Man, you need to chill. As so often the truth is in the middle. Poeltl definitely isn‘t the player his fans (including me) want him to be. But he also isn‘t the bust you‘re describing. Poeltl is a high-end backup, low-end starter at the moment, whose market price apparently is 9 mill per. That’s no fantasy number, that‘s his worth for the Spurs. You might have another opinion, but that‘s the fact.
We all know his deficits (free throw %, shooting), but you should also take into account, what he does well. Spurs defense without him was a mess the whole season. Yes, I know, Bryn Forbes is gone now and also Marco, but everytime Jakob left the floor in the bubble, things have gone south. Yes, he got a lot of fouls, but let‘s be real. He got a lot of terrible whistles. Fouls were no problem for him before the bubble btw. Is he soft, because he didn‘t dunk the damn ball in the Philly game? Perhaps, but I don‘t think so. Watch his hard screens. And don‘t forget that he had a knee injury right before the bubble.
Is he a starter at the current state? Perhaps. He fits well with what the Spurs did in the bubble, but he definitely can‘t close games, as long as he doesn‘t improve his free throw shooting %. And he could have problems playing more than 30 minutes if he can‘t stay out of foul trouble. But I can see that improving with better defenders playing in front of him.
Yes, he has his deficits. But I hate people argueing that he has no worth for this team. That‘s dumb. 9 Mill is a fair price for both parties.
And for the topic of this thread: It would be dumb not the trade LMA. Not because he‘s a bad player - he‘s not - but he is a 35 year old player in his last contract year. If they don‘t want to extend him, they have to trade him for an asset without taking back a bad contract. And if I had the choice, I would trade him now. Not because of Jakobs playing time, but for losing this season. It makes no sense to fight for a playoff spot. Lose as much as you can, give the young guys the playing time and draft top3 next year.