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The only one to take in the game was Chris Boucher, leaving a whole row of reserved seats otherwise untouched. It was awkward since franchise minority shareholder Larry Tanenbaum, 78, and advisor to the president Wayne Embry, 86, made the effort to be at the game, sitting courtside along with the team’s front office.

The early start didn’t seem to be an issue for Cleveland, which had Evan Mobley, Darius Garland, Georges Niang and others courtside.

For the Raptors, the most notable absence all weekend has been Pascal Siakam, the Raptors All-Star forward who has been featured in trade rumours for the past few weeks.

No one wants to go on the record as to why Siakam has stayed away, but it seems reasonable to guess that since the Raptors have yet to discuss a contract extension, and instead Siakam has been prominently featured in trade talks, he isn’t all that keen to be on-site in Vegas. After all, it would be awkward cheering on Raptors' prospects only to learn he’s being dealt the next day, or whatever.

Siakam is coming off a season in which he averaged 24.2 points, 7.8 rebounds and 5.8 assists, and the 29-year-old Siakam is eligible for as much as $192 million over four years on a deal that would kick in for the 2024-25 season.

As for if, when or where Siakam might be traded?

Per league sources, the Raptors are still listening, trying to gauge the market value for their leading scorer and leading returning – in theory – playmaker. Atlanta remains a possibility and Indiana has also reached out.

The Raptors don’t intend to drag the process out for weeks or months, but they don’t seem ready to close the door on a Siakam trade just yet. Meanwhile, they still remain committed to avoiding a total rebuild – in other words, nothing they do or don’t do with Siakam will make them any more inclined to trade O.G. Anunoby, the 25-year-old all-NBA defender who also has one year left on his deal. Teams are welcome to call about Anunoby, but don’t expect a call back, that's the message.

MiamiSPX wrote:This media attention on his contract status will go on until he's traded or signs his extension.

TorontoBarneys wrote:Someone here recently said Grange was on the 590 and said that the FO is actually discussing extension talks with Siakam right now, so that's pretty cool. #1 priority should be to extend him, so even if he's traded down the line, it's for full value.

No one wants to go on the record as to why Siakam has stayed away, but it seems reasonable to guess that since the Raptors have yet to discuss a contract extension, and instead Siakam has been prominently featured in trade talks, he isn’t all that keen to be on-site in Vegas. After all, it would be awkward cheering on Raptors' prospects only to learn he’s being dealt the next day, or whatever.

TorontoBarneys wrote:Someone here recently said Grange was on the 590 and said that the FO is actually discussing extension talks with Siakam right now, so that's pretty cool. #1 priority should be to extend him, so even if he's traded down the line, it's for full value.

KP730 wrote:the thing I worry is that the Raps front office seem so focused on not disclosing their direction or dragging out making a deal to optimize return, that they seemingly neglect the impact of this process takes on team moral and team development

at some point, you would think that dragging this out has got to impact team moral/development to the point that it will counter any marginal gain they are trying to extract from these teams they are dealing with

Clutch0z24 wrote:I think we either trade him this offseason or we lose him for nothing next offseason....Its one thing to still have a year left and hearing a player say he wants to be here long term but its another thing when the team has a potentially down year again and he has all the power in his hands to choose what team he wants to go to....Siakam would prolly leave us to a team he can compete with more....

Its a risky thing to keep Siakam if hes not extended this offseason and your playing with fire at that point.

islandboy53 wrote:

Clutch0z24 wrote:I think we either trade him this offseason or we lose him for nothing next offseason....Its one thing to still have a year left and hearing a player say he wants to be here long term but its another thing when the team has a potentially down year again and he has all the power in his hands to choose what team he wants to go to....Siakam would prolly leave us to a team he can compete with more....

Its a risky thing to keep Siakam if hes not extended this offseason and your playing with fire at that point.

Which is why he’ll either be traded or extended.

JB7 wrote:I wonder if the deal the Raps are waiting on is Pascal for Trae?

The backcourt of Trae and Dejounte did not work last year, and possibly the Hawks wanted to move Dejounte over Trae for Pascal, but Masai wouldn’t bite.

The Hawks cannot afford to pay all three of Pascal, Trae and Dejounte, and still have money for the rest of their roster. They are not going heavily into the tax, so I doubt that type of deal is happening. And I doubt Masai is willing to deal with them unless a big piece is coming back.

Which makes me wonder if the center piece of the deal would be Pascal for Trae, and then filler added because Trae is younger. Maybe include a swap of GTJ for Bogi (GTJ is younger), or maybe some picks from Toronto.

When Atlanta signed Dejounte to that reasonable extension, it looks like they may have picked a direction to stick with Dejounte over Trae.