Assessing the first four weeks of Pascal Siakam’s time with the Indiana Pacers + Doug McDermott talk

Assessing the first four weeks of Pascal Siakam’s time with the Indiana Pacers + Doug McDermott talk

Pascal seak back in Toronto tonight let’s talk about his first four weeks is month is with the Pacers how’s it been where can it be better what does this all look like plus a little Doug mcder talk with Jay Rigden all on today’s lock on Pacers podcast you are locked on

Pacers your daily Indiana Pacers podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day what up y’all happy Wednesday and welcome into another edition of the lockon Pacers podcast where are we of course talk about the Indiana Pacers as always my name’s Tony East I cover the

Team for forbs and Si and today a lot to dive into Pascal sakam back in Toronto Bruce Brown Jordan war on the other side and it’s been almost exactly four weeks since the trade Pacers won’t play after this game for over week so let’s take stock of what we’ll call the first month

Of the Pascal cakam with the Pacers experience all the numbers all the good and the bad of it what does it mean going forward how can they be a little better with sakam on the team Jay Rigden from the fried egg and friend of the Pod

Is going to join us to talk all things Pascal seaka and his fit with the Pacers and in the spirit of talking about a traded player a little bit of Doug mcdermit talk at the end lots to cover today ahead of Pacers Raptors a lot of

Pascal cakam let’s just get right to it he’s back we finally met in person so this is even better it’s the managing editor of fried EG fried egg golf holy cow you just said it to me less than a minute ago and I still messed it up it’s

Jay ragon and Jay Pacers Raptors tonight Bruce Brown and Jordan war against the Pacers not really too like Pacers celebs or anything but still a thing Pascal seak in Toronto that will be a thing it’s going to be quite the game in Toronto so we will talk a lot about Pascal siakam’s first

Four weeks would be tomorrow they don’t play again after it’s Tuesday for us talking they don’t play again for another week after that so we’ll say first month let’s say siakam’s first month with the Pacers how are you uh especially after the Pacers did some something resembling basketball on

Monday night yeah uh I’m good Tony it was it was good to meet you in person for the first time that was a lot of fun uh it’s yeah and uh the the Monday night game wasn’t ideal uh it’s you know it’s never a good fandom moment when your

Team loses that game and that in that fashion too very frustrating but yeah other than that I’m doing well doing well how are you doing sometimes I like to sit on Twitter after those games see what people are saying try to see what people I don’t need to take seriously

Anymore because they just go way over the top from one loss but I immediately left Twitter that time to do my research project of which team has the most losses to the bottom five teams and so I had to crank that out and yes it is in

Fact the Pacers but hey they are second in wins against the top five team so this is a strange basketball team that we will continue to try to figure stuff out about we’re also figuring stuff out about Pascal cakam his first month with the Pacers very interesting Jay will you

Let me just run through some numbers for a minute can I be very dork not these aren’t even that dorky can I run through some numbers for a minute absolutely okay the Pacers made the trade about a month ago they are seven and eight since the trade hard schedule doesn’t matter

They probably would like they certainly would like to be better than that they are seven and seven exactly when Pascal sakam plays okay again that’s you’d like that to be better but okay the weird part of the record they’re six and five in their last 11 like once he had that

Practice you could tell things got a little better I think that matters but not a lot that’s not that much better still over 100 the weird part is a lot of those like slightly over slightly under 500 records that’s okay they’ll figure it out when Tyrese halber and

Pascal seak play together nine games the Pacers are three and six what that doesn’t make any sense it’s all kind of strange and then you let’s let’s pull the hood back a little bit why is this happening well I don’t know because Pascal seum this season with the Pacers

On the floor plus six net rating plus 5.99 that’s great their offense is amazing when he’s off the floor there plus 0.29 that includes games he doesn’t play which includes their whole season if you just include the games sakam plays they’re on with with him on they’re plus six without him they’re minus

16.3 so is a net rating so if you wanted to go to your first why aren’t the Pacers better cakam it’s because their bench has had some God awful games since then right the Portland game the Hornets game that just happened um one of the games in New York that’s thing one I

Wanted to point out thing two Pas gal yakum plus tyres halber on the floor Pacers currently plus 7.7 net rating that’s really good they’re plus 4.7 with Pascal an Halbert and off that’s great that’s one of the pros of the trade it’s it with them both off since the trade minus

