How Cheick Diallo Can Learn From the Raptors’ Pascal Siakam
By Seth Nefsky
Spacing
Despite Cheick Diallo being a better interior and mid range scorer than Siakam, much like his DRPM, Siakam’s ORPM is .43 to Diallo’s -1.67. Looking at the shot charts of Siakam and Diallo, one thing sticks out that is probably the source of the disparity.
Pascal Siakam took 26.5% of his shots from three and just 2.6% of his shots from mid-range in 2017-2018, while Diallo took no shots from three, and a whopping 25.6% of his shots from mid-range. And although Diallo’s mid-range shot does have a higher points per shot mark than Siakam’s atrocious three-point shooting, with Diallo getting .756 to Siakam’s .66, neither mark is even close to the value of an average shot.
However, Siakam does not take this many threes because he is good at them, he takes them because on offense, he stands by the three-point line, while Diallo stands in mid-range.
Though this might not seem like a big deal, when Diallo stands in no-man’s land, he ends up clogging driving lanes for his teammates. Meanwhile, despite being a god awful three-point shooter, Siakam’s presence by the three-point line puts less potential help defenders near the paint, opening up drives for his teammates.
via GIPHY That is why Holiday scored .18 points per shot better on drives when Diallo was off the court, while DeMar DeRozan has 1.04 points per shot when Siakam is both on and off of the floor, as either way, no one is in his way.
Furthermore, being that Siakam is a good ball handler and cutter, he is able to make plays from the perimeter that he would not be able to from the mid-range, as it gives him more space for drives and dives (@Guy Fieri).
Diallo’s need to stay inside the three-point lane has given him his tweener reputation, as he does not go around the perimeter on offense, and is too small to defend score-threatening centers.