Louis: Last week we did what we called then our most take-y Minute Basketball takes ever when we discussed the State of the Wing. We are getting much, much take-ier this week. This is Minute Basketball LIVE. And we are talking Pascal Siakam. Samson: That's right. And basically the reasons why we are doing this is because Pascal Siakam lives in an extremely polarized, always-on-trial version of life currently. Or basketball life. And the reason for that is there are multitudes, there's a myriad amount of things that are happening that make Pascal Siakam a guy who, every time he steps on out on the floor, he's generating takes from people like us. Takes from normal fans. People who see every seventh Raptors game in a bar somewhere. All the way to people who watch every game twice. All this kind of stuff. Everybody has a take. And I'm gonna ask you straight up. Why do you think that is?
> Pascal Siakam lives in an extremely polarized, always-on-trial version of life currently.
I think this is a Twitter thing and not a real life thing. Almost all Raptors fans I know have no problem with Siakam at all. They do have higher expectations than what he's probably capable of much like they did with DeMar DeRozan and Chris Bosh, but I wouldn't call it polarization. Andrea Bargnani polarized people 100x more than Siakam has ever done.
The best parallel for Siakam is Chris Bosh. He was held to extremely high standards even though his limitations as a player prohibited him from becoming a "Tier 1" player (i.e. Curry, LeBron). As we all know, Bosh turned out to be a Hall of Famer who was a perfect #3 option on multiple championship teams. That's probably where Siakam lands too.
Raptors fans seem to want Siakam to pick up where Kawhi left off. I think that has to do with the general mentality of people for instant gratification. There was also the racist reaction to his bad games, but again, that's a very Twitter thing and that too, a very small minority of people. We can't let the loud and insane minority dictate the overall conversation (both in sports and on either side politically). Those people are best ignored because feeding them anything only gives them power.
Siakam is fine, he just needs to become a dead-eye three-point shooter at some point (which he's improving, 41% this year compared to 33% career).
Keep up the awesome work. This is my favorite NBA content.
> Pascal Siakam lives in an extremely polarized, always-on-trial version of life currently.
I think this is a Twitter thing and not a real life thing. Almost all Raptors fans I know have no problem with Siakam at all. They do have higher expectations than what he's probably capable of much like they did with DeMar DeRozan and Chris Bosh, but I wouldn't call it polarization. Andrea Bargnani polarized people 100x more than Siakam has ever done.
The best parallel for Siakam is Chris Bosh. He was held to extremely high standards even though his limitations as a player prohibited him from becoming a "Tier 1" player (i.e. Curry, LeBron). As we all know, Bosh turned out to be a Hall of Famer who was a perfect #3 option on multiple championship teams. That's probably where Siakam lands too.
Raptors fans seem to want Siakam to pick up where Kawhi left off. I think that has to do with the general mentality of people for instant gratification. There was also the racist reaction to his bad games, but again, that's a very Twitter thing and that too, a very small minority of people. We can't let the loud and insane minority dictate the overall conversation (both in sports and on either side politically). Those people are best ignored because feeding them anything only gives them power.
Siakam is fine, he just needs to become a dead-eye three-point shooter at some point (which he's improving, 41% this year compared to 33% career).
Keep up the awesome work. This is my favorite NBA content.