Would they keep the pick or trade it? Draft a long-term project or NBA-ready player? Go big? Small?
The Toronto Raptors put the speculation to rest at Thursday’s NBA Draft and used their No.9 overall pick to select 20 year-old Austrian centre Jakob Poeltl. (For those keeping score the answers are: Keep; Both; Big.)
First of all, it’s pronounced “PURR-dul.”
(Ok, now that we’ve got that out of the way…)
The top-ranked centre at the draft, Poeltl joins a roster with two centres under contract in Jonas Valanciunas and Lucas ‘Bebe’ Nogueira, so it remains to be seen how the minutes will shake out in the Raptors frontcourt with Poeltl in the fold next season. But Poeltl should help the Raptors protect the basket (particularly important in the likely even Bismack Biyombo signs elsewhere this summer) and is a promising prospect, both a safe short and long-term pick.
Here’s what Sportsnet’s Craig Battle wrote about Poeltl back in March, ahead of the NCAA Tournament:
Raptors fans, taken notice. A variety of prominent mock drafts have Mr. Poeltl going to Toronto with the lesser of the Knicks’ and Nuggets’ picks in the coming draft. And while Masai Ujiri would fall down laughing at the suggestion the team has its mind made up three-plus months out from the draft, you can see the reasoning: Poeltl is a legit seven-footer with good mobility, the ability to protect the rim, and a growing offensive game. While the Raptors have a solid one-two at the position, the Utah centre is the kind of two-way player who would allow Ujiri and co. to explore off-season trades to reshape their frontcourt. Very interesting.
INSIDE THREAT:
https://youtu.be/XID9pwE3WlI?t=11s
Offensively, Poeltl is an advanced low-post scorer for his age. He has an arsenal of moves down low and given his size (7’1” in shoes) and sturdy frame he should be able to continue to score inside at the NBA level. He hardly stepped out of the paint to shoot while at college though he has decent mechanics to build upon in that department. Despite being the son of two accomplished volleyball players, he’s not an explosive leaper, but has good foot speed for his size.
It’s clear Masai Ujiri & the Raptors feel there’s still a place for traditional big men in the NBA (Jonas Valanciunas’ moments of dominance in the 2016 playoffs likely helped validate that thought), though time will tell when the Raptors expect him to contribute to the big club.
LATE BLOOMER
Poeltl was a relative unknown to NBA scouts until the 2013 FIBA Europe tournament. He emerged as a force under the basket, averaging a double-double (15.3 pts/12.8 reb) and leading the tourney in fouls drawn (7.3), offensive rebounds (5.0), fouls-dawn per game (7.3), and field goal percentage (67.7%).
At Utah he became the focal point of their offense and made considerable strides, upping his scoring average from 9.2 points per game as a freshman to 17.2 points per game in his sophomore year this past season.
It didn’t go unrecognized. Poeltl won the NCAA’s Kareem Abdul Jabaar Award, which goes to the best centre in college basketball, as well as the Pete Newell Award as the top big man. He was a 2nd-team All-American, PAC-12 Player of the Year, and a semi-finalst for the Naismith trophy awarded to the NCAA’s top player.
THE CLIP THE RAPTORS SHOULD USE AS PROPAGANDA TO MAKE YOU ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS PICK:
Also worth noting: Poeltl was a collegiate teammate of Raptors’ 2015 top pick Delon Wright, who was a senior during the big man’s freshman season.