Pascal Siakam will not be limited by one or two basketball positions.

The second-year Raptor feels he can be part of a new wave of positionless basketball that will only enhance his future.

“I’m definitely a basketball player and I can play a lot of positions, especially if I can guard people,” the six-foot-nine Siakam said. “I’m working on my lateral quickness and things like that. That’s just going to help me the way the game’s going right now, just to not have a position, you know? Just play and be able to guard different positions. And as my shot evolves, it’s going to give me more things to do.”

It’s how also how coach Dwane Casey sees it after suggesting Siakam might eventually be able to play against what’s known today as shooting guards or small forwards.

“He was able to guard (Indiana’s) Lance Stephenson on the perimeter and I think that’s his future, to be more of a long, two-three defender as well as a four,” Casey said. “He’s got the skill set and the athleticism to be able to do that.”

Siakam doesn’t possess the shooting skills yet to play too many positions but his defensive skills and athleticism do make him a multi-dimensional defender.

“I don’t want to limit myself to just be an energy guy or whatever it might be,” the 23-year-old Siakam said. “I want to expand my game, and I’m a hard worker, so I believe that all the time I spend in the gym, I might as well use that to develop my game. If you think about it, I started playing basketball late, so I have a lot of things I have to learn, and I’m still learning every day.”

RISING SUNS: Jay Triano sees something of a mirror image between the first NBA team where he was a head coach and the second.

Triano was charged with developing a non-playoff team when he got the Toronto job and now has to help mould a Phoenix team in the same circumstances.

“I see so many of the similarities,” Triano said Tuesday. “Drafting DeMar DeRozan and playing him and letting him grow as a player, evolve as a player the first time, it’s very similar to what we’re doing in Phoenix right now.

“Having to play guys like James Johnson (in Toronto) through rough times and now watching him excel in the NBA, for a coach those are some of the things that are gratifying, you helped in their development. And I feel the same way about our young players. I think we’ve got some real good young players, they’re going to be good and my job is to try to make that happen fast.”

CROWDED HOUSE: The Raptors905 are popular with the younger crowd. Especially if it might mean a few hours out of school.

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Toronto’s G League affiliate played its annual midday game at the Air Canada Centre on Tuesday and set a new attendance record in the process.

Even though the team lost 117-109 to the Rio Grande Valley Vipers in a rematch of last season’s D-League championship series, the game drew a crowd of 18,900. That eclipsed the previous 905 and G League attendance mark of 15,011.