Pascal Siakam trade isn't looking great for Toronto Raptors after his NBA Finals run
When Toronto Raptors fans settle in Sunday to watch Game 7 of the NBA Finals, they’ll have something to root for either way.
There are four Canadians taking part in what’s been an unforgettable series so far, led by Oklahoma City Thunder star and league MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
But for many Raptors fans, their bond is closest to Pascal Siakam, traded away from Toronto in January 2024 to the Thunder’s competitor in the Indiana Pacers.
The Raptors have traded the assets they received in the Siakam trade a few times now. The full return seems to be made up of former All-Star Brandon Ingram, two solid rookies in Ja’Kobe Walter and Jamal Shead, and Ochai Agbaji, who started 45 games for the Raptors this past season, as well as a few draft picks the Raptors have yet to use.
However, none of those players have a resume that stacks up to Siakam’s, who won the Eastern Conference Finals MVP and is now one game away from winning his second NBA title, having already won it all with the Raptors in 2019.
Siakam has averaged a team-leading 19.8 points, 8.3 rebounds, and 4.0 assists in six games in the Finals so far, and very much looks like the star that Raptors fans came to know.
Could the Raptors have the Pacers’ success?
Could what the Pacers are doing right now have happened in Toronto? Well, Siakam seems to think so, or at least expected to get a few more chances at doing so.
“I thought I was going to spend the rest of my career there [in Toronto],” Siakam told reporters at his end-of-season availability in 2024. “It’s been tough just going through everything and leaving in the middle of the season and just going through it a lot mentally and physically.”
The Raptors opted against giving Siakam a multi-year contract extension, instead shipping him to Indiana in the final year of his deal.
Just two years ago, the Raptors finished two seeds and six spots higher than the Pacers, an organization that had missed the playoffs three years in a row, lost their last five playoff series and hadn’t won a round in the postseason since an Eastern Conference Finals run in 2014.
At the time of the trade, they were in a playoff spot while Toronto was in the midst of a 25-win campaign, where they finished 12th in the Atlantic.
But it’s hard not to wonder if the Raptors could’ve had a similar trajectory in the Eastern Conference had they chosen to build around Siakam.
The Pacers were never seen as a model for NBA success until a series of savvy trades for Siakam and fellow All-Star Tyrese Haliburton have suddenly catapulted them into a chance for a first-ever title in franchise history.
The Pacers made light work of the Eastern Conference’s top seed in the Cleveland Cavaliers, taking down the 64-win team in just five games.
But they’ve also benefited greatly from a bit of fate going their way, with injuries to Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum, Milwaukee Bucks star Damian Lillard and Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid having a major impact on the makeup of the conference.
This isn’t to take anything away from their accomplishments, but perhaps a Raptors team with Siakam — instead of Indiana — could’ve been the ones to make a shock run to the NBA Finals if their front office made a different choice some 17 months ago.
While we’ll never know how things might’ve shaken out, Siakam and the Pacers need just one more win to cement the deal as an all-time great NBA trade on their part, and rub it into the faces of the Raptors a little bit.