18.5 very bad so a lot of stuff to say and I have more numbers that aren’t as rosy but a lot of stuff to say I think there’s stuff to work through and I have some like stuff I want to say about sakam and his usage I thought they

Didn’t give him the ball enough Monday night for example when he’s playing he’s been fine to pretty good his defense has not been as good as I thought his offense has May been a little better when he plays with Alberton all right good job Pacers every other in

Terrible since the trade I don’t know what to make of that because part of me wants to say well the bench just needs to be better part of me also wants to say the bench is different or playing in different mix and match combos because

They have a new player on the team so that’s the numbers we can get into the N green a second what say you about Pascal siakam’s first month with the Pacers yeah it’s been an awkward way to try to integrate a player like that um because

First of all when he came over halberton was immediately he was out for that long stretch and so the team kind of adjusted to se yakum in a way that was never going to be how they adjusted long term because halberton wasn’t playing yet and I think it’s a combination of that and

It is I think the new rotations and trying to get all that integrated in along with like various like nagging injuries like I I the game I was at at Sacramento where I met youin had you know 31 points and he has not looked close to that since then he’s both sick

And hurt apparently and you know it’s hard to say like I kind of feel right now my main takeway is that I don’t think any team has ever needed the All-Star break More Than This Pacers team right now uh I think that’s kind of what I’m hoping is a bit of a reset

Period um and I think it’s just it’s just hard like SE yakum is a unique player um I think he fits well in theory with what they’re trying to do there’s a reason they acquired him but I think you know in practice that’s GNA take a while

Sometimes and I think we’re kind of seeing that kind of hit in different spots right now I agree that with that uh and you could tell like he practiced once and they were like oh okay we get it on the other hand I’m kind of like

He’s good enough that I’m almost like it shouldn’t matter that much right like at some point it’s just like this guy’s so good that clunkiness shouldn’t matter this much and so that’s kind of where I wanted to like really think about the Pacers and how they play so seaks had a

Couple games hitting threes it doesn’t matter that much to me he he just this this isn’t like a negative this is gonna sound like a negative and I’m just kind of opining about the style of Pascal seaka playing basketball right like last night he would just catch it in the mid

Post and like I can shoot it over is Bridges or like hey if I catch at the elbow and I just do a one dribble shot from 10 feet it’s a good shot that’s like a 55% shot if I pouette through the lane catching it for a long at a long

Two that’s a good shot like these are all things that are strengths of Pascal kakum offensively with the Pacers so far I have to scroll I should have had this up his true shooting percentage is 62.9 that’s awesome that’s really good at the same time the way he gets his shots and

Where he kind of likes to shoot from isn’t like the anti- Pacers necessarily but kind of you know like they are very good at three in rim and they are very limiting unlike yes Andrew nard T.J McConnell sometimes Ben Ma and tyes Alber you guys are good at that floater

Shot you guys take it everybody else kind of limit yourselves to the efficient spots so I think just like his shot diet being so different from what they’re used to for lack of a better term has sometimes made it feel like they like avoid it if that makes any

Sense where like oh we let’s let’s get to our shots instead of letting him be really good and get to his shot that’s just as valuable as other shots that I have no real basis for that I’ll run through some game by- game usage in a

Second but it just kind of feels that way sometimes yeah it absolutely does I feel like they open a lot of games with a lot of players who are not Tyrese halberton or Pascal zakum taking early shots uh and I also feel like the games when he first came over before halberton

Came back I thought it felt different with him on offense in those games too it felt like they were he was attacking quicker they were kind of getting him the ball quicker he had a lot of like deep early seals in the post and transition and I also felt like he was

Making his moves to the basket a little different too like and I you know I think if we can kind of like find a balance there um and the other side of all this is that I don’t know how good halberton is feeling on a daily basis

Sometimes and so I think it’s still kind of all just it’s it’s hard to it’s hard to keep track of it is and and and so it’s like maybe this is just like hey everybody defend better and then it doesn’t matter but like the it shouldn’t

Be as it’s not clunky like the numbers are like this is really good they are scoring awesome but just sometimes it feels like it’s like Fort they’re like thinking like oh yeah Pascal like you know if that makes any oh yeah that guy he’s really good

