With Pascal Siakam headed to the Pacers, what will the playoff-tested wing bring to Indiana?
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Pascal Siakam, the last player remaining from the Toronto Raptors’ 2019 championship rotation, has been traded to the Indiana Pacers for a package that includes Bruce Brown and three first-round picks. Siakam will be an unrestricted free agent in July, but gives the Pacers a mobile power forward who should help on both ends of the floor.
Here are some numbers to know about the 29-year-old, two-time All-Star.
All stats are through Tuesday, January 16.
Lower usage, higher efficiency
1. Siakam is one of only four players — Giannis Antetokounmpo, Luka Doncic and Jayson Tatum are the others — who have averaged at least 20 points, six rebounds and three assists in each of the last five seasons.
2. His usage rate this season (24.8%) marks his lowest of the last five years.
3. But Siakam’s true shooting percentage (60%) is his highest mark in that same stretch. He’s shot 58.4% on 2-point shots, up from 51.6% over the previous four seasons.
4. He’s been assisted on 59.4% of his field goals, his highest rate in the last six seasons and up from just 38.6% over the last two.
5. According to Second Spectrum tracking, Siakam ranks 15th with 253 total isolations this season, though his isolations per 100 possessions (9.1) are down from 12.5 last season and a career-high 15.7 in 2021-22. The Raptors have scored 1.13 points per possession when his isolations have led directly to a shot, trip to the line or turnover, a rate which ranks 10th among 59 players with at least 100 such isolations. New teammate Tyrese Haliburton ranks fourth at 1.22 points per possession.
Inside vs. out
6. Siakam has shot a career-best 61.6% in the paint but has an effective field goal percentage of just 45.2% on shots from outside the paint (where the league average is 52.1%). That’s the ninth-biggest differential among 154 players with at least 100 field goal attempts both in and outside the paint.
7. He’s shot 19-for-42 (45.2%) on corner 3-pointers, but just 27-for-103 (26.2%) on above-the-break 3s. Overall, his 31.7% from 3-point range ranks 168th among 186 players with at least 100 attempts.
8. He did shoot 20-for-31 (65%) from beyond the arc (including 10-for-10 from the corners) over an eight-game stretch before going 0-for-5 against Boston on Monday.
From great defender to less than
9. Siakam was an integral part of three top-five defenses in Toronto in 2017-18, ’18-19 and ’19-20. He led the team in total minutes in the last two of those seasons, and the defense was better with him on the floor in all three.
10. This season, the Toronto defense has allowed slightly fewer points per 100 possessions with Siakam on the floor (115.3) than it has with him off the floor (115.9), but the Raptors have a bottom 10 defense for what would be the first time in the last nine seasons (since 2014-15).
11. Siakam has averaged 1.5 deflections per 36 minutes this season, a career-low mark and down from 2.1 per 36 last season. His steals (0.85) and blocks (0.27) per 36 minutes are also career-low marks.
12. Opponents have shot 50.4% on shots he’s defended, with the difference between that and their expected field goal percentage on those shots (47.4%) also being the worst mark of his career.
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John Schuhmann is a senior stats analyst for NBA.com. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on X.
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