TORONTO — There is a reason not to be surprised at the relative sameness of the Toronto Raptors this year compared to last, and that reason is seven feet tall. You don’t give up a first-round pick for a player, and then re-sign that player to a four-year contract if you’re planning on freefalling down the standings.
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When he was acquired at the trade deadline last year, Jakob Poeltl addressed a defensive need, while complicating the Raptors’ offensive picture. A year later, with Fred VanVleet gone, the latter is even more true.
“I think Jakob has a potential to do a lot of stuff that (Domantas) Sabonis is doing,” Raptors coach Darko Rajaković said before the Raptors beat the Kings in Vancouver on Sunday. “And I think Jakob is doing it kind of in a different way. And obviously he’s bringing more length there than Sabonis does. … To a certain degree, there is a connection there.”
On an $80-million deal, the Raptors need to prove the bet they have made on the centre — first in the 2016 lottery, then at the deadline, then again this summer — was a wise one. They are not paying him like a superstar, but they are paying him like a very impactful centre. He clearly was that for the Raptors last year, helping turn the feast-or-famine Raptors’ defence into something more reliable.
As with the Raptors, the focus will be on Poeltl’s offence. Losing VanVleet and replacing him with Dennis Schröder makes the Raptors even less of a threatening team from deep, making the idea of being a primarily pick-and-roll team less appealing. For that to work, you need spacing to surround the main action. Otherwise, you have one or both of Scottie Barnes and Pascal Siakam standing on the perimeter. The Raptors don’t have a ton of shooting, so they are emphasizing ball and player movement, which will theoretically put the ball in Poeltl’s hands as a playmaker more often.
That is a lot of faith being put into a player who has topped out at 3.7 assists per 36 minutes. Then again, the Raptors have shown faith in Poeltl repeatedly.
As far as starting centres are concerned, Poeltl is 15th in annual average salary — between Nikola Vučević and Jusuf Nurkić. That is a perfectly reasonable amount to pay Poeltl, but only if the Raptors intend on staying competitive. The question becomes, then, how can they get the most out of Poeltl, who often does not play down the stretch of games because of his poor free-throw shooting.
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They have landed on making him a passing hub offensively. As important as his ability to distribute: his ability to screen. On many dribble-handoff scenarios, the passer has to act as an impediment for the defender guarding the player getting the ball, too. If you recall, Poeltl got a frequent whistle early in his career with the Raptors. On Sunday against Sacramento, he had to live with that again.
“I’d say the biggest key is to get through the first couple of weeks of the season,” Poeltl said with a smile on Wednesday after the Raptors had their first practice following their return from Vancouver, where they held training camp and their first preseason game. “It’s a very popular call early in the season. Honestly, it comes down to making it look as good as possible. It’s trying to find a way to set a good screen without having the guard just completely run into you or fall over or whatever.
“In a way, you’re trying to just get (your teammate) a step or two of an advantage. You’re not really trying to knock the (defender) out.”
Essentially, it’s about feel, which is at the heart of Poeltl’s game. His soft touch around the rim is evident, with new Raptor Jalen McDaniels marveling at the touch he shows in practice. He shot 65.2 percent from the rim as a Raptor last year, despite working from floater range more than most centres.
On defence, too, Poeltl doesn’t have any single A-plus skill. His rim protection numbers took a big hit last year, albeit playing with the happy-to-lose Spurs and then in the ultra-aggressive Raptors schemes are not the ideal setting for a big man. Again, the changes Rajaković is making seem tailored to the benefit of Poeltl, if not completely centred on him.
“For the majority of our screening situations, we will not demand him to go out (to the perimeter) and over-help, especially on off-ball screens or (dribble handoffs),” Rajaković said. “We want to keep him … in the same line with the rollers to keep him closer to the rim. But definitely there will be situations and adjustments that will go on and switch (across positions). So that’s going to get him outside the 3-point line.”
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The Raptors don’t want to over-extend him, in other words. Rajaković has been very open about making protecting the paint the top priority of the defence. Last year’s was more focused on creating turnovers. Poeltl knows the reality that any team is going to have defensive breakdowns, and that playing ultra-conservatively would be silly for the Raptors, who still boast a ton of length that can cause turnovers.
“It’s a little bit more controlled I would say, a little bit more reserved at times maybe,” Poeltl said. “Yeah — a little bit less of a gambling effect than we might have had last year.”
In that sense, the Raptors will once again have to rely on Poeltl’s feel, although a different kind of feel.
“Know-how,” Rajaković said when asked about Poeltl’s greatest defensive strength. “He’s really good at positioning himself. He’s pretty quick but not the quickest, pretty athletic but not the best athlete. He just knows how to position himself really well to use his hands, to protect the rim.”
A reminder: Masai Ujiri referred to Poeltl as a “championship-type piece” in explaining the deadline trade for the centre who was, at that point, set to hit free agency in a few months. That doesn’t mean he necessarily has to be the second- or third-best player on a championship team, but that every championship team needs a guy like Poeltl.
Clearly, the Raptors aren’t in that stratosphere as a team. However, this version of the team might give Poeltl his best chance yet to prove that he can be what Ujiri thinks he is.
(Top photo: Elsa/Getty Images)