You know it’s like and it shouldn’t be new new this long end but it’s still like again numerically a one 24.3 offensive rating with him on the floor it’s just like holy smokes like that is that’s insane with him and Halbert their offensive rating Jay is 126. three like

That’s insane that’s like sniffing the Suns with all three of their their studs on the floor level good uh their defensive rating is also a pretty high number but not actually that crazy only 118 points something so I don’t I don’t know how to like make

It smoother but that’s the next step for the Pacers is where like when they were at their best in whatever T inseason tournament whatever late December when they were playing really well early January this year the ball is just like popping crisp boom fast early offense this guy’s open that guy’s open it

Doesn’t matter you Trust basically everyone on the team to shoot in any situation right and they they they didn’t feel like that especially in the first half Monday like their most recent game specifically it didn’t feel like that and then the second half when they took the lead they were up five six

Whatever in the third quarter Quinn Buckner said it on the broadcast he’s like there we go the ball’s popping it’s crisp it’s moving and that was the starting five and as soon as Subs came in and they were mixing and matching it all crumbled and so this isn’t on sakab

He’s playing well I just eventually they’re going to they’re going to figure it out I think maybe that’s too rosecolor glasses he but I he’s too good to not but right now it’s like 80 to 90% of where it needs to be to just be free flowing keep it moving and be constantly

Threatening because they’ve had too many just like well we remember starting five out there we’re we’re thinking too much we’re not as ball popping we’re not as Pacers if that makes any sense it does it does and I think the other side of it is they also you know traded a big part

Of the bench offense in buddy heeld so like that’s another change that they’ve made throughout this whole stret yes I figured we would and it’s yeah and so I think all of that kind of combines like heal was a big part of that pace and keeping things moving that way and like

He was one of the most active offensive players you’re ever going to see in terms of his movement and what he was doing all the time and I think it has been I noticed the same thing with like it’s almost like the flow is just a little different with zakin right now

Like I don’t like I don’t think he’s like a ball stopper in that way like I think he’s trying he’s moving quickly he’s getting to his spots that’s what they need him to do but I think the overall Pace has been different it’s kind of seems like I I’ve seen them

Throw the ball out of bounds so much more in the last few weeks I thought from the entire rest of the season which to me says that like people don’t know where everyone else is right now yet and so I’m not saying that’s an excuse they

Should probably know that by now but I think that’s it’s just kind of telling what up y’all have to take a little break here talk to you about our lovely friends over at hungry route grocery shopping and meal planning for specific diet AR needs or preferences can be challenging if this applies to

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Trade which is great cuz nba.com lets you sort by last 15 games the Pacers the pace team their pa Paces in their name are ninth in Pace since then that’s like still fast but not what you think of when you think of of the Pacers certainly for the season now including

All oh my computer decided no no stats for you okay there we go uh the whole season including the time before that they’re second right only the Wizards are faster so clearly slower to your point I think that makes sense and you nailed another thing I wanted to get to

I am not saying anything by this 2011 minute sample that did happen to exist before the trade deadline but the Pacers did play 21 minutes with Buddy heeld and pakum on the floor buddy heel started and sometimes that was the wrong choice but they still did it their offensive

Rating with heeld plus yakum regardless of the other three players was 1298 that is that is breaking graphs like people can’t post graph graic of that it’s so high their defense was awful it was 122 but they were it’s still a plus eight net rating almost like they were just destroying teams and

So that maybe is part of the very recent adjustment losing to Golden State pathetically last Thursday losing to the Hornets which in general is pathetic in general they did beat the Knicks in the middle of that but it hasn’t been awesome since that either and that was

An effective thing even when he was coming off the bench he came in early in the games or played a good amount like he played 25 minutes in the last game before he was ultimately dealt or something like that so that is also a factor is that they lost a player in

That rotation that didn’t make it so clunky where now MC D’s playing only in first halves and Maan is not looking good and whatever his current role is I’ll pull up his game log in a second but that just that all also factors into this yeah and so when the Patriots have

An entire offensive system built around like kind of being able to know where everyone else is at any given point uh yes exactly it’s you know that’s going to it’s going to change things now again I’m not saying that it’s an excuse like they should probably be able to figure

