Toronto Raptors: 3 reasons Raptors have been as good as last season

1. Pascal Siakam has raised his game to yet another level

Perhaps the biggest reason for the Toronto Raptors’ success this season is the continued development of Pascal Siakam.

It’s been quite a remarkable rise from unheralded late first-round draft selection (27th overall in 2016) to All-Star starter in 2020 for Siakam. The Most Improved Player award winner last season, the 25-year-old from New Mexico State might just win the award again this season.

In his fourth season, the fourth-year forward is averaging a career-best 23.4 points per game, up from 16.9 per game last season. He’s also posting career highs in field goals, field goal attempts, rebounds and assists. Siakam is a defensive catalyst and offensively, with a usage rate of 29.1, he’s clearly the focal point of the offense.

Not bad for someone who didn’t start playing basketball until he was a teenager.

The Toronto Raptors are having fun once again this season, mainly because very few expected them too – at least have fun AND win basketball games. They were supposed to wallow in misery over being abandoned by their leader. Instead, they have barely blinked. To say they regrouped would be to insinuate that they ever felt down in the first place.

They are the defending world champions, if anyone has forgotten. Their mission this season isn’t just to prove they can be successful without Kawhi Leonard, he’s in their rearview mirror. This season is about showing the world that they were always a successful organization, before and after The Claw.

So far, the results have been spectacular.