Few players will hit the floor in 2020-21 under as much scrutiny as budding Toronto Raptors superstar Pascal Siakam.
Fresh off a tumultuous year and a half that saw Siakam become a champion, put together the finest season of his career, and ultimately come up well short of expectations in the peculiar bubble-ball post-season, the 26-year-old heads into the coming NBA campaign looking to clarify where he stands among the game's best.
Siakam provided a glimpse into the work he's putting in to return to form this coming season, launching a new YouTube series, Humble Hustle, documenting his off-season training in California.
Following the Raptors' Game 7 loss to the Boston Celtics during the 2020 playoffs, Siakam returned to Los Angeles to work with coach Rico Hines, as he's done for the past half-decade, to find his game.
“I’m my biggest critic. I’m my biggest hater," Siakam says in the first episode of Humble Hustle. "And anything that people’s told me, or anything about my game, I already told that to myself. Not to say I don’t care what people say — because I mean, those are the fans and they’re watching — but for me, it just don’t really matter, because I already know what’s happening, I already know what’s wrong.
"I already know that I didn’t perform."
Siakam opened up about his well-documented struggles during the 2020 playoffs, too.
“The bubble wasn’t Disneyland, I’ll tell you that much," he says. "Sometimes, things are not going to go your way. I had a great season and then I just went to a point where I just wasn’t performing well. … It’s tough but, like, I love that. I love the fact that I was struggling, and had to get back up.”
Hines, who began working with Siakam long before he rose to prominence, and who now serves as player development coach for the Sacramento Kings, speaks about his work with the Raptors cornerstone in the episode as well.
“Adding stuff, man — we just want to add. Making threes off the dribble, off the bounce, spot-up threes. We want to continue to play with speed and play fast and play downhill, play with force. Obviously his fadeaway, we want to put that into his game. But I just know he’s back working, and he’ll be better," Hines says. "My conversations with him, like always, ‘Let’s just get back to work.’
"Because that’s what he does anyways — even if they won the championship, they played great, he would still want to try. He always thinks he can do better. If you talk to him, he always would say, 'You know, we can get better.’"
