something that follows all African players it only follows African born African players so it’s worth saying that this is a mistrust of the notion that many of us grew up with that a lot of countries in
Africa have a lot of corruption that fudging up documents is not that hard and all it had all that had to happen was it happened once or twice and it’s been proven that it’s happened once or twice for everybody from that continent to be mistrusted should it matter that Darko
Rakovich performs poorly or well at his job for the next European coach Europe’s a really big continent a very diverse continent what is someone from Spain have to do with Darko rakovich born in chauk Serbia what does chauk Serbia have to do with Finland what does Finland have to do with Italy
Or you know or Croatia or Austria or Germany these are huge countries with massive populations turkey has a population of 80 87 million people if you grew up here you don’t understand how big the world is sometimes because of North American education and how it’s failed you but
Seriously why does one European coach represent All European coaches other than the concept of otherism and grouping in terms of how we group people Africa is a huge continent full of billions of people what the hell does what some guy 25 years ago from Congo have to do with this guy today from
Cameroon what does it have to do with anything other than the way we group things you know Darko rakovich right now to every person who grew up by the way I heard this today so I’m just going to repeat it and I don’t want to repeat it
But in the ’90s you know we grew up with a caricature presented on CNN of serbs as very angry people and today I saw a tweet that said serbs be like that and I guarantee you this person was fed a lot of and we’ve worked very hard as a country
To destigmatize ourselves as I think every every foreign country or every not foreign country wow that’s a that’s a silly way to say that it’s like if you’re from somewhere else you’re always representing everyone else who’s from where you are because it’s almost like if you do something wrong
That’s the Serbian guy who did the wrong thing so does that come into it when things are too good to be true does there creep in this idea of mistrusting the Nigerian scammer phone calls does that baked in even if it’s not racism does it come in that be wary be
Be 10% more cautious with that guy just like if you bought the CNN reports about serbs if I get angry there’s no exploration of why I got angry that’s just the Serbian guy he gets they’re pissed off people they’re they’re look look they’re violent they do this they do
That when I was younger I grew up in government housing when I screwed up in school there was no exploration of what I was going through was just that’s the kid from the troubled building and the troubled neighborhood and that’s how troubled kids act it’s an identification
Thing so what I’ll say is at least 15% of how people feel about Pascal yakum other than his supporters and die hard fans has really nothing to do with Bas with basketball nothing that I mentioned him going late um you know being in the second round or whatever him you know coming
Coming from not a Blue Blood he didn’t play at Duke he wasn’t like some massively you know it’s not his fault that teams didn’t see his potential in Messiah jury did that’s a good thing right and it’s not his fault that some some African Prospect and even a Chinese
Prospect at one point Yan lean have reportedly misrepresented their age it’s not his fault those things came before him there is an implicit bias against international players in the United States I know it I’ve felt it I’ve seen it my whole life from how North American athletes treat those guys you don’t
Think there’s a bias against Europeans being soft I had to listen to an entire day by the way of TSN and sportset talking about how Darko rakovich was a soft dude and they didn’t know that he was tough you don’t know that a guy who climbed from the leagues that he’s come
From 16 years old coaching going grinding you don’t think this guy’s tough you needed him to swear at referees and get angry for you to know that he could hack it as a coach him making it to the spot at 44 wasn’t enough for you this is how North Americans unfortunately frame European
People European players unless of course they’re Russian Russia escapes any notion of anything because you know their Global leader is just such a tough guy no shade to Russians I like Russian people what I’m saying is that this bias has nothing to do with him as a basketball player but you know
It does have something to do with him as a basketball player him ascending and getting past all these barriers to Garner so much fanfare and support during the championship run to have people finally push past their biases to become supporters of him to to see him as more
Than that African prospect that we overlooked in the draft to get to the point where they could see him as a fantastic basketball player who won an NBA championship and is one of the rising stars in the league you know today we talk about Scotty as the guy
Who we didn’t trade for Kevin Durant guess what Paul George in all fairness at the moment the Raptors declined to trade Pascal SE yakum for him was a better player and a younger player than Kevin Durant was last season I don’t remember Pascal seak being called the player we didn’t trade for Paul
George to keep kawh Leonard You Know the Way the season the 2018 2019 19 season went just to keep things a buck regardless of how things ended up for the Clippers I just want to be clear Paul Pier Paul Paul George finished top five in MVP voting that year and kawh Leonard
Was deemed the baddest man on the planet and the best player the Raptors rejected allegedly supposedly pairing two of the top five players in the NBA because of how much they believed in Pascal SE yakum at that moment take that moment in time and Flash Forward to three months
Ago when the Toronto Raptors refused to offer Pascal seaka a maximum extension people say foul people say it’s dirty people say this and that but everything that I described as a bias against yakum which is to say mistrust over his origin story the continent that
He comes from and where he went in the draft and how people viewed him in the draft anchoring what they see in him now these are not biases that should ever impact the Toronto Raptors because they have an African president who saw him and who has always drafted supported traded for
African players and has spotted seaka much earlier than the average person and so he doesn’t have as much mistrust there aren’t as many to fill for messiah jery he’s seen him grow right for a lot of other people they basically noticed him in his second or third year as a
Serious Prospect in New Mexico State Messi is tracted all the way through as a scout he’s been aware of seak so there’s no like oh he caught me sleeping and now I’m going to mistrust him for the rest of my life and there’s no he’s he’s from Cameroon and therefore I have
A bias against him so how is it that the organization that has the African president that has the African president that drafted him supported him held him out of Paul George trades held him out of a trade that could have potentially tilted the balance of whether or not kawhai Leonard
Came back after winning a championship that they believed this much in this dude which is as much Faith as they’ shown as they’ve shown in Scotty Barnes today by the way if not more how is it that that dude didn’t jump at the idea of signing Pascal SE yakum to an extension
What must have happened in the four years between those two events to tilt his opinion so much and how much is his opinion currently tilting what other front offices are seeing give this video a like if this makes sense so far be very curious I think for a lot of
People accurately saying the bubble tilted their perspective on Pascal seaka a lot of people when I talk about the bubble the second thing that comes up is Pascal SE yakum when you think Raptors bubble SE yakum it’s a word association game that nobody wants to play but it’s
True has no star ever melted down in a playoff series sure T happen tons of times has no star ever underperformed how bad was he he wasn’t that bad he wasn’t that bad he actually wasn’t that bad just an FYI you remember Pascal SE yakum failing the
Bubble go back and actually look at his stats go look at his defense he wasn’t that bad he was bad but he wasn’t that bad he didn’t quit you know he tried he just he didn’t have it it’s not like he soft quit on his team I mean LeBron
James and Kobe Bryant two of arguably and understandably the best players of all time have quit in a playoff series how are we chastising a guy who during the global pandemic had a really really rough two series which is a span of what they they swept the Nets or they beat
The Nets in five I don’t know I remember we’re talking 11 games 11 games in a sample which includes 700 plus games played as a as a pro how is it or 600 plus games 500 plus games he’s played a lot of games how is it that we mistrust
This so badly based on one thing Paradise loss thing and be’s always bad in the playoffs uh Shadow Warrior saying you landed Scotty because of bubble me no that’s not true uh Tampa was when you landed Scotty Barnes you landed him after Tampa Scotty never played in Tampa you got your years
Confused so we’re talking 11 games four games against the Nets in which were which were a sweep and Pascal zakum started every one of those games do we judge a player who just didn’t show up to the bubble as much as we show up to as much as we chastise
Pascal seak for failing in the bubble no Kyrie Irving still got a Max contract after that he didn’t show up in the bubble he was stirring up controversy and asking people to boycott the NBA Where’s the Love of the Game for that James Harden has you know I don’t
Like to say this but James Harden has fully quit on like three teams I mean there’s a lot of mistrust around James Harden and Ben Simmons right now but these dudes just flat out refuse to play Pascal seak has never done that so what gives would the
Mistrust I can’t speak for anybody else but I can speak for a few people that I’ve talked to and for myself and I think if I reflect on my conversations at the time look back on my emails at the time look back on some of my
Facebook post at the time I think the one question that nobody ever fully got over was how did a person who loves basketball quit basketball for four months and I think that to understand this you have to understand Pascal I think a little bit better it’s the same
Reason that a guy who lives in a city for six years doesn’t use public transit for six years he’s a very large human being to anyone who said at the time that he could have just gone to a playground really could he it’s not very safe some players would Scotty would
