With Patrick Patterson injured, and Bebe, Pascal Siakam and Jared Sullinger all having their issues in recent weeks, it’s opened the door for Jakob Poeltl to establish himself as a rotation player in the NBA. He’s grabbed that opportunity by the horns, delivering two solid starts, despite losing both games, and then working as the lone big man on the floor in a masterful fourth quarter comeback against Charlotte surrounded by guards.
Poeltl has demonstrated that he has solid instincts on both ends of the floor contesting shots on the defensive end and using his length and quickness for positioning, while on the offensive end despite his thin frame he manages to often be in position to grab key offensive boards for putbacks and to reset possessions. He’s not the athlete that either Siakam or Nogeuira is, but he reads the game well and plays within himself. Over the last five games, the team has a +16.6 net rating with Jakob on the floor and a -8.8 net rating(team worst) with him on the bench.
This leads into the next question for Jakob, with Patrick Patterson getting healthy and Serge Ibaka incoming, where does he now fit in the rotation? While it’s easy to be excited about Patterson’s return, given how easy he fits beside nearly any center, and even can play center in certain small-ball groups, and Ibaka brings a similar skillset, leading to many drooling over the possibilities with both forwards on the floor together, Poeltl might become the forgotten man in Toronto, relegated to garbage time minutes and time in the Gatorade League while the team tries to get back on track after a dismal start to 2017.
On the other hand, if there are minutes to be found for the Austrian big man, there are certainly some enticing possibilities with Ibaka in the fold and Patterson back to being healthy. Thus far this season, Poeltl with Patterson has been underwhelming, but many of those minutes came earlier in the year when Jakob looked overmatched and out of place, and perhaps with him looking more comfortable of late they could turn those numbers around. However, where I really see potential is with Poeltl playing alongside Ibaka. Both players have solid defensive instincts, and Ibaka spaces the floor on offense, shooting a fantastic percentage from behind the arc, where Poeltl’s good passing instincts can come into play to create opportunities for the team.
To be clear, I’m not advocating for Jakob to jump any of the big men ahead of him in the rotation, but Bebe has shown signs of late that he doesn’t have the strongest instincts on the offensive end, often getting caught setting illegal screens and not putting himself in position to receive passes on the roll. On the other hand, Poeltl has shown an aptitude for finding space after setting picks and making the correct decision once he has the ball. If Bebe isn’t going to establish himself as a threat on that end of the floor, that’s a road the Raptors might not be able to afford to go down, and Jakob also has the second best rebounding percentage on the squad behind just Valanciunas, and the team best on the offensive boards.
We’ve been down this road before as an organization, with a rookie showing signs of promise in minutes earned while others missed time due to injuries and then relegated to the bench and getting nothing but DNPs while others at times struggled, with Norman Powell over the year, who now gets his opportunity with Terrence Ross in Orlando. Powell’s struggles for minutes became a focus of the fan base, and now he gets his opportunity to shine. It would be silly to expect Poeltl to become a focus for the team, but he shouldn’t be the forgotten man. He’s proven over recent opportunities that he has a skill set that compliments the rest of the roster well, and it would be a mistake to let him get lost in the shuffle over the excitement of the new strength in the frontcourt.