It out and the numbers say that it’s actually not that bad but I think it feels like it feels much Streaker now and it feels like the lows are much lower with the offense whereas before I felt like the lows were always on the defensive end like the offense was very

Consistent game to game they were going to go out there and score um with like very few exceptions but now I feel like the offense like being able to be broken like it was like the Charlotte game specifically like I’m sure it’s a combination of a lot of factors but I

Mean at at certain points like I one of them to bring in TJ McConnell just to go ISO because that was the only offense I felt any kind of reliability about at times like it is really strange isn’t it that and it’s it’s strange too that they’ve had these low-scoring games with a

Bananas offensive rating with SE yakum plank that kind of underscores how bad their bench has been right this they win that Kings game right after the trade without SE playing because their bench was like holy cow unbelievably good and then in Portland Halbert and thaka Mum they only scored 115 in Phoenix 110

Denver 109 this is all since the the the the Raptors trade Knicks 105 they could have won that game they only gave up 109 right 109 against Golden State last week 102 Monday right that’s almost half their games in that stretch where it’s like that’s it that’s all the Pacers

Scored and they were like going from first to like six this in offense when they really made those adjustments to be more defensive focused and bigger and all that but they were playing defense pretty well they’re not anymore it’s gotten a little worse you know 131 against Golden State 129 against Houston

133 against Sacramento 12 29 at Boston 131 against the sun you get it I don’t need to keep doing this so maybe we’re overthinking this maybe seak has been awesome and this tiny 10% Improvement on offense would be nice but maybe they just need to guard and have their bench

Be better like mine specifically some people wrote this you know Bob krait is asking all these questions after the trade about this upcoming change for mine and his role and all this stuff and I I don’t think it’s going to change as much as has been let on but he is more

Important now without bu healed with the reserves and in the three game since the trade deadline he has a total of 15 points and he’s made four out of 21 shots that’s not very good he’s got to be better right so there’s a lot of

Layers to this that on one hand I’m like yeah if they can figure this stuff that they look a little better on the other hand it’s like they just defended a little bit better and their bench was 10% better maybe they’re 10 and five since this trade who knows they have a

Lot of close games in there yeah the margins are very thin uh I think we’re also seeing the importance of Jaylen Smith as a bench backup five who that think kind little bench and the stting lineups in terms of they play and so I think that’s also been kind of a

Big absence I agree uh even though they did win in New York without him he’s a good player right like having having him is better than not seum shooting P from certain distances with the Pacers is is just mind-blowing right three to 10 feet so like in the lane floater range

56% that would be a career high for him I don’t expect that to remain that High uh but insane 60% from 10 to 16 feet and he’s been like routinely High 40s low 50s from there that’s insane long twos 53% so some of these numbers will probably dip right which is something

The Pacers will also have to work into their analysis going forward is like the shots that zakum has been drilling that are sort of not again not anti- Pacers or not stuff he’s routinely good at he’s also at his second lowest ever percentage at The Rim you can expect

That to go up and those are shots they should be trying to get him as often as possible so how much that because he shoots a lot more the rim than those other distances in fact career high right now 33.6% of his shots coming at The Rim actually that’s not true uh he

Was a little better than that in his first and second Seasons all that to say a lot of I’m on a numbers kick people are going to be like bro get out of the spreadsheets like part of me thinks get him the ball part of me also thinks try

To find him a way to get more to the rim like they they his first basket as a Pacer was this like halberton pass him the ball and like pointing at him to go around the Miles Turner screen I’ll never forget it they did that last night again against Charlotte and there’s like

Still a moment where siakam’s looking at Tyrese Halburn like ready to pass it back to him you know just go go to the rim go to the rim go to the basket so his percentages are good I think he will be able to get those shots especially as

The way that teams defend the Pacers his percentages can be higher than they were in Toronto but gets the rim Pascal cakam and I think he’s been good but a lot of the numbers are just really interesting to kind of parse through and figure out how this time is has gone so

Far yeah absolutely there has been less like cutting I think than I expected especially when halberton came back I kind of envisioned a lot more of like him getting a lot of easy baskets right at The Rim off of like slipped screens or things like that or even in