Right Charles Barkley would man of the people but a guy who is like Pascal seak you have to identify the personality type oh the world is dying I’m not going outside you need to really listen to this dude to understand who he is him he
Got on a street car this is a true story he got on a street car for the first time uh two years after the bubble two years ago and he got off within one stop and said that he checked it off his list that experience was so uncomfortable for
Him I don’t like to judge people for for things about their childhood that I don’t understand but I can certainly understand that certain people have routines patterns to those who say that he could have just found a gym here hell yes he could have don’t shut that down hell yes he could have
The lockdown didn’t stop anybody from going out to walk their dog or whatever so it doesn’t stop a multi-millionaire athlete from putting on a mask I don’t know like getting into an elevator and getting shuttled over to a basketball court which he can rent out underground he has millions of
Dollars he could have done that people always bring up the Visa stuff to shut down the discussion which other people want to have which is how does someone who loves basketball not not pick up a basketball for four months seems crazy in the midst of the NBA lock you know
The the NBA season could start any minute even ahead of the season and I guess the other question is how does a guy fall so out of shape that he becomes a shell of himself but I think what part you know by shutting down the discussion you
Refuse to have the discussion you don’t explore the part of don’t people who have most of their extended family in another continent go through something different I remember at the time feeling a lot of empathy for marcool because his entire family a lot of his family was in
Spain and Spain was going through a massive wave while the while the team was in the bubble you saw maral’s play in the bubble too right he wasn’t himself he wasn’t as good as he was the year before he fall off he fell off quick but people
Attributed that to age how much of that was actually attributed to the worries that he probably felt for his friends and family back home I think Pascal seum is no different how much could the worry of my extended family being over there shouldn’t there have been an extra bit
Of empathy but because people were so quick to shut down and because the pile on of people who attacked him were so racist we immediately shut down that entire chapter and said we will not talk about it because somebody who by the way last year did the same damn thing when
He was struggling when he was struggling last year or was it the year before I don’t know he went through an extended period of struggle and I saw somebody start another gof fund me or some sort of change.org petition to send him back to and it’s conversations like that that
Make a make having a conversation like this impossible because you never want to dog whistle to people who have that belief but you also don’t want to not have the disc discussion because the discussion is worth having I think last year look as somebody who called out the
FED van thing very early please please understand this not just me talking to trainers Scouts and and trying to piece together things I try to piece together things that maybe people aren’t listening to and I I’ll listen to every single time a player has talked to the
Media if Pascal sakam has talked on a podcast to the media if Scotty Barnes has talked to a podcaster media if Grady dick or any player on the Raptors has talked in public in any language you better believe I’ve heard it and I’ve logged it people tell you the truth even when
They don’t want to there are things about themselves that they reveal constantly and it’s not quack science it’s not pseudo science it’s science science people say things they structure structure ideas they they they expose inconsist inconsistencies you know if someone’s story changes drastically in the two
Times they tell it over the span of six weeks it’s a very good sign of deception if someone tells the same story four times and they never change the words of that story and it is constructed and rehearsed that’s also a good sign of deception there’s honest behavior and
It’s pretty it’s pretty obvious when people are being straight up and honest with you I think if you’re trained and you’re experienced in telling what is honest what is an honest answer to a question I think you probably gauge when someone I don’t know this it’s weird like being dishonest is very
Uncomfortable for the speaker but it’s also extremely unsettling for The Listener you just have to learn to tune into that and I think that over the years as Pascal seak has talked on podcasts and talked to the media and answered you know some of these insane dumb questions by the media
That that exist in Toronto I think you’ve gotten a really good insight into who he is I don’t know Pascal zakum so I can just gauge what the concern is at this point so let me ask now the seven questions well let me set this up first two summers ago the Toronto
Raptors approached Pascal yakum with an extension offer they also approached Fred Van vet with an extension offer there had been room r that seak was not offered a full year full four years I will reject these rumors I think he was and there’ be absolutely no reason for him not to the
Only question I have is was he offered the fifth year at that time and I would not be surprised if he was he was coming off the Raptors are coming off a beautiful season in which despite having an injured Fred Van they were trending up they had the Rookie of the Year and
Scotty Barnes Pascal seak had redeemed himself in terms of you know playoff performances he had proven to at least the front office and to himself that he could perform in the playoffs that the bubble is in the past and he had his best playoff series in my opinion he had
His best playoff series as a number one guy he proved that he could be the leading scorer on a good team and you know from the Raptor side they thought hey if Fred’s healthy if if Pascal is you know this guy going forward and Scotty gets a
Little bit better next year we could be really really good I think when will show you who they are believe them my Angelo coot but also I think it’s good to read how front offices tend to deal with information too is there a type of prospect that
They keep favoring over another type of prospect that might be useful is there a predictable pattern in how they gauge the success and failure of their teams so for instance was going seven games under 500 some magic number that cued the OG and and Obi trade well it’s the
Same number that ceed the Rudy Gay trade this is a pattern of how people think about numbers right so with Pascal cakam I think it would be crazy to assume that he wasn’t offered an extension because and I’ll tell you why because that year itself and the next year the Raptors acted exactly
Consistently with who you know they are which is a team that has always tried to show players faith they wanted to show Kyle Faith they wanted to show Serge Faith they wanted to show Demari Carroll Faith they’ve always tried to overpay their guys they’ve always tried to do that the only
Times where they have walked off of a contract or walked back off of a contract or maybe not made an offer that was super generous consider all of Kyle’s you know contracts through the years they never tried to lowball him do you know that Kyle almost left to take
Less money to play in San Antonio like I mean come on his market value there wasn’t another team in a league that was willing to offer him 30 did we lowball him because of that nope took care of him at this point I believe it’s worth
Noting that it would be really hard for me to believe and very hard for someone else to prove to me or to anyone that Pas galak was not offered an extension however because he had made all NBA twice and he had a realistic expectation that if the team continued to be
Successful that he could make all NBA again he decided hey let me bet on myself why am I saying bet on yourself am I trying to cue you up for some sort of duplicitous cross comparison between he and Freddy no those are his words actually he said I’m going to bet on
Myself like my man Freddy he literally said it go back and W and find the interview I promise you he said it I think the proximity between him and Fred cannot be understated these two were co- captains of the team last year and believe me if he found what Fred Van was
Doing particularly egregious specifically the stat padding than videos from that Charlotte game saying my bad when he missed a layup in the midst of a blowout by the way would never have made the rounds they would have never been on because they would have never happened this is a guy who
Helped his co- Captain specifically in certain games hijacked the offense in order to Pat his stats in order to get a better contract the concept of get the bag and this culture of when things go bad I just look out for myself comes from Nick
Nurse in my opinion why do I say this because I have listen to Nick nurse talk on the record hundreds of times about how he motivates players he motivates them by dangling green bags of money if you make this sacrifice you can make all MBA if you make this sacrifice you
Can get a bigger contract make this sacri he’s not really talking about team success because Nick nurse is motivating people by what he’s motivated by money if you make this sacrifice you can be a starter next year let’s build you up to that how do you get someone to
Buy in is so important do you like consider this if you’re a parent out there how do you get your kids to eat vegetables I want to know do you give them sermons about the value of you know eating vegetables do you uh bribe them do you say if you eat the
Vegetables if you’re like most if you’re like most parents you probably bribe your kids or are you totally toxic and you threaten your kids if you don’t eat your vegetables going to beat the crap out of you if you’re that type of parent off but seriously most parents bribe
Their kids to do things that they don’t want to do and I think a lot of coaches also bribe their kid they’re uh but not with you know funny bribes like I’ll take you all to dinner and you can rack up the bill and haha we can all have an
Expense at the you know at the Young firsttime coach who has to pay this you know enormous Bill everyone talks about Darko you know pizza party it’s not a pizza party relax he’s going to take them to a really nice restaurant and they’re going to have a little bit of
Fun on his expense they do this to Rookies as well by the way that’s where he got it from that there was a hazing ritual once um with a rookie that I will not name where his teammates brought him to a a um they made some sort of deal
