Jakob Poeltl seems to already be the Raptors' best "true centre" in years

Jakob Poeltl might not be the answer to all that’s failed the Toronto Raptors this season.

But he might just be something that they haven’t seen in, well, years: a consistent centre.

On Tuesday night’s game against the Orlando Magic, Poeltl exploded for 30 points on 15-for-17 shooting from the field, adding nine rebounds and six blocks for Toronto.

It’s about as pristine a stat line as you could imagine from the 7-foot-1 trade deadline acquisition in just his third game back with Toronto after spending two seasons with the team from 2016-18.

“I don’t know if it is easy, but he made it look easy tonight,” Raptors head coach Nick Nurse said of Poeltl’s performance against Orlando.

Acquired from San Antonio on deadline day in exchange for Khem Birch, a 2024 conditional first-round pick, and two second-round draft picks, Poeltl acknowledged that he’s filling a role that Toronto was in dire need of.

“I think that was the goal of the trade, that I can fill that true centre position. I feel like I’ve been just getting more comfortable with every game out there,” Poeltl told the media after last night’s game.

And if it felt like the best centre performance you’ve seen from a Raptors centre in half a decade or so? Well, it probably was.

Since Toronto’s NBA title defence season in 2019-20, only twice has a Raptor listed as playing at centre hit 20+ points in a single game, in 245 contests, as per Basketball Reference. That’s a rate of just 0.8%, a statistic that seems almost so outlandish in how high-scoring the NBA has become.

Over that time span, Toronto’s used a myriad of centres over the last few seasons: Birch (94 games), Aron Baynes (53), rookie Christian Koloko (45), Marc Gasol (44), and Alex Len (7 games). They’ve also used Thad Young, Juancho Hernangomez, and Pascal Siakam as their 5 in various spots, though none are natural centres (or listed taller than 6’9″).

“I’m learning the basics at first. Just trying to memorize all the plays, memorize all the calls on offence and on defence, time to get the timing down, get all the chemistry down,” Poeltl said of his first week with the team.

And it’s not just people in Toronto that have noticed his growth since Poeltl’s first stint with the Raptors.

“He’s crazy. He’s a force in the paint,” Orlando’s Jalen Suggs said of facing Poeltl. “He’s really strong and physical in there. He fits what they want to do: he’s big, he’s gonna hit you in your mouth, you know, and have no remorse about it. I think I can respect that a ton.”

With no team practices or games until after this weekend’s All-Star break, Poeltl will have to wait a little to see how extended minutes with the Raptors look. But hey, the early returns look quite strong and may be the best centre the organization has seen in years.

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