The Toronto Raptors appear to be taking a wait-and-see approach with Pascal Siakam.

President Masai Ujiri confirmed to reporters that the team has not engaged in contract talks with Siakam. The 29-year-old is in the final year of his deal and is set to be a free agent at the end of the season.

Ujiri said he remains confident in the team’s core and wants to see how they play in newly appointed head coach Darko Rajaković’s system before offering new deals.

Ujiri says the decision also stems from his comments following the team’s elimination from the play-in round against the Chicago Bulls when he called out players for playing selfishly.

“We do believe in Pascal. We do believe that a lot of our players didn’t play the right way last year, and we want to see them play the right way,” Ujiri explained. “I said that we were selfish. I’m not running away from that. We were selfish and we did not play the right way. So, let us see it when we play the right way.”

Siakam’s name was mentioned in trade rumours during the off-season, with reports suggesting multiple teams were expressing interest in the two-time All-NBA player.

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The Wolverines are allowing only 6.0 PPG through their 5-0 start. Check out our latest Big Ten Stock Watch.



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The Denver Broncos finally got their first win of the season.

It wasn’t easy, it definitely wasn’t pretty, and it took a lot of help from the Chicago Bears, but they still pulled it off.

Sean Payton’s team was trailing by three scores late in the third quarter and put together an epic rally to take home a three-point win.

Following the win, NFL analyst Sam Monson talked with Steve Palazzolo on the PFF NFL Podcast, stating that even though the Broncos’ defense is ‘a joke,’ Russell Wilson has looked much better this season.

While the Broncos defense has struggled, Russell Wilson has looked much better@PFF_Steve | @PFF_Sam pic.twitter.com/TGJmYsKIbB

— PFF NFL Podcast (@PFFNFLPod) October 2, 2023

Monson stated that it’s still highly unlikely that we’ll ever see the old version of Russell Wilson on the field again; this version was definitely more efficient and similar to what he was throughout the entire course of his career.

Vance Joseph’s defense has been one of the worst to start the season, and that’s a big surprise.

Besides his defensive expertise, we’re talking about a team whose defensive personnel made people think they would rank among the best defensive units in the league, just like what happened last season.

The Broncos have allowed 98 points in the past two weeks, and while 28 is way less than 70, they still made the Bears’ offense look like a Super Bowl-caliber team, which is definitely not the case.

Sean Payton and Vance Joseph have a lot of work to do to right the ship, but at least they finally managed to get that first win of the season and the new era.

The post Analyst Details 1 Big Broncos Change This Season appeared first on The Cold Wire.

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