How to assess Jakob Poeltl’s return to Raptors lineup
TORONTO — It was on the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic, once the world returned to some form of normalcy, that I decided to rejoin my club rugby team.
After spending months working out the nagging injuries and ailments I had picked up through many years of contact sports, and countless hours improving my cardio, I felt ready to reunite with the Toronto Buccaneers and feel the joy of team sports once more. That was until I stepped back on the pitch, and the first tackle I took felt like a cement truck ran me over. Only to then feel like sandbags were tied to my feet as I dragged myself up and down the field.
And although my instincts for the game allowed me to make a handful of timely passes and tackles, it wasn’t a seamless reintegration for my teammates or me.
Ultimately, I was reminded of a valuable lesson that day.
One that Toronto Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic echoed on Wednesday night after his team handily lost to the Detroit Pistons despite welcoming back Jakob Poeltl after he’d missed 24 consecutive games.
“I always say, there’s return to play and (then there’s) return to performance.”
And while the Austrian big man certainly stepped onto the court for his first game action since Dec. 21, he still appeared to be a ways from being at 100 per cent. Poeltl finished with nine points on 4-of-7 shooting, six rebounds, two fouls and a minus-two mark.
“It was encouraging that he was finally able to come back and play. (Poeltl) played 20 minutes like we planned for him and it was good to see that he did not have restrictions on the court,” Rajakovic added. “… It’s really good to see him on the court now before the all-star (break) and that he can continue to build on this.”
And while bringing Poeltl back one game before the regular-season halts for a week may seem odd, especially against an uber-physical Pistons team (albeit without Jalen Duren or Isaiah Stewart), the reality is that game reps can’t be simulated.
No amount of practice equates to the real thing, especially against the No. 1 seed.
“He’s going to need live action,” Rajakovic explained pre-game. “To be with his teammates on the court, to find his rhythm and also to help his teammates.
” … We’re just going to be smart over here, building him back up to his game shape,”
So, how did Poeltl do in his return?
“Obviously, not perfect. Still trying to find a little bit of a rhythm, trying to get my lungs back, trying to find myself again within our offence,” the 30-year-old said while self-evaluating afterwards. “But overall, the back felt good. So, I’m happy about that. In general, I felt okay getting up and down, so I think those are positives I can take away from the game.”
Despite the extended time off, Poeltl’s instincts on the offensive end and what he provides the Raptors presented themselves right away. Toronto’s first basket came after the big man set a rock-solid screen for RJ Barrett, who dished it to a rolling Poeltl through traffic for the finish. He’d later connect with Immanuel Quickley for a similar PNR finish, this time through a bit of contact at the basket.
It was even promising that Poeltl was able to run (as much as a lumbering 7-footer with a sensitive back can) down the floor on occasion, as he did not shortly after halftime when Scottie Barnes found him for a reverse layup.
Poeltl sets hard screens, finishes well around the rim and is capable of making decisions with the ball in his hands in the mid-range area. His skills on the offensive end are no secret.
The big man’s 3.8 screen assists per game are fifth-highest in the NBA — over twice as many as any other Raptor — and he’s the most efficient scorer up close on Toronto’s roster, converting 79 per cent of his attempts inside four feet (93rd percentile). Both those remained true during Poeltl’s return, even as he lacked some of the usual lift and second-jump prowess we’ve grown accustomed to.
But two other observations stood out even more on Wednesday night. For starters, Poeltl may have overcome the physical hurdles required to return (for now, let’s see how his back responds moving forward), but the mental aspect might still take some time.
He appeared somewhat timid navigating inside the Scotiabank Arena paint, rarely jockeying for position, often conceding ground to avoid more exertion of his back than was required. Whether it was Paul Reed, Ausar Thompson, Tobias Harris, or even sophomore Tolu Smith, the Raptors’ 7-footer was routinely looking to get around the Pistons frontcourt squadron rather than through or over.
Toronto — bottom half of the league in rebounding and middle-of-the-pack on the offensive glass — could’ve used Poeltl’s production as a top 40 rebounder, who’s as high as top 30 with his 2.7 o-boards per game, as Detroit dominated that battle 47-35 on Wednesday and ended up plus-16 for points in the paint.
Instead, only two of the big man’s rebounds came with any sort of box-out or contact with the opposition. He collected his first board of the game just over four minutes into the second quarter after stonewalling Smith and collecting a miss, then he tipped in a shot from Barnes after nudging Reed out of the way. Aside from those, the 7-footer was simply in the right places at the right times for misses to land in his hands.
