Who's excited to see Poetl play, more than DeRozan?

[monkeypunk]

League pass always does the auto renewal every year even when you tell them not to. They did that to me every year when i had league pass living in Minneapolis.

They just did it to me too but luckily I got it through an Ethiopian vpn last year so it's only like 45 bucks. Market forces are awesome sometimes...

[Kobe'sAchilles]

I was excited about seeing him until I realized I would have to listen to Bill Land saying Poetl Power all season long...

[DJR210]

Great thing is getting him here in the system at 22 vs 27-28 like we did with Splitter

[objective]

that was my friend Brazil.

Even as a french fan he wasn't all that crazy about that signing. (Apalisoc was celebrating it since he had mentioned a day or two prior that the guy was available and the Spurs should look into him... he just so happened to have hit a bullseye with that one and he milked it for all it was worth at the time.)

JOLO looked good enough in preseason. Not great by any means, just good enough to be serviceable some minutes. That turned out to not be the case. Playing JOLO = loss.

That's a warning about preseason "fool's gold".

Edit: There was a contingent of fans that argued the Spurs should have drafted Jordan Bell instead of White, considering their need for defensive oriented bigs, and athleticism. Objective, TD 21, Manu4tres, Chinook, many frequent posters argued for this. Objective specially was very vocal against JOLO>

Anyways, I really didn't pay attention to the draft last year until it was over so I was ______ (draw a blank). In retrospect, the Spurs have to play White this season. They took him in the draft with legit NBA players still available on the board bc they saw something. So I do hope to see White flourish this year.

Poeltl is something to look forward to for sure. The jump from Joffrey to Poeltl should take casual observers by surprise.

Re: Bell and his draft, I did have White on my list of guys that I liked, just not ahead of Bell or Bolden. GS drafting Bell in that trade put me in a bad mood.

But my arguments against White over Bell were short term and accurate. I knew White wouldn't play as a rookie no matter how good he looked in g-league or spot minutes or how bad others in front of him looked. But I thought Bell had an avenue to play as a rookie and he would be a useful defender on a team with strong defenders like Kawhi and Green. It ultimately didn't matter due to Kawhi quitting. Bell would have been drafted to play with Kawhi in defensive lineups, but probably not nearly as good a fit without Kawhi

[SpursDynasty85]

Don't know much about the guy but I sincerely hopes he is good enough to relegate Gasol to the garbage minutes category. His skinnier frame and tendency to foul seems troubling but I'm more excited to see how an all star (Derozan) fits into the Spurs rather than one who likely won't be an all star.

[D Emily D]

*

[ceperez]

Since I'm Austrian and Jakob ist the only NBA player from Austria, I've seen almost every Raptors game. ;-) But I watched him already playing for the Utes in college and obviously his games with the Austrian National Team.

Mainly there are 2 points of critizism of his game:

1) Weak defensive rebounder
It's true that he has to put on some muscle to be really good on the defensive board, but watch him play on defense for the Raptors. Then you understand why his def. rebound stats don't stand out. Because he's so mobile, he didn't play so much under the rim like other centers (like Valanciunas). He also was often needed to help out and to leave his position. Unfortunately the helper got no help more than once. In addition, he often forgoes easy rebounds in transition and leave it to the guards. When traditional centers try to get each defensive rebound, he already runs down the floor.

2) Can't shoot
Here's obviously room for improvement, but he has shown good touch in the past.
His free throw percentage isn't promising, but on the one side I think it has to do with the way he plays. He wasn't used to play at such a high pace. On the other side he doesn't shoot a high volume and got no rhythmn. I'm sure he can do better. For example: In the Summer 2017 he played three or four games for the national team and shot 77% (22/26) from the line.
I also think that he can be an average three-point-shooter or at least a good midrange-shooter. He was an okay shooter from behind the line when he was younger and played in Austria. The problem is he didn't shoot it (in games) in the last four years.

+ quick feet (watch how he defended Durant and Curry)
+ high BB IQ
+ screens
+ shot-blocking
+ almost always in the right position
+ offensive rebounding
+ work ethic

- boxing out / defensive rebounding (has to gain some muscle without losing his quickness)
- shooting (there's potential)
- killer instinct (play with confidence!)