Transition I feel like there’s been less transition than I expected in that way too I agree but again part of that is also how Le Burton has been hit or miss healthwise too that whole stretch so like it’s it’s hard to kind of separate that for me in terms of like what’s the

Finished product going to look like for this team like once they kind of get a little integrated but at the same time like you know he’s also See’s also impressed me in a lot of ways like his his ability to get his own shot that way

The way he can is like unmatched on the team I think in this at this point and his outside shooting has also been impressive I know he’s getting a lot of wide open looks because of tyres alurn um occasionally going off the backboard to himself to create said wide open

Looks but like those threes he’s taking don’t feel like you know they’re not bad shots he’s getting wide open looks and he’s taking him and he’s hitting him at a you know a rate that’s been solid to good so I I think that’s encouraging as well here’s something I’ll be curious

About too when it comes to siakam’s numbers uh do you know the last time in his career he took fewer than uh 3.7 free throw attempts per game no that’d be his second season in the NBA so maybe this is again about the every Pacers fan just rolled their eyes

To the back of their brain um maybe this is about the shots he’s taking maybe this is about what I just said go to the rim get to the basket maybe it’s about his usage and that’s the last thing I want to talk about before we move on to

McDermot but I expect that that will raise somewhat from 3.7 like even his third year league the year he won most improved player it was higher than this so uh I expect that that number will go up a little bit as well so there are reasons to think his efficiency to this

Point being at 63% true shooting is a little fluky because he’s just drill every mid-range shot I don’t think that’ll last forever there are also reasons to say hey you can get open threes with the Pacers in a way he couldn’t with the Raptors we’ve already

Seen that he’s gonna get to the F line he should get to the F line more and if he just gets a little bit better finishing at The Rim where he’s shown through his entire career he’s like 70 plus perc all the time maybe he can

Stabilize at like 61 62 and if that comes with the bench and defensive Improvement or they just stop looking so like they’re like thinking that I think it’ll be fine but for now they’re a 500 team when he plays and Durant I just want to make sure you’re

Going to dive back into the stats there for a while and more numbers there he needed uh no like it’s I think I think so too I’m encouraged by it still I still feel like it was a good addition in that way um I think oh yeah no doubt

Yeah and so like it’s I think I think it’ll it’ll get better I’m hoping it settles in and I’m hoping that everything kind of you know comes together a little better here in the second half of the season one more break here everybody so we could talk about the lobby folks over

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Thing oh I closed the tab didn’t I dang the other thing I wanted to talk about that’s been kind of interesting is his usage by game last night was like the second time he was below 20% usage in a game uh below that before that I think

Memphis was the only other time I’ll make sure to pull it up really quick to double check but like that has been really interesting is it’s not necessar neily super consistent the only real stretch of consistency for his usage was that pre halberton return stretch okay

I’ve got it up now I don’t for those of you who can’t tell because I edited it out I I just literally left the call by accident um yeah 20% his first two games 25 24 26 30 those were all his first couple games then he had a 19% against

Usage then halberton came back right and here’s his usage by game since in 22 30 24 26 25 20 low 25 right where it should be 17.8 last night against the Hornets his lowest since joining the team it seems like they’re at their most successful when it’s that

25ish level if he’s like finishing a quarter or so of their possessions but I I think that that being kind of all over the map illustrates kind of everything we’ve been we’ve been talking about yeah absolutely and I think it’s I I I think they just need to adjust more

Like I think that’s what they need to do I to adjust to having like another player of that caliber on the team and I’m not saying people have to give up their own shots in different ways like I think that’s part of what makes the Pacers work is that everyone can be a

Threat at any time but I do think that I’m hoping that you know the staff kind of finds a way to make whatever adjustments they need to make to get everyone in better positions here uh down the stretch yeah I think the break will be great help for them if they can

Beat the Raptors tonight which Pacers don’t get the benefit of the doubt no not at all not the rest of the season it’s over like even they were’re playing well it’s like oh they should be the bad teams now their schedules the rest of the way and I’m

Like y doesn’t like it doesn’t matter they have they’ve got to earn every benefit of that they get Raptors just had drama with like Scotty Barnes leaving the floor early they got smoked by the Spurs Sean com’s back they’re gonna want to win um anyway they if they could win that game