The most vivid example of Poeltl seemingly still thinking through his back injury was when Duncan Robinson set a back screen on him midway through the third and the big man appeared to flinch in response, then immediately tried to stabilize himself by reaching behind him and holding onto the Pistons wing.
As for observation No. 2, aside from Poeltl’s general hesitancy to tussle down low, the Pistons did a solid job targeting the big man’s slow-footedness in his first game back. In each of Poeltl’s four stints (roughly five minutes each) on the floor Wednesday, he routinely found himself on the wrong end of a Cade Cunningham-Paul Reed pick-and-roll.
At first, Poeltl played in a soft drop coverage so as not to fully commit to sticking with Cunningham or giving up an outright switch, and the ensuing result was the much speedier Reed slipping behind continuously to the tune of 16 first-quarter points on 7-of-8 shooting. Even on the odd occasion Poeltl matched with “B-ball Paul” straight up, Reed’s footspeed proved superior — like when he blew right by the big Austrian for a layup early in the third quarter.
And when Poeltl decided to drop further back in hopes of disrupting some of those rim runs, Cunningham made full use of the extra breathing room by pulling up and cashing threes ad nauseam. Of his season-high tying six triples on the night, four came directly after involving Poeltl in a pick-and-roll.
It was ironic that after weeks of watching the Raptors deal with bigger, more physical teams and thinking “Poeltl could’ve helped tonight,” I was left saying “Collin Murray-Boyles sure could’ve helped tonight.”
The rookie was ruled out vs. the Pistons due to a left-thumb sprain that’s bothered him for a couple of weeks, and caused him to leave Sunday’s win against the Indiana Pacers after just eight minutes of action.
Not having Murray-Boyles switchability or nimble feet on the floor was a reminder of the style of defence the Raptors had grown accustomed to without Poeltl available. The do-it-by-committee frontcourt rotation of Barnes, “CMB” and Sandro Mamukelashvili had worked in part because they could sprawl around — namely Barnes and Murray-Boyles — to disrupt and recover despite missing a true rim deterrent.
Going back to a more traditional big man in the middle anchoring the defence appeared to be an awkward adjustment for both the Raptors and Poeltl on Wednesday. Barnes was often caught between trying to contain Cunningham and hustling to catch up with rollers or kickout passes and even he could only do so much, albeit while racking up three steals and three blocks. Meanwhile, Toronto’s perimeter defence, or lackthereof, did little to alleviate the issue.
After two seasons of floundering whenever Poeltl left the lineup, the Raptors have adjusted well this year. I guess that’ll happen when forced to play without their lone 7-footer for over half of the 2025-26 campaign. But now that he’s back, they’ll have to reconfigure and find a happy medium between their operating methods. What’s worked in the past and what has been working now.
For what it’s worth, we did see some brief chemistry when Poeltl and Ingram synchronized for one possession, switching matchups and converging for a block into a jump-ball.
And to Rajakovic’s credit, he seems more than up to the task.
“(It’s) exciting. You feel like you’ve got a new player on the team, a new toy to play with,” he said before Poeltl’s return. “So, having Jak incorporated with the team … it’s very, very exciting for us to have him back.”
Which is all well and good, because it is a win in and of itself that Poeltl was back on the floor, even if he clearly wasn’t fully himself. Because when an aging centre with a lingering back issue — fresh off signing an extension — makes his return after weeks of ambiguous injury updates, it should rightfully be accompanied by a sigh of relief.
But with that box now checked, the Raptors have a week to get him closer to a “return to performance.”
Poeltl said he’ll be spending the All-Star break continuing his efforts to get back into game shape, and for Toronto’s sake, hopefully that happens sooner rather than later.
After losing to the Pistons, the Raptors are now 1-10 against the top six teams in the NBA, which make up eight of their final 27 games this season. All the while, the Raptors have an above .500 strength of schedule remaining and are now 16-16 against teams above .500. If Toronto is going to find a way to keep up with the league’s true elites, who’ve all beat the Raptors in similar ways, it’ll require all the talent and depth the roster has to offer.
Not to mention the Raptors still have three back-to-backs to navigate, the first of which comes less than a week after action resumes post-all-star break — a doozy of consecutive matchups against the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs.
Nevertheless, there’s at least some solace in knowing that until then, the first step for Poeltl has been taken. Even if it felt a bit like being run over by a cement truck, or dragging his feet back and forth with sandbags weighing things down.
“Hopefully, following the All-Star break, we’re going to have everybody healthy, so we’re going to be able to make the next step for us,” Rajakovic said. “I believe that our best basketball is ahead of us and not behind us.”
The post How to assess Jakob Poeltl’s return to Raptors lineup first appeared on Raptors Republic.