With him that if he couldn’t make this number of Threes that he had to buy the team dinner and he just agreed to it and he missed and this was I think the Raptors I don’t want to clue it too much so it was between 2006 and 2010 that’s a
Pretty wide range and that player had to basically buy dinner for his team and he thought that he was going to have to pay a couple thousand dollars they wacked up the bill to I think 18 Grand on that dinner so this is the tradition that Darko is insisting on paying so now
Combined with his $25,000 fine plus you know plus the potentially $18,000 this could be like a $80,000 bill so anyways Darko is gonna play pay a pretty penny that point aside let me I I digress perfect so how you motivate people and I believe that Pascal seak
For OG anobi all of these players came into a culture where the head coach was motivating by dangling the carrot of money and opportunity and greener pastures when it came to being able to take care of their family being and when you invite when you bring that dangling
Of carrot which goes away from building good team habits becoming the best basketball player letting the money take care of itself and rather the money becomes the objective within your locker room which it wasn’t with Kyle and DeMar just to be clear like those guys didn’t
Make it about that they made it about winning they made it about you know let’s beat this team in the playoffs it wasn’t until really those guys left that you left a vacuum to be reinterpreted and I think that it was really Nick nurse I believe it was Nick nurse from
Everything I’ve heard from Nick nurse and everything I’ve heard about Nick nurse that seems to be how he motivates people even right now how do you get go how do you motivate Joel embiid to completely change his play style you you poke you say oh they say Nicole yic is still
A better player let me turn you into a player who can do all the stuff that yic can do you want to become more of an elbow extended passer you want to become more of a playmaker see this is how you motivate people but this is not has nothing to do with Team
Success you’re not motivating Joel and B by team success you’re actually taking what is the ugliest part of our personalities which is a a need of individual glory and magnifying it to the level of trying to confine it within a team context so you assume that if you
Can motivate Pascal with the concept of we can make you all NBA right like consider how Darko motivates people I’m not trying to do a Darko and and nurse cross comparison here but in a weird way it is going to extend into one consider how he motivates a player like Scotty
Barnes do you think he’s going up to Scotty Barnes and saying every single day if you do this you’ll get a super max do you think that conversation has ever been broed between these two people think about about it because I guarantee you that that if Nick nurse was in Scott
You know Nick nurse was in dark ghost situation right now then he would be trying to gently nudge and push Scotty Barnes into taking more shots to become an Allstar do you want to become an All-Star and this is the problem when you consider how Scotty addresses nurse or their
Relationship you pretty much very conclusively come to terms with the fact that they didn’t see the game of basketball the same way he’s not one of those people that could be motivated by an All-Star selection or all MBA you know he is in the midst of campaigning for
Allstar his shot attempts last night should tell you he doesn’t care he’s never cared about that stuff noting all of these things are worth noting piecing together so where are the Raptors with Pascal seum I think they are on the cusp of a divorce and I think last year
Played a huge part into it but I think it’s been coming for a while I think last year they noticed their team culture I think they had a real wakeup call last year I think they really really saw themselves I think they had an existential crisis if I’m being
Honest and I hope I always hope that it’s some part of what this channel did to do the low lights and expose and change the conversation around this team last year as completely ridiculous as it may seem to some some people who are coming into this late thinking how could
A Channel with you know at the time four 5,000 followers or 4,000 5,000 subscribers have done anything to swing The Narrative on a you know a multi-billion dollar organization and how that’s being run I would like to think that we did I would like to think
That when I would go on Twitter or Reddit or real JM and listen to the talking points around the team that I knew that we were the channel that brought those talking points up and the conversation around Pascal yakum not being a playoff number one this was not a
Topic that was explored very deeply before we brought it up I promise you check the receipts the internet is free go check go check everyone talking about Pascal sakam last October last October go listen to our VI our video last year go listen to every you know Raptors Republic Raptor digress whatever go
Listen to all of those guys mbf go listen to all of them see what they were saying look at our talking points see where we are a year later it’s not not necessarily me patting myself on the back it’s me trying to say that yeah you
Know what screw it it is me patting myself on the back you know I’m actually very very happy to be early on things and it’s it it takes guts because it also takes a lot of whips you get a lot of punches to the face when you’re early
On things when you try to when you try to go against what other people are saying you don’t you don’t get like when you just go with what other people think no one criticizes you because your opinion doesn’t stand out when every single person or every content creator
In the city is talking about him being an MVP candidate and you’re saying he’s not a top 20 player he never will be I think or he’s never going to be a top 10 player ever but he’s not a top 20 player right now and these are all the things
That are wrong with him you stick out do you ever wonder why the smallest dog doesn’t like gets picked on do you ever wonder why the the black sheep like why that concept even came up because nobody wants to stand apart nobody wants to stand apart in a in an age where content
Is judged by views and controversy nobody wants to be standing out for the wrong reasons only the right reasons so the video saying that I am an idiot or I am stupid or I am this or I am that that will get tons you can tell I’m not completely
Over the vitriolic response to that video last year it still stirs up a little bit of anger but I want to say that at the time last year things were going well for the Raptors and I believe had it been possible at the time to sign an extension with with
Pascal seak that the Raptors would have agreed I believe despite the fact that Fred Van denied that he was offered an extension and then later in a podcast confirmed that he was so just capping and lying the rumor broke that he was offered a in the midst of a cold Streak
By the way in the midst of a terrible cold streak where he was shooting a bismal numbers Fred Van vet let somebody let it leak trust me it wasn’t the Raptors because what advantage would it be for them to leak that now Fred van Le himself leaked I believe I believe let
Me not get sued here I believe that someone close to Fed vly leaked the story that he was offered four years 104 in order to stabilize his market value and then he came out and denied the rumor that he rejected 4 years 104 I can know I can’t
Say that I was that was never happened and then later said that he that he had rejected that exact contract why would you offer Fred Van B an extension the guy who didn’t even make it through the playoffs and not offer the best player on the team that extension of course you
Would if you’re signing Fred there’s no point in losing Pascal is it a tandem so naturally if ever anyone tries to deny this concept that the Raptors offered Pascal seak the m maximum contract at that time they’d be crazy of course they did of course they did they
Wanted to secure him but something happened between last year and this year to change their thinking because allegedly the rumors and the reports came out this year that the Raptors haven’t offered him an extension there was of course the disastrous media day in which you know Messiah jury in addressing cakam also in
Tandem addressed selfishness which some people accurately inaccurately maybe you know prematurely assumed was him calling out seak for being selfish in which case you know naturally um a lot of people were very disturbed his fans especially how could you call a player like this selfish he’s a champion he’s a
Two-time all NBA he’s a he’s a this he’s a that look look at how good he is but one thing is for sure if the Raptors offered seak an extension the reporting that we’ve heard is that he would sign it so why haven’t they here are the seven questions sorry
For taking 48 minutes to get there the first question I would ask is does he really want to be here the reporting is all he won’t sign anywhere else he won’t sign an extension with anyone else but is that true number one I don’t think it’s true and I hope
The Raptors know it’s not true okay it’s not about him wanting to be here wanting to be anywhere else it’s about approaching free agency with the maximum amount of Leverage why did Fred vanley in the midst of an entire fan base turning on him not demand a trade to his Target
Destination last year why because in order to approach free agency with the Absol absolute maximum maximum value you have to have the maximum negotiation power which means the maximum counter offers the maximum interest the Toronto Raptors if they trade Pascal cakam can no longer be a Suitor for Pascal
Yakum do you understand basic basic math let me put it this way the Toronto Raptors are in a very very sticky situation where they cannot afford to lose Pascal cakam for nothing regardless of whether they think he’s worth a Max fiveyear Max fouryear Max if he approaches free agency with this team
He knows deep down that they can’t afford to lose him which means that at the very least he will have one offer on the table that is guaranteed to be used as leverage against all other offers think about what I just said think about it like really freaking think about
It this team can offer him five years of generational changing life-changing family changing money right so you have to ask yourself does he really want to be here or is this one of the teams that if they traded him would now be off the table for his Services Raptor Nation any team can
Offer him five years with his bird rights via trade correct and we will get to that but worth noting as it currently stands the current market for Pascal sakam is as follows the Toronto Raptors plus every single team that wants him the minute the Raptors were to trade him