And then have like a a really nice harder practice and like one other productive practice before they play eight days later I think that would go a long way for them like they had a practice with Pascal but remember like Tai was hurt then so they have they’ve

Only had like one short one with both and that takes me to a guy who hasn’t practiced with the Pacers yet per my knowledge Doug mcder let’s close out with uh we might have to revise the nickname until he makes a shot Mick buckets who has not made a shot yet for

The Pacers he’s been Mick assists I guess he has one assist that’s his only stat with the Pacers so far look all the threes you took against the Hornets were like w wide open what perfect you want dog mcder to take that shot uh he has

Not made them yet for the team I have very few impressions of him in 15ish minutes of this team I don’t I don’t know what they think of him I think it was noteworthy that in the second half uh against the Hornets they went to

A 10th player and it was Ben Shepard I was joking with somebody on metor Row the nights of the trade I said how do you think we get to March before the should Ben Shepard be playing over mcder discussion start how about uh two games and maybe mcder will practice and make

Some sh and look fine but uh not not the glowing as start and some of that’s just said he hasn’t again made anything all over five all from three he has an assist that’s it do you have any impressions of him does it even matter to you because it’s only been two games

And he hasn’t practiced does it mean anything that they traded a shooter for a shooter and this guy has not been shooting like where where are you at on the Doug McDermot experience right now well I think it’s all small sample size so far like I’m not going to draw any

Longterm conclusions at this point for how what like how what to be able to contribute the rest of the season uh I’m not super stoked to be back to the Doug McDermot Home Road split discourse like he’s gonna come out well he’s over the road so far so yikes yeah

That’s not ideal uh and like yeah it’s it’s interesting uh I think there he’s gonna he’s gonna hit shots he will make shots he almost hit a couple last night some of those should have gone in but if he’s not hitting shots he’s not doing a whole lot else yet like they haven’t

Done any of like you know like when he was here when when he was a pater the first time he did a lot more like in terms of like cutting to the rim like playing off of sabonis like finishing that way and he was like a pretty

Versatile offensive player and I kind of hope maybe that kind of comes with a little more time as well maybe he can offer a little more that way off the bench um but it does kind of seem like at this point they uh have at least for this stretch of time while they’re

Adjusting they have made the team worse by making those traits and I’m not saying that’s a reason they shouldn’t have done so but it’s you know here we are yeah look I thought that’d be the case but I also thought d m der would make some threes right it’s it’s only been

Two games I’m not actually reacting to that that is just a statement of fact um this is a stat for you just it’s it’s just a number every double digit scoring game Doug mcder has had this season he has made at least three threes right

Which is to say this is the year you could see the transition and some of this is just how the Spurs play but where he was like so much of his offensive value was the three and that I think that’s good that’s a good thing

For a guy who’s as good as them as him but he has to make them in that case and that has not happened for the Pacers where his three-point ATT right now is 100% every shot he’s Tak it for the Pacers is a three he’s got to make those

At some point but it’s not like not encouraging that he got four open threes in seven and a half minutes against the Hornets that matters if you made two of those they might win that game um he’s had multiple games for the Spurs this year where he missed five threes in one

Game like this is no no alarms are going off for me but that’s like the thing you know this was said about Buddy heeld who actually like has some okay passing games and like is an improved Defender this season despite still being a bad one like who H who adds other skills to

The floor but still the conversation even I said this a lot was like if he’s not making threes his value’s super low with mcdermid if he’s not making threes his values like like almost none so he’s got to make them’s got it’s negative value at that point um if he’s not

Hitting threes like it goes far below yeah so I think he will I think there’s a reason they win and got him I think the carile has familiarity with them obviously uh from a short stint in Dallas and it was encouraging like he got open looks last night like he was getting

Immediately came in and had open three the four were like no one within a mile of him correct and so that’s good like that’s that’s that’s a good sign for the offense because again I feel like he’s gonna make them at some point um but he

Would one would hope uh the other side of it is like we are back to so seeing Doug dur play defense where my favorite thing about that is he always looks like he’s in the right spots to me like he’s in front of the guy and yet they just

Hit shots right in space anyway the whole time that’s like the Doug mcder defensive experience to me and that I’m not super excited to see again but again in like a limited role playing scenario where he’s just coming in as a shooter against bench players like he should fit