The last point is an important one. Sometimes I have the impression that he thinks too much about it what he could do wrong. That's the downside of being drafted by a competing team like Toronto. There was no room for mistakes.

Thanks for the detailed scouting report.

The lesser talented Tiago Splitter was able to do well because he had a lot of other players that could pass him the ball at the right time. Duncan, Parker, Ginobili, Diaw.

Today's Spurs don't have that kind of experience or basketball IQ. So, althought Poetl is perhaps one of the most talented big for the Spurs in a very long time, he'll have to work a lot more harder to get the kind of easy baskets Tiago had to make. Defensively though, I think he'll do better than Tiago.

[Truth4sale$]

I am just happy to see some youth at the center spot. Poetl has some game, I would rather see him sooner than later in the starting lineup. He needs to be starting over Gasol by Dec 1.

[JPB]

They just did it to me too but luckily I got it through an Ethiopian vpn last year so it's only like 45 bucks. Market forces are awesome sometimes...

Ethiopian VPNs are underrated tbh.

[superbigtime]

I'm certainly not more excited to see Poeltl than I am DD. I just hope he plays efficiently. Inefficient players don't stick in SA. Some exceptions of course.

If he's better than Rasho, that would be a good thing.

[Ed Helicopter Jones]

I won't be excited if Poetl plays more than DeRozan.

[wildbill2u]

Would love to see Pop utilize him to his max potential. Reminds me when the team had a roll man like Splitter. Too bad Manu retired. They would've been great to watch on the P&R

Agree with the Manu comment. Seems to have good hands and can move on the pnr. Ah well, we will always miss him. Not sure I'm more excited aboout Pooter than De Rozan, but am more curious. I think DeRozan is a proven product will Jacob is an unknnown that is very intriguing. Im hoping he will be out next good big man. He has a lot of skills I think.

[Leetonidas]

I would not say I'm more excited but Imo Poeltl is severely underrated and he is easily the best big Spurs have had in a long time not named Tim/LMA. He's a rich man's Tiago Imo and a much, much better defensive player. I hope he is starting next to Aldridge. He and LMA will help mask DDR on defense especially considering he'll have two good defensive bigs behind him and not Valancunias' garbage ass and 36 year old Abaka

[dbestpro]

Poodle is the best big the Spurs have had since Scola.

[Slippy]

Hoping hes a starter by end of season. If they going to run its going to be a lot tougher with Gasol lagging behind.

His defense will add to the teams defense.

[Kawhifan5000]

As a raptors fan... I will miss poetl more than that pussy DeRozan. Poetl was our best defensive big and is very mobile. It's too bad we couldn't have traded wright or something instead.

[Spurtacular]

I'd have to be excited before I could be more excited, tbh.

[ace3g]

If it gets Arnold Schwarzenegger to come to a Spurs game...yes !!!!

[playbonner15]

If it gets Arnold Schwarzenegger to come to a Spurs game...yes !!!!

WHOAH I hope Yak can get him tickets!

[playbonner15]

As a raptors fan... I will miss poetl more than that pussy DeRozan. Poetl was our best defensive big and is very mobile. It's too bad we couldn't have traded wright or something instead.

Saw him play vs the Spurs and wished he was on the team vs the Warriors, with Manu feeding him the ball and dunking over Draymond and West and getting the rebounds. Granted it was vs Pau and Joffrey when he played against SA but the hussle and effort was there

[playbonner15]

Poetl looked good with the Raptors, not so much with the Spurs

[Chinook]

Poetl looked good with the Raptors, not so much with the Spurs

Blows chunks, tbh. It's an insult to compare him to Splitter in terms of polish. Tim's going to have his hands full turning Jakob into an legit NBA player.

[objective]

Yeah, based on the limited sample size ... Poeltl kind of sucks

He's better than Joffrey but isn't playing like he's much better.

RC and Pop losing the Kawhi trade in new ways.

Raptors beat the wizards without Kawhi, meanwhile Spurs get pounded

[tbdog]

Was this a bad read on Spurs scouts to want him in the deal?

[SpurPadre]

At this point, I'm more excited to see Bonner eat a sandwich than watch Poetl play tbh.