One less team would be at the negotiation table does that make sense because the team that would trade serious assets for him right now could still be engaged in an act in talks in the off season for a sign in trade does that make sense like if the Raptors
Really don’t want to keep him they could still sign him to the fiveyear and then trade him to that team which means that he still secures the five years but if he goes to another team and they could offer him the five years but let’s say they they were neeg and
They say you know we want to offer you three years because you didn’t have a great second half of the Season our playoffs did not go well you won’t have the Raptors on the other side of it to be able to say cares your five years think about it right
So you have to ask yourself does he actually want to be here and why would he want to be here here his fan basee has turned on him several times half the fan base wants him gone the front office does not want to extend him an
Offer why would he want to be here the team is not winning the team is significantly under 500 this is exactly when most stars who care about winning demand a trade or privately ask out you have a future MVP you know type of you know prospect there maybe that’s
Very premature face of the league dark ROV is getting to me too at least the future Allstar at the very least and the future face of the franchise and Scotty Barnes who plays roughly the same position and is on a completely different timeline Fred mentioned it I
Saw where things were going in Toronto end quote quote quote end quote so how does how does Pascal seak not see it well when we talk to Jake fiser on you know on the Twitter spaces he said all I’m hearing is that he just wants to get paid Raptors are good for business
Business because the Raptors are the one team that absolutely cannot afford to lose them which means they are the one team that will absolutely be leveraged against in a contract negotiation I’ll bet my life on this if his agent knows what he’s doing he would guide him to
Stay with the Raptors if I was his agent and I wasn’t a raptor fan I would guide him to stay with the Raptors because this is a secure organization that does not do their players dirty at all even after everything that happened fedan they were still the largest counter
Offer for for fedan services and he used that to get the maximum offer from Houston this is good business this is not me shaming anyone for getting the biggest contract But please understand this is how it works number two how does Pascal SE yakum fit with Scotty IQ RJ and darko’s
Offense honestly really well I think this is is my answer as a as a if I was MSU jury he’s a transition offensive guy he’s having one of his best half court efficiency Seasons he’s clearly bought into some of the offensive principles because he’s moving more without the
Basketball he’s shooting the ball a lot better I would be absolutely and he’s got the switch ability with OG and precious out he might be one of the last remaining 69 you know Vision 69 remnants why would I trade him of course basketball-wise he fits surely he fits like from a purely theoretical
Standpoint you’d be very lucky to get a player back who becomes half the player Pascal yakum becomes has become or is and currently is and may be for the next four years so why would you take away Scotty’s best teammate right now if your goal is to win you don’t have draft
Picks what are you doing so in terms of the does he fit sure does he fit as well as certain other players could maybe not is he a top 50 fit like if I take that starting lineup and I say okay give me one player and I could pick any player
In the league where would he go in that draft right I could pick any player which means I could pick Luca LeBron ad0 whatever where does he go in the list of guys I want as the fifth starter with that unit I think maybe not top 50 so it’s
Worth noting that despite the fact that he fits well enough he may not be the optimal fit so I’ll weigh this as a front office number three let me just add this to the one does he actually want to be here and his business motivations this was a big watershed
Moment you know we’re watching Scotty barns right now uh deal with the Fallout of losing OG to the point where he’s bringing up OG in postgame pressers like 10 games 10 days after OG was traded saying you know we had this type of guy he used to be my teammate
That was a little tongue and cheek from Scotty Barnes but you can tell that players do get close and for Pascal yakum his welcome to the NBA moment was demard D rozan getting traded for kaad Leonard you know what’s interesting um actually I I’ll address that with Point number
Seven but watching this front office quote unquote do Demar dirty and naturally you know Demar says I text I text Pascal every day I test I text those guys Freddy every single day he’s still in touch with those guys this guy hates your president he didn’t talk to
Him for years even two years after that ordeal someone said would you talk to him today he said nothing to talk about do you understand that this guy DeMar rosen was in your franchise players’s ear every single day how is it possible ask yourself the very human question if
One of your best friends like let’s say you work at a company right be honest you work at a company you have a best friend or a mentor who mentored you into that company and your boss fired them without cause no notice and withheld their pay just kicked them out of the office
Yelled at them screamed at them told them to off kick them out of the office they went home they’re texting you you meet up with them for a beer you ask what happened they say this boss did this to me how quickly would you quit that company how quickly would you start
Looking other places you would never trust that boss ever no matter how well things ever went you would never trust this dude and this is the Raptor’s blind spot that every single person every single person who was close to Dear immediately became 10 to 20% less trusting a messiah and it never changed
Never changed not not with Kyle nope not with Kyle not with Demar not with surge not maybe maybe with surge maybe with Danny because he they understood the business but in that moment loyal nice guy who supports players he drafts Persona went off Cutthroat business guy
Who will do what is necessary to win the championship came on and while it is perfectly ethical what he did it was not forgotten because of the reputation that he built up and because of how hard Demar took it and his personal response to it and his extended
Extended toxic um media interviews about it I know dear went through some stuff I have a lot of empathy for him but I don’t think he went about dealing with this the right way basically tarnished Messi jer’s reputation a guy who had shown him endless faith it wasn’t right and Messiah jury
Never slung mud mud back they never talked about the things dear didn’t do when he was here you never heard a rumor dear was one of my favorite players but I can tell you when that Fiasco ended the only person who I lost respect for was
Dear the only person I lost respect for in that whole situation was dear not MSI jury okay number three what are Pascal yakin’s long-term goals and motivations I need to know this if I’m extending this guy 5 years through his 30 I need to know what are his long-term
Goals and motivations and as it comes to long-term goals and motivations I think I need to let the behavior dictate if your long-term goal and motivation is to win a championship then I need to know why you as a 30-year-old in his prime fast approaching his decline regardless of how go- go gadget
Superhuman person you think Pascal seak is regardless of what you think the effects of basketball starting basketball late are there’s no chance in hell he’s a better player at 32 than he is today let me make that let me amend that there’s no chance in hell that he’s
A better player at 33 than he is today there’s almost like a 99% certainty that he will be a worse player at 33 he’s not worth a Max right now he’s not in my opinion but this is just me thinking about this a little bit this isn’t always how contracts are negotiated by
The way there’s a lot of reasons why guys get paid a little bit more than they’re actually worth but I want to say in terms of onc Court impact if I look at the wind shares boxes minus value replacement team success anything I test whatever you gauge basketball by I don’t
See a max player when I look at bascal seak right now I see a fringe 35 million guy which is a hair above what I see Guy score Fringe 30 million guys and maybe I could sell myself on a Max contract but I need to know what his long-term goals and motivations
Are if your goal is winning a championship then I need to know why you want to be here right kind of goes back to the first one if your goal is you know team success and building this culture then I want to understand you know why you I want to understand completely how
You allowed things to go so bad under your watch last year when we’ve elevated you to leader we have not been successful I need to know how you feel about that and I cannot suffer through another that’s not my job response a go-to response by the way
That Pascal yakum has gone to very many times if your goal is winning all NBA then I need to understand how you’re coming out this season playing the way you are if your goal is championships or is your goal not championships should I pay a lot of attention to your goal being different
Than the things that I want this team to be about for instance when asked on Sergio baca’s show how hungry are you what his response was when Pas when when he found out that kawh Leonard was leaving I need you to ask yourself if you were the second best player
Allegedly the second leading scorer on a championship team and had just won a championship and your goal was winning how would you respond to the best player in the world ch Ching not to sign with you how would you interpret that information I think if I’m speaking for myself I don’t know about
You I would be very upset I would be very upset I would be heartbroken I would be broken I would be shattered I mean eventually I would get up from it yeah and I would try to do my best but I’d be very sad just like Vince was really sad when
Tracy MC left just like Kevin Durant was very pissed when James Harden left just like Joel embiid you know who probably you know cares a lot about individual as well any player would be upset that their best teammate left especially when their best teammate just carried them to a
Championship but do you know what Pascal saku’s response was he rubbed his hands together and said more shots for me Fred Van said something very similar he said well I don’t want to misquote Fred bble and he’s not on this team but he said something to the effect of more money
For us basically that this Championship was going to have basically this Championship had presented this team that had won the championship with good grace at Equity right and eventually someone was going to get paid for it and everyone got paid for it nurse negotiators contract Messiah jury got a massive deal with you
