There were a few interesting tidbits in this article I wanted to highlight:
> Certainly, Siakam knew it wasn’t business as usual. He wasn’t caught off guard when the rumours that had been swirling for almost 12 months finally turned into something more substantial leading up to this year’s trade deadline. But he did come out of it feeling a bit mistreated and deprioritized. If you noticed that nobody from the Raptors front office was mentioned or thanked in Siakam’s farewell to Toronto in The Players’ Tribune and was wondering if it was a coincidence, it wasn’t.
> For what it’s worth, the Raptors did offer him an extension when he first became eligible prior to the 2022-23 season, but given that he was coming off an All-NBA campaign, turning it down was entirely reasonable, if not expected at the time. One source indicated that they reached out to gauge his interest on a three-year extension at his max just before the start of this season, though it’s unclear how serious they were; it was an informal offer, at best.
> In any case, Siakam’s camp was pushing for a fourth year, and there was no real discussion between the two parties after that.
____
> There was another path that the team explored over the summer. According to a source with knowledge of the negotiation, the Raptors believed they were close to acquiring Damian Lillard from Portland. The framework was in place, a package centred on significant draft capitol that would have allowed the Raptors to add the star point guard to a core that still would’ve included Siakam, Barnes and OG Anunoby.
> The sticking point, confirmed by multiple league sources, was that Lillard didn’t want to play in Toronto and that was a deal breaker for the Trail Blazers. They weren’t going to send him to his preferred destination, Miami, but they were still insistent on doing right by one of the franchise’s greatest players. He ultimately approved of the deal that paired him with Giannis Antetokounmpo in Milwaukee, and the Raptors came out of it with an even greater emphasis on moving forward with players who wanted to be in Toronto.
> That was a motivating factor in their recent acquisitions of Canadians RJ Barrett and Kelly Olynyk, as well as Ochai Agbaji, who’s father is an old friend of Ujiri’s. It makes sense, especially for the NBA’s only franchise based out of the United States, one that has had its difficulty recruiting and keeping star players over its nearly three-decade history.
So it seems the 4th year was a dealbreaker for the Raps in an extension with Siakam (unless there was a paycut, maybe). They were wary of the back end of the deal and cap implications.
And it seems we would have had Lillard but he veto’d the trade. Probably a good thing in the long run but also does give reason to why we acquired RJ, Kelly, and Ochai.
rocketmadeofcheese
The way this organization treats its homegrown players that WANT to be here is crazy. I get that it wasn’t totally working out, but Toronto has always been known as a destination a lot of players don’t wanna go to. But when you get an all-star caliber player who WANTS to be here and be the face of the franchise or at least a major part of it, they treat him like that.
I’m pretty sure this is a huge part of Scottie’s attitude towards the FO lately. He’s seen first hand how the organization treats it’s top players and is now expecting a 21-22 yo to “be the face of the team” because it didn’t wanna stick with its veteran star players. And not only did they not want to stick with them, they let this whole “silent treatment” stuff go public.
We can’t draft or bring in solid bench players. We can’t retain stars. We can’t attract stars. And the ones we do get we waste their time here and ship them off. Wash, rinse, repeat.
Edit: meant Scottie’s attitude *about the FO*. Why would you wanna be put on as the face of the franchise when we’ve seen time and time again how that works for this team. You’ll be jaded by the FO and shipped because they couldn’t put a team around you.
Y’all soft af for downvoting this. Truth hurts tho I know.
Barnicus57
Makes sense. In the video he posted about the time leading up to his leaving Toronto, he was happy, smiling, joking around and generally optimistic the entire time. He looked relieved to finally know what his future was going to look like, even if it wasn’t in Toronto.
flow2ebb2flow
Based on this and on Masai’s presser, it sounds to me like NEITHER side had an interest in budging from their position. Front office had no intention of offering what Siakam wanted and didn’t communicate more about it over the summer because they had nothing else to give (Masai said as much), and knew Pascal wouldn’t accept it. From a human point of view, this sucked for Pascal to not have more personal discussion. But he also said he knows it’s a business. You expect more after all that time, but in the end, they respected what he wanted and got him where he wanted after he ruined trade negotiations over the summer. Why didn’t he communicate with them in a better way? Feels like he was trying to force their hand, even tho I do think he did want to stay here. Overall, not well done on both sides. Glad he’s happy there, glad we are moving on.
TurboByte24
Raps Management = r/torontoraptors
QuickyQuail
Man imagine if we got Damian lillard. Idk how good we would have been (probably not very good) but the thought process back then would have been to compete for another championship?
