TAMPA, Fla. — Raptors forward Pascal Siakam has moved around a lot. Whether it was relocating from his native Cameroon to Texas as a teenager to chase his basketball dreams, pursuing them through college in New Mexico or living them out in Toronto, success has mostly followed him.
So on the surface, calling Tampa home for at least the first half of the upcoming NBA season shouldn't be all that different.
But it is.
"I feel like my whole life I've been just traveling and being in different places, so I've just got to continue to do the things I've been doing and trying to be as comfortable as possible," Siakam said on a video conferencing call with reporters Thursday.
"Nothing has been normal for a long time, so we're all learning and we're all adjusting. Even for the people that (are playing at) home, I don't think it's going to be normal."
The pause forced by the pandemic threw everyone for a loop, but it affected Siakam more than most — and it was obvious on the court.
At his best, the 6-foot-9, 230-pounder is one of the league's most exciting players to watch, a big man whose ability to swiftly run the floor fits perfectly into the Raptors' transition game. He has the dribble and moves to break down a defender and can shoot from the perimeter with consistency and protect the rim on defense.
Before the NBA shut down in March, Siakam was having his best season, averaging 23.9 points, along with 7.5 rebounds and 3.6 assists.
But when the Raptors returned to action in the Orlando bubble in late July, he wasn't the same player.
He scored more than 15 points in just two of the seven regular-season games, and his struggles continued in the playoffs. He averaged nearly seven points below his season average (17.0, down from 23.9), and his shooting percentage (.389, compared to .459 pre-bubble) and 3-point percentage (.359 to .189) dipped considerably as Toronto's defense of its NBA title ended in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Though he finished the season as the Raptors' leading scorer, Siakam bore little resemblance down the stretch to the player who went from surprise first-round pick in 2016 to the NBA's Most Improved Player during the Raptors' 2018-19 title run.
Looking back this offseason at the games he played following the restart, Siakam saw a stranger.
"It was weird watching myself," he said. "When I watched the games, one of the things that I really found is that I didn't even recognize myself in terms of just having fun. I'm always somebody that has fun playing the game, and I love this game and I don't ever want to be able to play the game without any joy. I just didn't see that in myself."
Siakam admitted that concerns about the pandemic kept him preoccupied, even inside the locked-down bubble.
"The world is crazy right now," he said. "There's so many different things that we all have to deal with as individuals, and I think it was no different. I didn't feel like I was where I wanted to be physically and mentally."
The offseason presented a new set of uncertainties. The Raptors didn't know whether they'd be able to return to Toronto. Players knew they had less time to recover and train for the upcoming season.
But instead of worrying about what he couldn't control, Siakam focused on what he could. He built a team to prepare him during the shorter offseason, complete with a personal trainer, physical therapist, chef and nutritionist.
This will be an important season for Siakam.
It sets in motion the four-year, $130 million max extension he signed in October 2019, and he will be counted on to shoulder more of the frontcourt load after big men Serge Ibaka and Marc Gasol left in free agency.
But Siakam has had to be adaptable before, so he looks at the season as his next step.
"I always want to continue to improve and get better and find things that I can do better to help me become the best that I can be," he said. "This year, I put a little extra focus on it. I can look at everything and I know that I put everything into it."