Know all sorts of perks that he would have never gotten if not for a championship Nick nurse got an extended leash you know with the fan base I think a lot of players got an extended leash with the fan base I think Pascal sakam was able to survive that bubble meltdown
And his admission that he had not touched a basketball in four months which caught everyone very much by surprise by the way when he said it because of the championship right but what are your long-term goals and motivations if your response to kawh Leonard is signing with the Clippers was
More shots for me I think your long-term goal is more shots for you no what are you know all all we heard was fed Van’s a winner fed van this fed’s that right f opted to go to Houston because they paid him the most money the fact that they’re winning is
Incidental do you think he could have gone to a team that was much closer to contending but they couldn’t offer him and wouldn’t offer him $43 million how much you think Philly would have offered Fred bamble right now to be a back court mate oh they wouldn’t have started him
But like I mean they could have made it work they had Nick nurse there they could have they start could have started an undersized back court he could have played with a real MVP candidate in Joel embiid he could have gone to the Milwaukee Buck I’m sure he could have
Gone to Milwaukee Bucks he could have gone to a team that was a lot better than the Orlando Magic I’m sorry the Houston Rockets but he bet on himself again and he took the maximum amount of money and I’ll guarantee you that if some team in freaking the Middle East
Were in Dubai I had offered him $150 million to come play for them he’d be playing there right now some people are bought by money no shade no shade on those people I grew up with very not very much money um but I will say for sure that there is a
Reason to believe that his long-term goals and motivations are very stamed in money number four how do the other 29 teams actually feel about him you know if I’m signing this guy to a 5-year deal I need to know who likes him who really likes him which front office which
General manager out there has been very anxious to bring him into the program might just be waiting for the right opportunity might just be waiting for asset to Pop might just be waiting for some draft luck I think the Raptors got a really good gauge on who felt what
About OG and anobi I think they got a really good idea that hey Dallas really likes OG New York really likes OG you know this is what they were willing to offer for him etc etc Philly really likes OG the the thinking and the Intel and the data that you gauge from three
Years of trade discussions for Pascal SE yakum with Atlanta with with Indiana with New York with all sorts of teams is invaluable because every time somebody presents you an offer you get not only Intel and how they feel about their own players but how they feel about your
Players Bobby Webster has talked about this extensively and I suggest that maybe after dangling this guy for three years I’m starting to understand that maybe the other 20 29 teams don’t feel as bullish on him as I’ve felt for the last few years number five how will his game
Age I think that players who age well typically have a couple of characteristics I don’t think Pascal yakum has most of those characteristics one that he does have is that he has had a solid track record of being in shape and that it’s not quite the Oliver
Miller Shan Kemp situation I also think another thing that bodess well for him touchwood is that he has not exhibited the sign of having off Court demons specifically gambling addictions strip clubs of thoughts Etc the types of things that can ruin anyone really so I think the fact that he keeps
His nose clean and the fact that he works really hard and that he’s had a very professional approach to his body for most if not all of his career and that he has touched what again not been overly injury-prone should be a very good thing for plus aging well what
Would not be a great track record for aging well is he is a fast twitch athlete approaching age 30 he a he has been on a slow decline the last couple of years and if you try try to extend that chart forward it extends very
Poorly for him he is not an overly large player physically like typically a seven-footer will age a little bit better than a guy who’s 69 um who will age better than a guy who’s 6 feet you know it’s not a hard and fast rule but typically the bigger you are the better
You age unless of course you are chronically injured case in point arvita sabonis with no you know with no kneecaps or no ACLS or whatever he had uh was able to come in and be one of the top 25 to 30 players even well past his
Prime in his late 30s for the for the Portland Trailblazers he’s huge he 7 foot2 um so I just want to say that players who shoot well are not necessarily overly relying on athleticism and players who think the game more than feel the game are not instinctually bursty
Athletes um are more like students of the game thinkers of the game like like obsessed with the game like uh demard de R rozan types I think those are the guys who age really well um maybe even guys who didn’t play very much guys who have low miles that’s another thing I I’ll
Tack on for goods for Pascal SE yakum so there’s three things that attack well for he will age well number one low miles number two um let’s say four there are four things for and and a bunch of things against and we’ll talk about the against part at
The end but the four things for are started basketball late number one low miles so he didn’t play like a huge number of minutes through most of his career because he played a lot of his career out during years that he would have otherwise been in the NBA he was um
Not either a not playing basketball and B in college where they don’t play 82 games a year so effectively when you look at his games played they are lower than almost any other player who’s really good that’s his age right so that makes sense so that means that Jason
Tatum by the time he gets to Pascal siakam’s age with the combination of playoffs deep runs Etc will will have probably played twice as many games as Pascal sakam not all 30 30 year olds are equal um and when you take into consideration the fact that he really takes care of
His body body and the fact that he has low miles and the fact that he keeps his nose clean and he takes care of his body and he’s been relatively injury not injury-prone I think those are all very good feathers in your cap that he will continue to be a really good player
However the lack of shooting consistent shooting success and combined with the lack of post game necessarily like I mean he has a post game but his game is not built on size and strength but rather quickness and Agility um that he really could be a player who’s one Serious injury away from a
Falloff that you can’t repair also once again the decline in his analytics and stats over the last couple of years um there is not like some upward trajectory that some people think there is there just hasn’t been it’s just doesn’t exist it’s not real right okay going on to question number
Six what’s available for him I don’t even understand this question I wrote it down and now I’m struggling to understand what’s available for him ah yes okay now I understand it I phrased that weird as in before I sign him to an extension I need
To know what I could get in a trade so I need to weigh out the cons the pros and cons of actually bringing him back versus not bringing him back and I’ll do that in part by weighing out what is the price for him that someone is willing to
Pay right now which means is my extending him costing me three first round picks and a young player that I really like or is it more like the Fred Van vet Auer plus a little bit of Grayson Allen and a second round pick you see what I
Mean if it’s Grayson Allen and a second round pick or in this case you know Harrison Barnes Kevin herder and a and a second round pick that’s being offered because teams are so worried that he’s going to leave well then maybe I don’t have to do that this you know maybe I do
Resign him and I take because either case I mean it’s not like Kevin hder and and Harrison Barnes can’t fall off a cliff right I mean either way I’m taking a chance on somebody might as well take a chance on a better player that I know right but am I declining jarus Walker
Kobe buffkin Ona kongu type deals like do you see what I mean and number seven the biggest predictor in my opinion of whether a player will succeed or whether they will fail after they signed the big contract go through the history of the worst contracts in NBA history un unless we’re talking about
Like crazy injury stories like brand like I don’t know Brandon Roy or something like that in almost all cases you’re talking about a player that didn’t love the game very much I’m glad that I put this part later in the live because I feel like this is the part that’s most controversial
I think a lot of people are obsessed with the game not obsessed with training not obsessed with getting in the gym but actually the game they live basketball breathe basketball talk basketball they love basketball they watch basketball every day their whole lives are basketball I’m not saying you have to be
That obsessed necessarily but kobby Bryant love basketball there’s no doubt in my mind that when Kobe was at a retreat with his family that all he was doing was thinking about basketball and talking about basketball and watching basketball a particular example of this is how much of the league do you
Actually understand how much of league history do you understand if I if I had a media pass I would ask Pascal sakam who is artist Gilmore who is artist Gilmore I would ask him I would ask him who’s George gerbin I would ask him I would ask him who’s Dale Davis who’s Brian
Graham who’s Rick smithz how many players in the league currently can you name whose name big begins with a and I would watch him crumble on a microphone now you might say that’s irrelevant how can it be irrelevant imagine asking yourself you play in the NBA you’re telling me you’re in scouting
Meetings you’re playing against these players bro you don’t know the names of the other teams the players their coaches you don’t know ask him who’s coaching like honestly ask him who’s coaching the the Hornets right now just ask ask him and watch his mind evaporate what I’m saying is when you’re obsessed
With something it’s obvious I don’t need to tell people I’m obsessed with basketball I talk about basketball all the time I don’t need to I didn’t need to convince my teammates when I was growing up that I was obsessed with basketball I played basketball in the
