The Toronto Raptors will experience its first season without Kyle Lowry from the end of October since 2012. Yes, it has been almost a decade since the point guard arrived in Canada and since then he has been the great leader of a team that, after constantly chasing him, achieved the first ring of its history in 2019.
It’s time to open a new stage. The Canadians, knowing that this moment was going to come, were tying Fred VanVleet (until 2023), OG Anunoby (until 2024) and Pascal Siakam (until 2024) with long contracts. The latter, a member of the staff since 2016, knows that it is time to take on new skills. His hatching into the championship year gave him greater status and now, without Lowry, it’s time to take another leap.
«We had a conversation with Masai Ujiri. It was OG Anunoby and Fred VanVleet and myself. The rest of the squad will be made up of young guys and we will go as far as they take us. I think that’s the approach. I don’t like someone being singled out as ‘the boy’. I don’t like to use that word. I want to be the guy who wins. I want to win. I remember when we went to Vegas for dinner and I was sitting there and I was like, ‘damn, I feel like I’m the oldest here.’ It was strange, a strange feeling that he had never had before. It’s going to be a process, but I’m excited about it, ”he explains.
Although Siakam is looking forward to returning to action, it is something that cannot happen at the beginning of the regular season. The Cameroonian player has not been cleared for contact activities while still recovering from shoulder surgery.The Athletic’s Michael Grange points to Thanksgiving (falls on November 25) as a realistic date to get it back on the floor.
(Photograph by Stacy Revere / Getty Images)
