How Cheick Diallo Can Learn From the Raptors’ Pascal Siakam
By Seth Nefsky
Perimeter Defense
One of the most appealing aspects of Pascal Siakam is his ability to defend smaller players on the perimeter. He does this by using his lateral quickness and athleticism. These traits became especially useful off of pick-and-roll switches, as Siakam’s height would deceive ball handlers into believing that he was an advantageous mismatch. How wrong they were!
And no, Siakam was not an amazing isolation defender, but he was serviceable, landing in the 52nd percentile. And, being that isolations are not high percentage scoring opportunities, for anyone not named James Harden, he still held these players to .89 points per possession, well below the value of an average possession.
Watch how Siakam is able to contain Ricky Rubio off of a pick-and-roll switch. By using his footwork and wingspan the power forward is able to stay in front of him and, in the end, come up with the steal.
Meanwhile, in his two NBA seasons, Diallo has not put up a better point per possession mark than 1.1 when defending isolations. Despite the usual inefficiency of an isolation play, this would mean that teams were actually able to put up pretty good shots against Diallo’s isolation defense.
The main difference between how Siakam and Diallo defend isolations is foot placement. Siakam keeps his feet shoulder width apart, and always tries to keep himself between the ball handler and the basket. Conversely, whether intentionally or not, Diallo often gives up the drive too quickly by shuffling his feet, and then has a hard time recovering.
Obviously, Lillard is a far superior scorer to Rubio, but the overall numbers do not lie. Perhaps this is part of the reason Siakam has a 1.09 DRPM to Diallo’s -.88.