Snow I built a spot on the court when it would snow and I would shovel it and I would play basketball at 2 a.m. I’ve been obsessed with basketball my whole life which means that when someone is not obsessed with basketball it sticks out to me really badly
I don’t think past alak was sucess with basketball I give you two examples number one I’ll tell you um amen Thompson and assar Thompson were asked to name players like whose names begin with a and I believe it was like NBA history yo these guys went on and on
And on I think they beat each went like 26 or 27 deep it was crazy the names they were bringing up man I was like holy like these these dudes they study this back and they had it it wasn’t like you know let me Google this real quick
It was they had it it was in the back of their hand I watched Pascal yakum 30 games of the last season be genuinely surprised was like 40 games 40 games almost 40 games into last season just check whenever the hell they played the the Sacramento Kings I can’t remember
Exactly but the Sacramento Kings were a story in the NBA they’re Resurgence they’re a completely dilapidated franchise that’s finally having a good season and he was asked about playing them and he said are they are they good and it wasn’t tongue and cheek it wasn’t like one of those Angola what’s Angola I
Don’t know who who Angola is but you know Angola’s in trouble from Charles Barkley no he was genuinely surprised that the Sacramento Kings were good and I was like this dude does not watch basketball the Sacramento Kings like the beam was like the story of the
Freaking season man it was like one of the five biggest stories of the Season you you could not have opened ESPN or even turned on any game without being some sort of mention of Pas you know of of Sacramento being good how do you not know that I’m I’m
I’m genuinely forget naming you know what college Harrison Barnes went to or what college even Steph Curry went to I bet you he doesn’t know the answer to those two questions but I just want to know how a player plays in the NBA is getting ready
To play a team and not know that team is good and his only comment about it was oh well Rico is there maybe that’s why they’re good well Rico actually left maybe that’s why they’re good my concept actually on this was it that was such a huge tell that you don’t follow the
League that you are currently a member of that everything about SE yakum that you’ve seen like when he talks to or about players it’s not extended is it possible like for an all-nba guy to be like tight like why is he not close to any other NBA stars you know I
Mean there A lot has been made of Giannis not being super close to NBA stars but he’s still close to those guys he doesn’t train with them he’s still close to them why does it feel like Pascal seum is not in that fraternity why does it feel like he
Doesn’t have a relationship with these other top players does that make sense like you understand what I’m saying why does it feel like there is no real relationship like there’s never been an extended conversation between him and Kevin Durant and how difficult has it been for
You as a f as a as a franchise to draw in interest from a player like Kevin Durant to jant Murray whatever when your top player has no real relationship with guys other than the guys he’s directly played with I’ll tell you this much Grant Williams a certified role
Player has a better relationship right now with LeBron James than Pascal seak he’s extended his relationship with Draymond Green congratulations because he was on his podcast and whatever but other than directly how have you benefited me whatever what is his relationship like with players outside of maybe Joel embiid or whatever like
Like we’re talking like we’re talking a league Full of Stars you ever seen Bradley Beal and Pascal SE yakum shake hands because hey like hey I’m one of the top players the NBA who are you you get the you get what I’m saying think about what I’m saying if you’re obsessed
With the game if you’re obsessed with the NBA you not only know 40 games in the last season the Sacramento Kings are really good you also probably know all of these guys you probably have their digits how could a top Vince knew other stars bro Vince knew Kobe Vince like
They talked Vince knew obviously Tracy because they’re related Vince knew Shawn Maran like Vince knew all these guys Chris Bosch knew all these guys you think it’s All Team USA it’s not you think it’s all a maybe but Luca knows all these guys too come on it’s not just
All a and international he has relationships he’s he’s taking the time so the question then becomes like you want your franchise player to not have extended relationships with other top players in the NBA how difficult does that make for recruiting but also do you want your franchise player to be guy who
Obsessed with basketball because what what impact does that have on your locker room and I think that that really does he love the game part in all of these questions ultimately come back to if you bring him back long term I want to understand what his
Presence is in your locker room I want to understand what ideas young players pick up because clearly Demar de R rozan became a Guiding Light of work ethic for a lot of young players look at the players who came up under Demar they’re all thriving man they’re all thriving
Yakob Pascal like these guys didn’t fail Norman pow these guys did not fail bro they’re great Jonas ban chunis look at all the young players who come up with that guy they’re thriving across the league it’s just like it’s like a it’s like a bevy of starters like yesterday
We were talking about Norman Palace one one of the best shooters in the NBA for the last five years where did he get that from all the work ethic that Pascal and norm and Fred I believe if any of these players were on the same trajectory when they got to the Raptors
They wouldn’t have been picked so late clearly demard de rosan had a massive impact on these guys so I want to know what impact is Pascal sakam have on these young players does he make them more Cy is there something that he’s going to say in practice or at a team
Dinner that’s going to make them more likely to mistrust your management or mistrust the team or bet on themselves or whatever I think that this entire conversation goes very very close into conspiracy territory and he say he said she said and here say so I won’t extend
It further what I will say is that based on the based on the questions these seven based on the answers to these seven questions that the Raptors must ask themselves they must decide what to do with Pascal cakam sooner rather than later because I believe they’re kicking
This can down to the ex down to the deadline and then worse to the off season will backfire I believe it will backfire in a major way and I believe that there is no happy outcome if you do extend this out because I think that Pascal zakum has a
Lot in common with every single player well almost every single player that I’ve seen fall off and that’s how I feel and I think that if you do decide that he will not be you know an asset that will hold value once you add that fifth
Year to the docket because see the the years that you sign the contract to and his age run concurrently does that make sense so once you sign him at the age of 30 to a 5-year deal everyone knows that fifth year when he’s 35 is a $60 million contract
We had trepidations by the way about paying Damen Lillard $60 million when he was 35 why would anyone trade for Dame look at how look at how much you have to pay him when he’s 35 that’s what people were saying 35 36 whatever Pascal seum does not hold a candle to the profile
Marketability value of a Damian Lillard allegedly according to Jake Fischer on that space he doesn’t even hold a candle to the value of Drew holiday you must think very hard as a fan base or as a franchise when you extend guys to Mammoth deals when they’re not household
Names that everybody seems to really value because when value falls off you need to find a taker I mean please understand I come from the hedphone world we talk stocks and value and floors all the time because you need to understand where your support is I’m trying to approach this purely from a
Data driven Market marketing and and finance perspective you need to understand for a particular stock where is the floor when I buy a stock when Pascal seak is a fiveyear bond or whatever you want to call it you know he’s like a he’s like a locked investment of five years you need to
Understand what the market is where the floor is where the ceiling is for that investment if you buy shares of company X at $80 right and you understand there is a consensus that because historically how the stock has performed there is a strong support at
$76 then you have an out at 76 should you choose to out at 76 nobody wants to buy a stock at $80 where support is at $12 you understand support signals are important I think the Raptors are ex exceedingly not exceedingly exceedingly the wrong word and an
Extremely I think the Raptors are a very smart organization they’ve moved off of Kyle right before the decline they moved off of Marcus right before the decline they moved off of Sergio Baka Danny Green all of which granted you could say they were serviceable for the year after
They signed the contract but they have not shown a willingness as a front office over the last 10 years to sign guys into a predictable decline window and I believe that they know enough at this point to build a profile of Pascal cakam as a guy who is 5050 on
The decline window and I don’t think that you sign a guy to 250 million dollar through the prime of what you think is a superstar in Scotty Barnes thus handicapping your ability to make any sort of moves if there’s anything I know about the Raptor fromont office it
Is this they honor their word number one number two they are very flexibility conscious they care about flexibility all these player options team options shorter deals Etc they’re all a means of creating the maximum flexibility to sign Auto to a two-year deal shorter to a two-year deal like again because you eat
One year and then the next year becomes you need to make long-term investments in players you understand you know they had no problem taking on four years of RJ Barrett why because they understand his basketball motivations they know him and they trust him and they’ll have no problem signing
Scotty Barnes to a five-year extension when he’s eligible if he signs five years man if they if they could get Scotty Barnes on a 12year extension if that was legal they would sign him to a 12-year extension that’s probably how much they trust that he won’t Decline
And that’s the point he loves the game he has all the Hallmarks of players who don’t decline Reggie Miller let me think think about players who love the game and ask yourself do they remind you of Pascal seak Kevin Garnett does he remind you of Pascal seak Derk nitzki does he
