When athletic, agile defenders like Boston’s Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown play right up on the Raptors’ Pascal Siakam in isolation it serves two purposes. The first, obviously, is it stops him from stepping comfortably into a jumpshot. The second, considering the real strengths of Siakam’s game, is much more important; it forces him to tighten up his handle, slowing him down enormously.
When Siakam gets to play with the ball out in front of him he’s one of the fastest players in the league, which is part of what makes him such a weapon in transition.