As we slowly creep closer to the NBA trade deadline, the intrigue surrounding one of the most talked-about names may have just taken a turn. Toronto Raptors forward Pascal Siakam has been mentioned in numerous trade rumors dating back to last year, and the latest update signals an unwillingness to sign a contract extension with a new team.
Siakam prefers to play out the remainder of the season with the Raptors, and he wants ultimate control over where he plays next if that’s not in Toronto, per Marc Stein’s The Stein Line.
Beyond controlling where he signs next, Siakam is also likely hesitant to sign an instant-extension with a new team because it would push him further away from securing a large, lengthy contract. While Siakam can sign a four-year extension with the Raptors, or whatever contract he likes with a team in free agency in the coming offseason, he would only be able to get a two-year extension from whichever team he landed with if he was traded at this point in the year.
If Siakam is indeed hesitant to sign an extension with a new team, it would undoubtedly impact his trade value, as teams would obviously be taking on a much higher risk. It’d ultimately leave the potential for any trade suitor to simply be renting Siakam’s services for the remainder of the year before losing him in free agency in the upcoming offseason.
Time will tell, but the most interesting piece of the Siakam trade rumblings is going to be how this impacts his value going forward.
