Although ranking the top 30 NBA players in today’s game is an incredibly difficult task, The Last Word on Pro Basketball staff has taken it on. Toronto Raptors forward Pascal Siakam made the cut.
Top 30 NBA Players
Number 17 – Pascal Siakam
One of three international players in the rankings so far, Siakam was born in Cameroon. All three of his older brothers received basketball offers from NCAA Division One colleges, but Siakam originally wanted to become a Catholic priest. His basketball talent was actually discovered by Luc Mbah a Moute at a camp in Cameroon. Siakam then went on to star at the Basketball Without Borders camp. Fast forward a couple of years, and he decided to attend New Mexico State University after playing prep school basketball in Texas.
He quickly became a star in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC). Siakam earned WAC Freshman of the Year honors in 2014-15. In his sophomore campaign, he earned WAC Player of the Year honors. Siakam declared for the 2016 NBA Draft, where he was selected 27th overall by Toronto.
Strengths
Siakam is both a high energy and extremely athletic player. His size, standing at 6’9″ with a 7’3″ wingspan, only adds to this.
His game is both a mix of a traditional power forward and one of the newer generations. He’s a strong rebounder who can score in bunches inside. More than that, though, Siakam can shoot from distance and distribute.
This season his shooting splits sit at 46-36-80. He’s not an elite three-point shooter yet, but defenders cannot leave him open. Furthermore, he’s great at the free-throw line, which helps greatly for a forward who can play inside as well.
Averaging nearly four assists per game for a power forward is already impressive. Even more so, he already plays with two great distributors in Kyle Lowry and Fred VanVleet. Siakam has the ability to take the ball down the floor on his own and find open teammates.
Lastly, his work ethic cannot be questioned. Siakam continues to show massive improvements each and every season. The best is yet to come.
Weaknesses
Siakam is by no means the Raptors’ best rim protector or shot blocker. They haven’t exactly needed this, however, as Serge Ibaka and Marc Gasol handle the duties. With this being said, Ibaka and Gasol are free agents this coming offseason. If the Raptors fail to retain both or either, Siakam will need most likely need to increase his role in rim protection.
This season he’s also played slightly worse versus playoff-caliber teams. Not so much to make a difference now, but perhaps down the line. He is now the Raptors’ number one option. They have strong depth across the board, but Lowry is aging, and VanVleet will also hit free agency this summer alongside the aforementioned names. These struggles are likely just slight growing pains, as Siakam was second-fiddle alongside Lowry to Kawhi Leonard last season.
Pascal Siakam Career Accolades
Major accolades in the pros have poured in for Siakam the last couple of seasons. In 2018-19 he became an NBA Champion (with a major role on the team), won the NBA’s Most Improved Player award, and was a one-time Eastern Conference Player of the Week.
This season, Siakam has been the Eastern Conference’s Player of the Week on two occasions and secured his first All-Star appearance.
He recently turned 26 and is now a primary leader on the Raptors. With the team likely to see some changes this offseason, Siakam may very well make his way up lists like these.
Last Word on Pro Basketball Ballots
We believe in full transparency in the top 30 NBA player rankings so we are going to disclose the ballots of our player rankings and where each contributor had each player ranked.
Tyler Marling – Site Manager – 12
Chase Gage – Managing Editor – 16
David Knight – Marketing Manager – 19
Zach Kircher – Associate Editor – 24
Matthew Waldman – Associate Editor – 18
David Ward – Author – 15
Avinash Chauhan – Contributor – 16
Adam Zigner – Contributor – 11
Albert Dadson – Contributor – 20
Dylan Guest – Contributor – 18
Raheem Bashir – Contributor – 24
Nathan Levine – Contributor – 14
Bill Huan – Contributor – 19
Main Photo
Embed from Getty Images
