December 30 Could be a Key Date for Pascal Siakam and the Raptors in Trade Talks

Pascal Siakam news could be coming any day now.

Generally speaking, it’s not common for big trades to happen in mid-to-late December. It’s the February 8 trade deadline that typically forces action and it’s safe to say a trade involving any of Toronto Raptors players is more likely to happen in the new year. But this month in particular presents an intriguing situation for Siakam and the Raptors.

Toronto can offer Siakam a four-year, $194 million extension at any point this year before free agency starts on July 1. That’s been the case since this past summer, but the Raptors opted instead to let Siakam start the season without a contract extension. As team president Masai Ujiri explained during his media day availability, Toronto wanted to see how Siakam and the team’s other free agents would fit in the organization’s new system under head coach Darko Rajaković.

From a performance perspective, nothing has changed with Siakam. His minutes have gone down a tad but on a per-minute basis he’s essentially the same player he’s been over the past few seasons. He’s averaging 20.9 points, five assists, and 6.7 rebounds per game and looks like the kind of All-Star player he’s been in recent years.

That said, Toronto remains stuck in the middle and the most obvious path forward involves moving Siakam at some point in the not-too-distant future.

The traditional option in this scenario would be to wait until the trade deadline, see what’s out there, and make a decision. The offers will likely be pretty good for a fringe All-NBA type of player but the fact that he’s on an expiring contract is certainly going to depress Siakam’s value. The acquiring team could rightfully worry that Siakam may leave in the summer when his contract expires.

Take the Fred VanVleet situation from last year, for example. Toronto was underwhelmed by the offers for VanVleet at the trade deadline and opted to keep him. Eventually, the Houston Rockets decided to go all-in for the former Raptors guard and Toronto lost him for nothing.

The other side of the coin is an extension with Siakam which would make him ineligible to be traded for sixth months. Should Toronto work out a deal with Siakam before the end of December, he’d be ineligible to be traded at the February trade deadline, but that sixth-month no-trade restriction ends before July meaning the Raptors could move Siakam on a multi-year deal come this summer.

If the Raptors signed Siakam to an extension before Dec. 27, for example, Toronto could hypothetically deal Siakam on draft night in June.

For Siakam, the path forward is a little less clear. There’s no obvious reason for him to work out an extension with Toronto just to enable the organization to trade him in the summer. He’d be giving up his agency to pick his next team just so the Raptors can squeeze a little more from his next team in a trade. An extension for Siakam’s side only makes sense if he thinks he can get more money from Toronto now than he’d be able to get in the summer either from the Raptors or another team in free agency.

But this situation is worth keeping an eye on. At the very least, the Raptors can convey to interested teams that if they don’t make an offer for Siakam before the end of the month, Toronto will try to work with the All-Star forward on an extension. This sudden sense of urgency may all be for nothing but in a game of leverage with deadlines at play, December suddenly seems important for Siakam and Toronto.