Pascal Siakam's development is no accident.
He joined the Raptors with the No. 27 pick in the 2016 NBA Draft. He spent much of his rookie season in the D-League with the Raptors 905. Since then, he's played a key role in the Raptors winning their first-ever championship, been named an All-Star starter and earned not one, but two All-NBA selections.
One person who has been with Siakam since the start of his NBA journey is Rico Hines, a player development coach who is now a part of Nick Nurse's coaching staff in Toronto.
Hines spoke with the media ahead of the 2022-23 season and raved about the work ethic that has helped Siakam go from being a late first-round pick to one of the best players in the NBA.
"Ever since I've known him, and I first had him when he came for pre-draft, when they brought him to me for pre-draft," Hines said when asked if Siakam has always had a strong work ethic. "He's always had that, that work ethic, man. He's always tried to make winning plays. He's always been a great guy. Sometimes I have to tell him, you know, we can't come back to the gym.
"I've worked with a lot of people, and he's right up there with the hardest workers that I've ever been a part of. That's a credit to him and who he is as a person and his family. He has an infectious personality and he wants to be great, he wants to squeeze every part of ability that he has, he wants to get it out.
"We're all here to just help him out with that."
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Hines was then asked which players he's worked with that have a similar work ethic as Siakam.
"Baron Davis was up there. Monta Ellis was up there. Those guys worked hard," Hines said. "Al Harrington was a really, really hard worker. Kevin Durant works hard.
"There are a ton of guys that I've had the pleasure to be around that work extremely hard, and I'd put Pascal right at the top of that list because he is over here early. He's here two hours before practice and he's in a full sweat, drenched before we even start practice. That's just who he is. He's always worked that hard.
"During the summers, we go three times a day pretty much. He goes early in the morning and then he goes and plays in our runs all day. I mean, those things are tough. That's two hours, then he shoots after that.
"He's built for this, man, and I'm proud of the person that he's become. And he's going to continue to work, and we'll see what happens."
Siakam isn't backing away from the limelight either. He revealed at Media Day that his next goal is to be a top-five player in the NBA.
That's going to be a big hill for him to climb — he was on the outside looking in on the top 30 the last time we did our player rankings — but that mindset has helped him become the player he is today and will help him reach even greater heights in the years to come.