Remind you of Pascal SE yakum Tim dunin Kobe Bryant Michael Jordan chony bbss you think of like players that I really know love the game rashed Wallace loves the game man obsessed with The Game Junkie basketball Junkie knows everything about anything he could probably recite the entire Detroit Pistons roster for you
Right now he probably recite to you a lot of man Draymond Green loves the game Steph loves the game around it his whole life he’ll always be around it LeBron Kevin Love yeah sure dear holy dear loves the game Kawai you you know people don’t people don’t realize that because he’s a little
Bit Cy but he obsessed with the game man obsessed you do not play a basketball game after your father is shot if you don’t love the game bro he loves the game you don’t play through the pain that he played through last year if you don’t love the game he
Loves the game there are some guys who love the game there are some guys who love the lifestyle you need to decide Who’s Who and let me tell you something I I left this for the 130 mark it would shock you if you ever heard the true
Stories of how many NBA players don’t really like basketball they don’t talk about basketball I knew an NBA player remember I don’t know him directly but I knew someone who was very connected to him who said he had a rule that when he left the gym no one was allowed to ask
Him a basketball question not his family not his kids no basketball in their house no one let them watch basketball no let to think about basketball this guy made like I want to say like $50 million in his career playing basketball you didn’t give a about basketball basketball
Is a vehicle to something else it was a vehicle to Financial Security you think every doctor loves being a doctor you think every veterinarian loves animals why do you think that basketball is this one thing where only the people who are great at it who love it honestly and
Purely like they all pass through Heaven’s Gate to get there no man there are some people who were just really freaking naturally talented at basketball and someone said do you want to make a $100 million put in some hard work for five years and I think you need
To identify those people because once you remove the financial incentive longterm for those people and you’ve never seen Pascal seak without a financial incentive ever you’ve never seen it but if you sign them to a 5-year extension you will see it for the first time you will see what the limits of
Professionalism are with him how he becomes Pascal zakum has had numerous times where he has basically mailed it in on defense I don’t think players who care about winning just mail it in on defense for weeks on end it’s worth noting Terence Ross is a great example
Of someone that I don’t really feel loved basketball that’s a good that that’s a good thing Reggie uh Reggie saying I think Pascal loves the game of soccer yes I think he loves soccer too I think the fact that this guy wanted to be a priest and probably wanted to be a
Soccer player growing up and the fact that he found an Avenue in basketball you know one of the things that really scared me off of jayen Suggs I’ll tell you like this is not exclusive to Pascal yakum I listen to everybody when they talk about basketball and I look for cues and
Things that that’s that kind of throw me off Jaylen sug said that for the six months or five months that the football season was on he would absolutely lock away the basketball and wouldn’t touch it for five months and that scared me and that’s when I knew that I did not
Want Jaylen suck to be a raptor not that I needed any nudging I was very high on Scotty but like that kind of comment threw me off that this guy doesn’t really he can’t love the game of basketball if you can just put it away for five months I just I don’t know
Anyone who can do that like you’re obsessed with competition you’re obsessed with playing and and being athletic and competing that’s one thing but to be obsessed with the game on like an obsessive level like um Shaq Shaq’s obsessed with the game I think actually he might be obsessed with
The Limelight let me think of a player who’s obsessed with the game Bill Russell Bill Russell was probably the most obsessed basketball player Michael Jordan how did I not name Michael Jordan obsessed with the game I just think that this game Obsession thing is a really
Good clue in to which guys are going to fall off you know because you know I’ve seen too many Gilbert Arena stories in my life man I’ve seen too many guys who just took the bag and walked away into the Limelight and there are a lot of
Players who in this exact age window of 29 to 30 sign their final big deal and then the masks off and then you see how much they actually care about getting better I’m not suggesting that he would come out and basically you know fail drug tests and F you know fall off so
Much but I am saying that if you’re the Raptors you know him better than anybody and if you’re a fan you should know that the team that knows him better than anybody is a team that has to date declined to offer him a 5-year extension think about it okay
Um okay thank everyone in this community for reaching out about my dog uh yesterday I mentioned that my dog was falling over a lot to those of you who don’t know this is my dog um and yeah that’s when he was three years old or two years old he was three years
Old in that in that picture he’s now 14 so I spent uh a little bit of time today uh with him getting tests at the vet vets are very expensive naturally like I’m very very blessed that this channel has done well enough over the last you
Know Year and that I’m doing okay enough uh to be able to afford this but I my heart really goes out to people who have to you know potentially like I I’ve known people who’ve had to go into massive massive massive amounts of debt to take care of their pets it sucks um
But you got to do what you got to do anyways okay take care guys have a good one and you know once this video goes live let me know what you thought of of idea um because to the specific point of this video to just close the close the
Loop because the zenic effect is real Pascal yakum holds the Raptors by his by their balls because by continuously saying that he will not and like he won’t resign he won’t resign he’s absolutely diminishing his value and forcing the Raptors to be one of the teams that will negotiate
Or be leveraged against because if he allows the Raptors to trade him to say Indiana or Dallas or whatever two things happen number one the Raptors fall out of contention for his Services next offseason which NE which diminishes his negotiating power with that team and subsequently all other teams number two
A team that he does not know and does not trust necessarily in Indiana or whatever is going to be determined in the floor on his next salary because naturally think about it from his perspective he has to secure the largest bag with this next deal the largest bag
He can sign is with the team that holds his rights the team that holds his rights has the offer to push up his offer to five years Max money 250 that number in his mind is 250 the team that will offer him 250 will be the team that has him next
Offseason come back to me when that happens so whoever that team is if and that team can only be the team that holds his bird rights so once he gets the bag then whatever trade him wherever you know I don’t think that that matters at that point but I really do question the
Basketball motivations of a 30-year-old who wants to be part of a rebuild or a retool when he’s clearly clearly been shown by management over and over again that he is not part of their future plans I think you you right to be very suspicious of the situation because the
Situation doesn’t make sense until you really really think about it yeah anyways take care guys see you
The Toronto Raptors have been engaged in trade talks for Pascal Siakam for the better part of 3 years. Common practice for a 2-time ALL-NBA forward on a team that has been slowly inching towards going younger and a highly coveted player for many teams. But something new has happened this year; he seems hell-bent on staying in Toronto and making sure that any team that trades for him knows that he won’t re-sign. Atlanta? NOPE. Sacramento? NOPE.
If maximizing his window to make ALL-NBA was even remotely still the goal, why not push to get himself onto a contender like Golden State or Philly? If playing with a team more ready to win now OR even putting up a monster statistical season was the goal, why not join up with Luka or Haliburton?
Fans have quickly pointed to the low-hanging fruit. Pascal Siakam just wants to be a Raptor. But what 2-time ALL NBA forward actively blocks a departure from a young-ish team that has made no strong notion they wish to keep him? That allegedly ghosted him in the offseason? Pascal and the Raptors are playing a game of chicken and the things that have been leaked are only 15% of the full story. Let me give you my read on what I can gather from both the Raptors and Siakam’s side, and why there is likely no happy ending in sight.
I’ll also tell you the 7 questions I would ask before agreeing to an extension with him. Especially one in the 5-year range.
#Raptors #Mavericks #nba
0:00 – Introducing the subject
01:51 – Learning from my past
03:10 – Pascal bias & how the league sees him
07:32 – Bias against African-born & International players
13:43 – The bubble bias
16:00 – Masai Ujiri is not biased
17:56 – Bubble meltdown wasn’t THAT BAD
21:00 – Understanding Siakam’s turn
25:00 – Reading the room early
27:00 – How the Raptors operate (ethics and business)
31:00 – Culture of selfishness & bag-chasing with Nick Nurse
34:50 – Culture shift from Kyle & DeMar
37:30 – Being early on Siakam & backlash
40:26 – Last year
42:08 – What happened over a year?
43:20 – Siakam’s masterplan
48:40 – Does he fit the current core?
50:28 – DeMar’s influence
54:17 – Pascal’s long-term basketball goals
1:01:04 – What other teams think about him
1:02:25 – How will he age?
1:07:08 – What offers exist for Siakam?
1:08:53 – Does Siakam ‘love’ basketball?
1:18:44 – Decline windows
1:28:23 – Thanks for asking about Sasha
1:29:30 – What’s the point of this video?
29 Comments
I can’t believe Masai put all the chips in siakam’s hands.
You hate Pascal. You created division among the Raptors fan base not knowing that after Pascal is gone all eyes will be on Scottie and you will not be happy.
fwiw i heard that pascal caught covid hard during the time he wasnt working out and took a long time to recover
They didn't offer 4 years because they could only offer 3 years, just like the 5th year can only be offered in the off-season
My timeline could be off as the whole pandemic is one big blur.
But didn't Pascal injure his shoulder right before the lockdown? Then had his terrible Bubble. Then had surgery and came back in November-ish of the Tampa season? He was playing through a labrum tear in the Bubble.
