Rajakovic issues challenge for Poeltl after benching Raptors' centre
Though it wasn’t always a pretty process, the Toronto Raptors handled their business on Monday night with a 114-99 victory over the Charlotte Hornets.
With Charlotte missing three starters — Miles Bridges, Lamelo Ball, and Gordon Hayward — and coming into the game with a 7-17 record, Toronto took care of business in a game it was very much expected to win. It wasn’t the cleanest win — the Raptors trailed 81-79 heading into the fourth quarter — but the end result was about as expected once it was all said and done.
One player who didn’t exactly have the strongest of contributions on the night was starting centre Jakob Poeltl — finishing with just one rebound, four assists, and two points on the evening.
With 6:46 left in the third quarter, Poeltl was subbed out for Trent Jr. and didn’t return for the rest of the contest. Overall, he played just a season-low 15:18. Trent Jr. had his own strong performance on the night in putting up a season-high 22 points and ended up the game in the team’s closing lineup that traditionally would’ve featured Poeltl.
“Today, our rotations were trying to figure out who’s really contributing the most to the team and how we can best match up with them. Today was a game of switching a lot 1-5 and that’s why we had a lot of switching rotations there on the court,” Toronto head coach Darko Rajakovic said postgame.
While he didn’t mention Poeltl by name, his words seemed to be rather pointed at the main player pulled from the team’s second-half mix.
With Poeltl earning an average salary of $19.5 million over the course of his four-year contract signed this summer, Toronto will need to figure out exactly what to do with the 28-year-old 7-footer if he continues to struggle.
On the year, Poeltl has averaged 10.8 points, 8.2 rebounds and 2.2 assists in 26 games this season, slightly down from 13.1 points, 9.1 rebounds and 2.2 assists a year ago with Toronto.
Toronto’s typical starting lineup consisting of Poeltl, Dennis Schroder, Scottie Barnes, Pascal Siakam, and OG Anunoby has spent 319 minutes together, the second-most of any five-man group in the NBA. But the results haven’t been positive, with the unit putting out an overall plus-minus of -18 on the season.
Rajakovic alluded last week that starting lineup changes could be around the corner for Toronto, and it seems like the time might be nigh for a bit of a shakeup.
Whatever Toronto’s coach decides to do, it’ll be a relatively new look: no consistent five-man lineup for Toronto not featuring Poeltl has played more than 40 minutes together this season.
The Raptors return to the court Wednesday when they host the defending NBA champion Denver Nuggets at 7:30 pm ET — and all eyes will be on Poeltl to see where exactly he fits into Toronto’s rotation in that one.