Warriors Reported to be "Enamored" With Pascal Siakam
Aside from the signing of Andre Iguodala to a one-year deal, Golden State hasn’t made much of a splash in free agency or via trade this off season. Not yet at least.
A recent report from Jason Anderson of the Sacramento Bee has linked the Golden State Warriors to the Toronto Raptors’ Pascal Siakam. According to Anderson’s sources the Raptors are receiving numerous calls from teams around the league regarding Siakam. The source claims Toronto’s team president Masai Ujiri is “listening like a good negotiator.” Apparently the Sacramento Kings, Warriors, and Los Angeles Clippers are “enamored” by the power forward from the North. The report did go on to say that the likelihood of Siakam ending up on another team is relatively low as Siakam doesn’t have any wish to leave his current team. However if the Raptors are listening to offers, certainly anything could happen.
This wouldn’t be the first time Siakam’s name has been brought up in the same breath as the Warriors’. In early July John Hollinger of the Athletic speculated that Golden State GM Bob Myers would trade the Warriors’ seventh pick in the 2021 draft along with last year’s number two overall pick, James Wiseman, to the Raptors for Spicy P. This obviously did not come to fruition as the Warriors used both of their first round picks on Jonathan Kuminga with the seventh pick and Moses Moody, the 19 year old guard out of Arkansas at 14.
There are some red flags with Siakam though. One of the more glaring ones is the fact that he is coming off of shoulder surgery. The Raptors announced via Twitter on June 11 that the Cameroonian star underwent surgery to repair a torn labrum in his left shoulder. His recovery period was expected to be around five months leaving his status for the beginning of the 2021-22 season up in the air. With Klay Thompson and Wiseman’s status for the beginning of the season being unclear, it would be tough to add another player onto the roster who will likely be absent to start the year.
One thing you can count on with the Warriors front office is that there will never be a stone left unturned. They have a propensity to explore any and all potential free agent and trade scenarios and mine through all options in hopes of landing a golden deal. Many names will be brought up in conjunction with Golden State, however, a very small percentage of those names end up in Warriors royal blue and yellow.