In that spot like that should work theoretically um but we’ll see hasn’t played the second half a game yet of two tight games that sticks with me going to Ben sheeper last night will stick with me I think you gave mcdermit like two two and a half three weeks see what it is

See if you could do better on the buyout Market if he’s not performing by then I don’t think you can but you could see check and if not consider Ben Shepard like they did and just see if his defense and energy is more valuable than than what they’re getting from the vet I

Would imagine that that mcder will prove to be slightly more valuable this season but we’ll see Raptors tonight are you expecting anything from uh Jordan war and Bruce Brown Jordan wara doing that thing that he did for the Pacers where he gets traded another team and becomes

Like twice as go immediately yeah big Revenge game opportunity for those guys here uh you never know um it’ll be it’ll be interesting I never like at this point like I don’t know what to I could see anything happening with this game for the Pacers at this spot in time I

Could see them coming out and like getting back together and like rolling easily and I could see them coming out and looking completely broken and failing and having the All-Star break in Indie feel much more muted and down for Pacers fans because of it but yeah

Jordan War got traded to the Raptors he played four minutes of garbage time in their second game in New York he hit his only shot it was a three he played eight minutes of garbage time in their fourth game against the Clippers didn’t score then he was in the rotation when they

Played the Hawks in Atlanta and you know what happens when Jordan War plays the Hawks in Atlanta and gets a rotation opportunity for a new team 24 points for Jordan War they almost win he had 17 two days later at Chicago he just gets traded and just Thrills threes and is

This guy um he’s kind of in and out of their rotation still he’s played their last three games which have been all blowouts I don’t know what his future holds in the NBA ver Brown of course playing in every game for the Raptors 26 minutes a game averaging uh 9.4 points

He’s his minutes are down from his time with the Pacers yeah we’ll see we’ll see what kind of impact they have it’ll be interesting to see them in person again but this whole night is going to be about the guy we spent the most time talking about Pascal siakam’s first game

In Toronto as a visitor lockdown Raptors will have more for that Jay thank you for the time talking about the two new Pacers no game is a must-win game when you’re over 500 but like man with the The Vibes the feeling the stress of importance coming out of the break be a

Good win if the Pacers could get this one it’s a big Vibes game for sure that’s exactly what I was gonna say big Vibes game it’s gonna be it’s gonna be weird right like you can never these weird games sometimes the team with all the emotions it goes terrible and the

Players I don’t know they come out of the break with three in a four in a row at home Detroit Dallas Toronto New Orleans then they have a road trip that’s a joke and then they have a little bit of a hard stretch before another joke of a stretch so until like

March 16th they have like three games are really hard and all the rest are winnable uh for this team I suppose nothing is that case but like getting a good vibes wi before that kind of stretch could feel pretty good Jay this was wonderful where can people find you

Your musings on the Pacers and your work covering the sport of golf which is currently in a time of of debate and disarray because of the Phoenix Waste Management yikes open right now yeah that’s the main discourse at the moment um it’s kind of nice to talk about fan

Behavior at an event instead of like geopolitical concerns uh but which is what I have to do covering golf for the fried egg uh yeah the Friday golf um we do a newsletter three days a week if you’re into the sport you can sign up there I would recommend it and I’m on

Twitter at J rden 5 as well uh that is that just made me dial I didn’t even think about that like it’s probably like oh whatever these guys are drunk it’s not right it’s a much different scale of controversy and it’s honestly refreshing for me uh

To you guys could suck it up and play a surrounded 16th all exactly right is the merger done is it this year I we’ll talk about that later we’ll be back tomorrow everybody talking Pacers Raptors whatever happened in that game did the Pacers get their Good Vibes win I have no expectations

For them anymore we’ll see Friday we’ll preview some All-Star stuff take a little bit of stateof the team kind of stuff next week we’ll talk about what happened at all-star weekend and I’ll do a mailbag finally I I promise lots of fun stuff coming thank youall for

Listening have a wonderful day we’ll see you soon

Pascal Siakam has been with the Indiana Pacers for almost one month. Ahead of his first matchup with the Toronto Raptors, host Tony East is joined by Jay Rigdon to break down what the Pacers have seen from Siakam so far and what can be better going forward. Plus, a brief discussion of Doug McDermott’s showing with Indiana so far.

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