But realistically idk if a core of Lillard, Siakam, OG, and Barnes would have gone to deep tbh. Especially with the heat and other eastern teams playing the way they are
7 Comments
There were a few interesting tidbits in this article I wanted to highlight:
> Certainly, Siakam knew it wasn’t business as usual. He wasn’t caught off guard when the rumours that had been swirling for almost 12 months finally turned into something more substantial leading up to this year’s trade deadline. But he did come out of it feeling a bit mistreated and deprioritized. If you noticed that nobody from the Raptors front office was mentioned or thanked in Siakam’s farewell to Toronto in The Players’ Tribune and was wondering if it was a coincidence, it wasn’t.
> For what it’s worth, the Raptors did offer him an extension when he first became eligible prior to the 2022-23 season, but given that he was coming off an All-NBA campaign, turning it down was entirely reasonable, if not expected at the time. One source indicated that they reached out to gauge his interest on a three-year extension at his max just before the start of this season, though it’s unclear how serious they were; it was an informal offer, at best.
> In any case, Siakam’s camp was pushing for a fourth year, and there was no real discussion between the two parties after that.
____
> There was another path that the team explored over the summer. According to a source with knowledge of the negotiation, the Raptors believed they were close to acquiring Damian Lillard from Portland. The framework was in place, a package centred on significant draft capitol that would have allowed the Raptors to add the star point guard to a core that still would’ve included Siakam, Barnes and OG Anunoby.
> The sticking point, confirmed by multiple league sources, was that Lillard didn’t want to play in Toronto and that was a deal breaker for the Trail Blazers. They weren’t going to send him to his preferred destination, Miami, but they were still insistent on doing right by one of the franchise’s greatest players. He ultimately approved of the deal that paired him with Giannis Antetokounmpo in Milwaukee, and the Raptors came out of it with an even greater emphasis on moving forward with players who wanted to be in Toronto.
> That was a motivating factor in their recent acquisitions of Canadians RJ Barrett and Kelly Olynyk, as well as Ochai Agbaji, who’s father is an old friend of Ujiri’s. It makes sense, especially for the NBA’s only franchise based out of the United States, one that has had its difficulty recruiting and keeping star players over its nearly three-decade history.
So it seems the 4th year was a dealbreaker for the Raps in an extension with Siakam (unless there was a paycut, maybe). They were wary of the back end of the deal and cap implications.
And it seems we would have had Lillard but he veto’d the trade. Probably a good thing in the long run but also does give reason to why we acquired RJ, Kelly, and Ochai.
The way this organization treats its homegrown players that WANT to be here is crazy. I get that it wasn’t totally working out, but Toronto has always been known as a destination a lot of players don’t wanna go to. But when you get an all-star caliber player who WANTS to be here and be the face of the franchise or at least a major part of it, they treat him like that.
I’m pretty sure this is a huge part of Scottie’s attitude towards the FO lately. He’s seen first hand how the organization treats it’s top players and is now expecting a 21-22 yo to “be the face of the team” because it didn’t wanna stick with its veteran star players. And not only did they not want to stick with them, they let this whole “silent treatment” stuff go public.
We can’t draft or bring in solid bench players. We can’t retain stars. We can’t attract stars. And the ones we do get we waste their time here and ship them off. Wash, rinse, repeat.
Edit: meant Scottie’s attitude *about the FO*. Why would you wanna be put on as the face of the franchise when we’ve seen time and time again how that works for this team. You’ll be jaded by the FO and shipped because they couldn’t put a team around you.
Y’all soft af for downvoting this. Truth hurts tho I know.
Makes sense. In the video he posted about the time leading up to his leaving Toronto, he was happy, smiling, joking around and generally optimistic the entire time. He looked relieved to finally know what his future was going to look like, even if it wasn’t in Toronto.
Based on this and on Masai’s presser, it sounds to me like NEITHER side had an interest in budging from their position. Front office had no intention of offering what Siakam wanted and didn’t communicate more about it over the summer because they had nothing else to give (Masai said as much), and knew Pascal wouldn’t accept it. From a human point of view, this sucked for Pascal to not have more personal discussion. But he also said he knows it’s a business. You expect more after all that time, but in the end, they respected what he wanted and got him where he wanted after he ruined trade negotiations over the summer. Why didn’t he communicate with them in a better way? Feels like he was trying to force their hand, even tho I do think he did want to stay here. Overall, not well done on both sides. Glad he’s happy there, glad we are moving on.
Raps Management = r/torontoraptors
Man imagine if we got Damian lillard. Idk how good we would have been (probably not very good) but the thought process back then would have been to compete for another championship?
But realistically idk if a core of Lillard, Siakam, OG, and Barnes would have gone to deep tbh. Especially with the heat and other eastern teams playing the way they are
Lillard is a bitch