Pascal Siakam reportedly turned down all advances from the Golden State Warriors during his trade saga. Sam Amick reported on The Athletic NBA Show that Siakam was not excited about playing with the 2022 champions, intending to not re-sign with the franchise beyond the season before being traded to the Indiana Pacers. “The Warriors were interested. I don’t think he was excited about anything past this season with them.”
Signing with the Warriors would bring up multiple concerns for Pascal. First, there’s no obvious open frontcourt position if Draymond Green is on the roster due to both players playing the same position. It’s clear Siakam didn’t want to be a center and it’d be hard for him to be their power forward ahead of Draymond.
More importantly, the Warriors have major worries with long-term salary as a team deep into the luxury tax. Siakam likely won’t leave any money on the table and the Warriors would ask him to take some level of a discount to make their cap math easy. The Warriors dynasty is clearly over or on the verge of ending, as players have now started turning down opportunities to play with them.
Siakam clearly used this trade window as a form of ‘pre-agency’, making sure he’s not traded to a team he didn’t want to. Despite reports saying Siakam will test free agency regardless of where he gets traded for weeks. After the Pacers deal was finalized, Siakam’s agent made it clear that they envision a long-term future with the franchise.
“I could see Pascal in Indiana long term. They want to see Pascal with the organization long-term. He’s excited. There are a lot of memories up in Toronto, and a lot of good memories. Although things have changed to where he’s been moved, he’s ecstatic about the opportunity ahead of him in Indiana. First of all, it’s a first-class organization. When you look at [President] Kevin Pritchard and [general manager] Chad Buchanan, these are basketball guys with an organization that always has had basketball executives from Larry Bird to Donnie Walsh that have been there. Their front office is first class.”
This seems to be a great basketball fit for Siakam as well, as the former All-NBA forward is playing with a fantastic point guard like Tyrese Haliburton under a former title-winning coach like Rick Carlisle. The Pacers value the abilities Siakam brings to the table and how he fits well next to Haliburton.
There isn’t another team in the NBA that could offer the role the Pacers have to Siakam in addition to being legitimate playoff contenders. If Siakam doesn’t regress quickly due to age, the Pacers may get a lot of value after extending Siakam over the summer.
