Dread it. Run from it. Destiny arrives all the same. Scottie Barnes is the captain now. We can use all these famous movie references to say that the Toronto Raptors are now Scottie Barnes' team. But that's just the reality of the situation. Scottie Barnes isn't here to take part. He is here to take over. Unfortunately, Barnes' emergence as the Raptors' face of the franchise this season may be signaling the end of Pascal Siakam's time in Toronto. His disappointing start to the 2023-24 season could be indicative that it might be time for the Raptors to finally part ways with the two-time All-Star.

Raptors' 2023-24 NBA season so far

Toronto is by no means off to a flying start this season. The team is just 3-4 and in fact, has one of the worst offenses in the entire NBA. Nonetheless, the Raptors did have some pretty impressive wins through the first two weeks of the season.

They took down the Milwaukee Bucks pretty convincingly, 130-111, and held Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard to a combined 31 points. Lillard, in particular, was a team-worst minus-26 in the loss.

In their most recent outing, the Raptors rallied from 22 points and defeated Victor Wembanyama and the surging San Antonio Spurs on the road last Sunday. Barnes had his best outing of the campaign so far and finished with 30 points, 11 rebounds, six assists, three steals, and three blocks. He even made a cold-blooded step-back three-pointer in regulation that forced the game to go into overtime.

While there are plenty of positives to draw from the Raptors' first couple of weeks of the season, the team is still up-and-down for the most part. The same can be said about Pascal Siakam, who is in the midst of his worst campaign since the 2018-19 season, where he earned the Most Improved Player award and helped lead the Raptors to the 2019 NBA championship.

What's wrong with Pascal Siakam?

On the season, Siakam is averaging 15.1 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 4.8 assists, while shooting just 41.2 percent from the field. Those numbers are huge drop off from what he had just a year ago (24.2 PPG, 7.8 RPG, 5.1 APG, on 48.0 percent shooting), where he carried the Raptors to a spot in the play-in tournament despite all the internal strife the team was going through throughout the season. He is also shooting nearly five less shot attempts per game this season.

Spicy P may have reached rock bottom in Toronto's epic comeback win over San Antonio. While Raptors fans were lauding the likes of Barnes, OG Anunoby, and Dennis Schroder for their incredible outings, Siakam was nowhere to be found. The Cameroonian finished with just eight points on a paltry 2-of-12 shooting.

Even from the jump, you can tell he looked well out of it.

 

Siakam may be adjusting to the fact that this may no longer be his team.

New Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic has installed a new offensive system that focuses heavily on ball and people movement. Barnes has thrived as one of the primary playmakers and ball handlers of the team, while Siakam is having the worst year of his career since his breakout campaign five seasons ago.

With Barnes' emergence, the Raptors could very well move on from the 29-year-old sooner rather than later to officially hand over the reigns to the 2021-22 Rookie of the Year. Several teams have expressed interest in acquiring the two-time All-NBA forward. Nonetheless, Toronto is going to need Siakam's play to return at an All-Star level so they could maximize his trade value.