ESPN Insider Shares Latest on Raptors & Pascal Siakam

Pascal Siakam appears to have been made available.

The Toronto Raptors are notorious for their stealth-like behavior around the trade deadline, but NBA sources say Toronto is expected to deal the two-time All-Star ahead of the Feb. 8 trade deadline, per ESPN’s Tim Bontemps.

Toronto made its first big move toward a retooling last weekend when OG Anunoby, Precious Achiuwa, and Malachi Flynn were traded to the New York Knicks for RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley. That immediately led to speculation that Siakam would be the next to go, as ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported.

As of last weekend, there’d been no traction on a deal involving Siakam, Wojnarowski wrote.

Siakam’s future is complicated by the fact that he’s on an expiring contract and the Raptors have been reluctant to engage in discussions about a contract extension. Toronto can offer him an extension up to four years, $192 million at any point before he hits unrestricted free agency this summer.

The teams most often connected to Siakam in trade rumors have been the Indiana Pacers, Sacramento Kings, and Atlanta Hawks.

Siakam has reportedly conveyed a disinterest in being trade as he would prefer to hit unrestricted free agency as a member of the Raptors, according to SubStack’s Marc Stein. That greatly diminishes Toronto’s leverage in trade talks as interested teams are unlikely to give the Raptors a haul in return for a short-term rental who could leave in free agency.

Siakam is averaging 22.4 points, 6.6 rebounds, and 4.9 assists per game with a True Shooting percentage of 59.4%, the highest mark since the 2018-19 season.