Toronto Raptors forward Pascal Siakam struggled mightily during the Raptors' run inside the NBA's Disney bubble last season. However, Raptors president Masai Ujiri is confident he'll return back to dominance this season.
“Pascal didn't enjoy the game (in the bubble),” Ujiri told reporters on Saturday, via Josh Lewenberg of TSN Sports. I don't think he was himself. Just seeing him here, I know it's going to be different. He's back enjoying himself… You can tell he's learned from that experience. I'm confident we'll get our old Pascal back.”
Before the NBA hiatus, Siakam was having a career season, averaging 23.6 points on 45.9% shooting overall and 35.9% from deep. However, when the season resumed inside the Disney bubble, Siakam was clearly not himself offensively and defensively. In the seven seeding games in which he played in, he averaged 16.9 points on 39.4% shooting from the field. Then in the playoffs, he averaged 17 points and 7.5 rebounds while shooting 39.6 percent from the field and just 18.9 percent from three-point range.
Against the Celtics, Siakam's scoring average dipped to 14.9 points and his shooting to 38.2%. He also shot 4-of-32 (12.5%) from three-point range, which marks the worst 3-point percentage in a playoff series in NBA history, according to ESPN Stats & Information research.
Nevertheless, Siakam knows he didn't play up to expectations during the seeding games and playoffs.
“I didn't recognize myself in terms of having fun,” Siakam said Thursday, via The Athletic's Blake Murphy. “I love this game and I don't ever want to be able to play the game without joy.”
Despite his horrendous performance in the playoffs, Siakam is only 26 years old and still has time to improve his game. He'll be entering his first season of the four-year, $130-million contract extension he signed in October of 2019.
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