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NBA FINALS: WARRIORS VS. RAPTORS

May 29, 2019

Pascal Siakam

Toronto, Ontario - Practice Day

Q. First of all, two-part question: Draymond Green called himself the best defender ever recently, and you might have to go up against Draymond quite a bit in this series. I'm wondering what your thoughts are on his defense. And secondly your teammate Kawhi Leonard has just as many defensive accolades, what makes Kawhi an elite world-class defender?
PASCAL SIAKAM: I'm going to answer the Kawhi question first. I think what makes him special is just his length. He definitely understands the game and kind of like knows like kind of what's going to happen, and then his physical features are just amazing and his hands and being able to just deflect passes and get steals, and then he's just a crazy athlete and also just understanding the game.

I think Draymond definitely I think he was Defensive Player of the Year one year, so definitely a guy that prides himself on defense and definitely is like the anchor of their defense, and he definitely does a lot of things that are good for them and his energy, being able to move and his size and also being strong.

Q. Which one do you think is better?
PASCAL SIAKAM: Which one do I think is better? I mean, I don't know, but I'm kind of glad to have Kawhi on my team and the things that he's able to do on defense and is definitely amazing.

Q. Taking back a little bit to last summer and even over the course of the year some of the moves Masai made, what signal did it send to yourself and the team when he made the decision to move on from Dwane, trade DeMar, trade Jakob and then Jonas? How do those moves play in the dressing room, what do you think watching Masai do his job?
PASCAL SIAKAM: I think that it's definitely -- I mean, some of them I don't know if it was expected or not, but it's definitely things that caught a lot of us off guard. For me especially just being that close to guys like Jakob and DeMar and you all those guys, and being here with them it was definitely something that was tough, a tough pill to swallow and just knowing that we kind of shared stories with these guys and we bond something special.

But I think for me something that I've learned in my little two years and going on three years is that that's the nature of it, it's a business and I think as him being the GM or president, it's just trusting that he's making the best decisions for the team, and for me being on the team and just moving forward and taking the pieces that are there and trying to make something special out of it.

Q. What message did you get out of that? Like if he's willing to make those moves and that?
PASCAL SIAKAM: I think he's willing to win. He's willing to win, he's willing to do anything he thinks is the best thing to make to give us, make us in position to win. So that was always been something that he -- from the first day I got here that's his mentality and that's how he thinks, and he's going to do everything in his power and everything he thinks is right to make us win.

Q. You take lot of pride in continuously improving your game. What do you do better than you did in October? Like where do you think you made the biggest strides?
PASCAL SIAKAM: I think just for me just being on the floor more, to be honest with you, just playing games. I started playing basketball late, there's a lot of things that I continue to learn every single day. I think being on the floor every single night and playing was definitely something that helped me.

And then just in terms of my game, improve my shot, be able to handle the ball better, make reads, and then on defense just understanding the game a little bit more, watching more film and knowing rotations and things like that, that maybe my first year I didn't know as well. So just kind of getting familiar with the game and being a student of the game.

Q. Kawhi is such an enigma like the off-court Kawhi to all of us, curious if you could shed a little bit of light into your off-court relationship with him or just anything that has surprised you about him as a human being.
PASCAL SIAKAM: Yeah, I definitely was -- I knew I was going to get some Kawhi, how-is-he-off-the-court question. But I don't know what to tell you guys. I think you guys are trying to see something and I don't know for me I just see him as Kawhi, like he comes in, gets his work done and then off the court he's just with us like everyone else. Like literally it's normal, it doesn't even feel like, oh I don't know, like what is he doing, like is it -- you know what I mean? It's just normal. Like I don't know what to tell you. I think he's just normal like.

Q. Was there anything that surprised you about him?
PASCAL SIAKAM: I mean, maybe from me not knowing him and watching TV and maybe you feel like there's something there like oh, maybe he's different or something, I don't know. I didn't see it. I just see him as any other player. He does his work and he comes with us, hangs out and do all the things that we do.

Q. You're entering the biggest games of your career, so paint a picture for what tonight will look like for you and tomorrow morning, heading into the arena and getting your mind right.
PASCAL SIAKAM: I think for me I mean it's just obviously you want to say so much that it's going to be a regular day, that it's going to be, yeah, it's just another day, but it's just not another day. It's the Finals. It's an exciting time of the year. I think all the eyes, everyone is watching. I mean, it's an important moment.

For me I'm excited, right, like I'm just excited. My family is coming down tomorrow, having some family time, hanging out and obviously getting ready for the game. But for the most part, it's just I think for me I like to just hang out with my family and just chill until we have to play.

MODERATOR: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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