The 2023-24 NBA season was a miserable one for the Washington Wizards. They finished 15-67, just one game better than the league-worst Detroit Pistons. In a season light on positives, at least they saw glimpses of what Bilal Coulibaly could provide.
The seventh overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft, Coulibaly played 63 games in his rookie season with 15 coming in the starting lineup. A right wrist fracture ended his season prematurely, as he last played on March 16. The 19-year-old posted averages of 8.4 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 1.7 assists in his rookie season.
While his Wizards didn’t come close to the playoffs, Coulibaly has kept his name in the news during this year’s postseason.
Bilal Coulibaly Continues to Throw Shade at Two-Time All-Star
Coulibaly Not Overly Impressed With Siakam
A couple of weeks ago, Coulibaly gave an interview with the French language RMC Sport. In that interview, he named Pascal Siakam of the Indiana Pacers as an overrated player.
Coulibaly decided to double down on throwing shade at Siakam while recently speaking with Fanduel TV.
Bilal Coulibaly stands by his comments calling Pascal Siakam ‘overrated’
“I watch the films, I know what he was about to do when he was going left, spinning around, going right. I was like, yeah, he was the easiest superstar to guard”
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) May 13, 2024
While Coulibaly’s remarks can be seen as disparaging, one could also see it as a compliment that he referred to Siakam as a ‘superstar’. It would depend on one’s definition of superstar as to whether they agree in calling him that.
The 30-year-old Siakam made the All-NBA Second Team in 2019-20 and the Third Team in 2022-23 while with the Toronto Raptors. In both of those seasons, he was named an All-Star.
Siakam’s Raptors won the NBA Championship in 2019, a season where he was named the league’s Most Improved Player. He was Toronto’s second-leading scorer at 19 points per game in that postseason run, only behind Kawhi Leonard.
While he has plenty of accolades to his name, most would agree that while he’s a great player, but he isn’t on the short list of league’s best.
Pacers Still Around in the Playoffs
Now in his eighth season, Siakam probably isn’t paying much mind to Coulibaly’s comments.
He has the current postseason to still deal with. His Pacers are squared up with the New York Knicks through four games of the Eastern Conference Semifinals. Game 5 will take place on Tuesday in Madison Square Garden.
Selected 27th overall in the 2016 NBA Draft, Siakam was acquired via trade by the Pacers in mid-January from the Raptors. It helped pair point guard Tyrese Haliburton with another All-Star caliber player.
In 41 regular season games after joining Indiana, Siakam averaged 21.8 points, 7.8 rebounds, and 3.7 assists. The 6’8″ forward shot 54.9% from the field, 38.6% from three-point range, and 69.9% from the foul line. In his 10 playoff games thus far, Siakam has averaged 20.7 points, 7.9 rebounds, and 3.5 assists. His shooting splits are .546/.276/.512.
With Siakam still in the playoff mix, he has the opportunity to make Coulibaly eat his words.