It’s not Pascal’s fault, it’s Masai’s
I don't really know what problem this guy has with Pascal. I thought you got your knew super hero Scotty Barns and now he's leadership is challenged with Quickley and Jarrett.
Siakam is still doing the job dispite all these changes, so what a hell are you talking averyday on him. He's about to go so you must focus on the future… And I which Raptors will quickly get a knew title after that…
When did Rob say he hates Pascal? I have heard him compliment Pascal many times and give his honest assessment of ways he could improve his defensive skills.
Most often I don’t agree with you but this was a brilliant assessment of Pascal and Masai. Basically the only solution to this problem is to sign him then trade him next year
Pascal is playing the NBA. He is the most powerful person in the NBA right now. He knows he is going to get the max wherever he goes.
1. If he stays , he forces the Raptors to give him the max 5 year deal. If he balls out and gets an all NBA, then he gets a super max. So he makes every team scared to trade for him by saying he is going to test free agency. Another reason if there is a team that he really wants to go to, why would he want that team to give up assets they can use to make the team he is going to better. So he can 2. He can pick the team he wants to go and pick the players he wants to play with.
3. Let's look at team like the Pistons they have 66-68.7 mil in cap space. And has the potential to get to 113-115.7 mil in cap space plus can use the non tax level exemption of 13.5mil. So they could give Siakam the max and still upwards of 80mil to use in free agency. Pistons could sign it trade for a sf Markkanen, Kelly Oubre, Wiggins, Miles Bridges. They can get the best bench. Monk, Klay Thompson , Dario Saric , Valanciunas
Is keeping him not an option? I mean no max contract, and as long as we keep seeing him buy into the system why not keep him around? I'd like to see his defense come back to where it was is my gripe with him most of the time.
So what if he net on himself to get more money. Isn't that how life works? Money is what motivates most people. If you are good at what you, get the most you can out of it. Man, get real.
1. Joined the livestream late. Just finished watching your video. Salute.to you for your thoughtful and excellent video.Like you, I'm also hoping for a Draymond trade. Pascal's had 30 games in Steph's 0.5 game. Good to go. (I'll be sick inside if he somehow ends up on the Clippers.) 2. Also, about Pascal not being obsessed with the game, etc., I hope Jokic plays the game well for a while… because he's said repeatedly that he hates his job. Mind you he may be at least into the mental game because he plays 4D chess. Loved watching Jokic at my first Raptors game, in person, last month. 3. Keeping you and your dog in my prayers.
Yous a gangsta
It's the business of the NBA- nothing more, nothing less. Siakam has been a great Raptors players and in the community as well with his charities, events and overall giving back. I hope Siakam is the first Raptors player ever to play their entire career in Toronto- word up!
If Masai does trade Pascal I would hope for Siakam, Dick for Wiggins, Kuminga, Moody, Payton II.
0:00 – Introducing the subject
01:51 – Learning from my past
03:10 – Pascal bias & how the league sees him
07:32 – Bias against African-born & International players
13:43 – The bubble bias
16:00 – Masai Ujiri is not biased
17:56 – Bubble meltdown wasn't THAT BAD
21:00 – Understanding Siakam's turn
25:00 – Reading the room early
27:00 – How the Raptors operate (ethics and business)
31:00 – Culture of selfishness & bag-chasing with Nick Nurse
34:50 – Culture shift from Kyle & DeMar
37:30 – Being early on Siakam & backlash
40:26 – Last year
42:08 – What happened over a year?
43:20 – Siakam's masterplan
48:40 – Does he fit the current core?
50:28 – DeMar's influence
54:17 – Pascal's long-term basketball goals
1:01:04 – What other teams think about him
1:02:25 – How will he age?
1:07:08 – What offers exist for Siakam?
1:08:53 – Does Siakam 'love' basketball?
1:18:44 – Decline windows
1:28:23 – Thanks for asking about Sasha
1:29:30 – What's the point of this video?
Can't blame the guy for maximizing money when the FO makes players like Demar expendable.
2:20 one thing I've learned literally this year is people/world react more to how we say things rather than what's being said/subject matter.
Joel E wins MVP. Hakeem Olajuwon ect African players on merit great. Not good not good.
I agree on his size like Serge moved to C where he is not big enough to do that.
I would have no problem with giving Siakam a contract like the Clippers gave Leonard. Giving Siakam a contract of 4 or 5 years will be a serious problem later if we wanted to trade him.
You layout pretty much what most Raptors basketball junkies know. Siakim wants to stay with the Raptors to get a 5 year max contract guaranteed. If he’s still on the Raptors after the deadline he knows 100% if he says I’m signing with X team unless you beat it with a 5 year max the Raptors would be forced to offer that. At this point I would sign him to that contract and trade him next season as soon as he’s tradable. That’s the smartest business move. Unless some team makes a godfather offer and gives up a player like Murray on the Kings or players like RJ or Quickly that we know will fit with Scottie and improve in the future and in the Raptors.
Would you take Kuminga + Moody + CP3 expiring contract and buy him out immediately for Siakim + Porter Jr?
Are we that sure Kuminga would fit with Scottie and not get in his way?
Praying for dog and you!
Great analysis Rob especially on implicit bias. It will be difficult for the league to execute international expansion unless the American bias found in the country, the league and the star driven nature of things changes. It reminds me a bit of how non Canadian hockey players were perceived in the old days. Europeans were perceived as weak. American players an oddity and something less than. Fast forward and those biases are not what they used to be. Unfortunately it’s like watching ice melt.
Rob really took off his hood with this one. He starts off by saying this is not a Pascal shame video but throughout the whole video he diminishes him and shames him. Even goes so far to insult his country and accuse them of lying and misdealings. When in truth, he is never stepped foot on that continent and only knows what he has seen on television. All I heard in this video was control, control, control and trade value. Rob is mad Pascal is not doing what he wants him to do and Pascal should sign anywhere just so Rob can get his "trade value". According to Rob any success Pascal has had, he owes to the Toronto Raptors, as if he himself has nothing to do with it. Rob says Pascal should be grateful and do what we want and if he doesn't, let's diminish him and shame him and attack him until he does. Rob has started that by making this video. Rob also wants to pit the African (president) versus the African (player) and uses that to say its not racist. What playbook did you take that one from Rob? I am very disappointed Rob. It's okay to love the Toronto Raptors but you have to love people first. But I do thank you for removing your hood and revealing not a wolf in sheep's clothing but a snake. Now that we know you're a snake. I opt not to get bit.
Pensare is a notable Pascal Siakam HATER. Thats a fact nobody can dispute because there's evidence of this in his own videos.
Since the drafting of SB Pensare has been on a hate train against Siakam and has barely hidden it. He cultivated a community of like-minded Raptor fans to spew hate on and about Siakam on SM.
The fact that he has mastered the art of spinning, using weird stats that favour his arguments to carry on his charge shows how deeply he resents Siakam.
There's never a day Pensare will say anything good about Siakam without attaching something negative, this shows that his aim is always to discredit anything positive Siakam does.
Pensare is on a mission to bring down Siakam and have SB as the face of the franchise. What he never acknowledges is that this franchise has never given Siakam the appropriate tools he's needed to succeed. Looking at what they did for Kawhi and what they are now doing for SB, this team never gave Siakam the resources he NEEDED.
Ratber than saying this, Pensare and others have always been shouting tbat PS is a so called number 1 option, with nothing. None of his teammates showed up in the playoffs of play in, since Lowry and the others left.
Siakam has been the driving force of this team after Kawhi left. Rather than look for the right team mates for him, they went about doing the own things, holding back investing in Siakam and showing him they're just waiting for Scottie to grow.
Yall haters know but you voice it because Siakam must look bad so that he is pushed out in favour of Barnes.
Let them trade him already, I'm tired of this organisation. Siakam needs to be where he's loved and appreciated.
NB: Pensare is incapable of an unbiased opinion towards Siakam.
This is so deep that I start to question my self. Bravo!
If there was a re-draft for 2016 draft class where do these guys go 1-6 today? Dejounte Murray, Jaylen Brown, Brandon Ingram, Pascal Siakam, Jamal Murray, Domantas Sabonis. (Personally I think Philly takes Jamal Murray at 1.)
This was brilliant. It covered all the reasons I have lost faith in pascal and some i hadn’t thought of. I think I’ll give this one a second listen 👍