McCollum For Siakam? Unlikely

Although there has been plenty of chatter around the NBA regarding the future of Pascal Siakam with the Toronto Raptors, it seems more and more likely that the forward will remain in the Big Smoke. Siakam’s name has been repeatedly linked with the Portland Trail Blazers, with the biggest rumor being that he could be traded for CJ McCollum. However, Alex Wong of Yahoo! Sports Canada points out that the Raptors believe that Siakam is not correctly valued in the current trade market, and despite a bad year, Siakam for McCollum is not a fair trade.

The proposed trades include players like James Wiseman and CJ McCollum as centrepieces coming back to Toronto. With all due respect to those players, Siakam averaged 21.4 points, 7.2 rebounds, and 4.5 assists last season in what was considered a down year.

The numbers don’t erase real concerns about his crunch-time offence, his consistency on a night-to-night basis, his drop in three-point percentage (29.7 percent last season after hovering around 35 percent the previous two years), and where he fits with the new-look Raptors. But Toronto isn’t in a hurry to move its starting forward, especially not for below value.

Siakam is currently out recovering from shoulder surgery, but he is expected to return by November.