Latest news with #Poeltl
Time of India
17-05-2025
- Sport
- Time of India
NBA Trade Rumors: Los Angeles Lakers could chase $80 million Toronto Raptors big man to bolster squad around Luka Doncic and LeBron James
Luka Doncic and LeBron James (Image via Joe Murphy/ Getty Images) The Los Angeles Lakers ' search for a defensive anchor may lead them north of the border. With Toronto Raptors center Jakob Poeltl emerging as a potential trade target, the $78 million big man could solve two problems at once—bolstering the Lakers' frontcourt while giving the Raptors a pivotal decision to make about their future. Toronto finds itself at a crossroads this offseason: double down on a playoff push with Poeltl as their defensive cornerstone, or leverage his value in a trade to accelerate a rebuild. Meanwhile, the Lakers—desperate for size and rim protection—are lurking as a logical suitor if negotiations stall. As Michael Scotto of Hoops Hype reports, this is more than just speculation; it's a scenario both franchises are actively weighing. Why the Los Angeles Lakers Are Eyeing Jakob Poeltl According to Michael Scotto of Hoops Hype , the Lakers are monitoring Jakob Poeltl's situation in Toronto. The 29-year-old center could fill a glaring need for Los Angeles, which is desperate for a defensive anchor. Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Tukarkan Bitcoin dan Ethereum - Tanpa Dompet Diperlukan! IC Markets MULAI SEKARANG Undo Jakob Poeltl (Image via Getty) Scotto noted: 'Poeltl is owed $19.5 million for the 2025-26 season and has a player option for the same figure for the 2026-27 season. Should Poeltl not get an extension done with Toronto, a team such as the Los Angeles Lakers—who are seeking an upgrade at center—could have trade interest.' (H/t: Sporting News) Poeltl has expressed his desire to stay with the Raptors, and team president Masai Ujiri has called him a 'backbone' of the franchise. But if extension talks stall, the Lakers might pounce. Poeltl's Impact on the Court Jakob delivered strong numbers last season: Stat Category Average Points 14.5 Rebounds 9.6 Rim Defense Elite His defensive versatility and efficient scoring make him an ideal fit for a contender like the Lakers. Trade Rumors and Potential Scenarios - Previous Interest: Poeltl was floated in trade rumors at last year's deadline, but Toronto held onto him. - Lakers' Motivation: With Anthony Davis needing support in the frontcourt, L.A. could offer a package of picks and role players. - Raptors' Dilemma: If Toronto pivots to a youth movement, moving Poeltl for assets makes sense. The Raptors' offseason strategy will dictate Poeltl's future. If they commit to competing, he stays. If they rebuild, the Lakers—and possibly other teams—will come calling. Also read: NBA Trade Rumors: LeBron James' Homecoming Part 3? The Wild Luka Doncic Factor That Could Pull King James Back to the Cleveland Cavaliers For now, all eyes are on Toronto's front office. As Scotto's report suggests, Poeltl's situation is one to watch closely. Get IPL 2025 match schedules , squads , points table , and live scores for CSK , MI , RCB , KKR , SRH , LSG , DC , GT , PBKS , and RR . Check the latest IPL Orange Cap and Purple Cap standings.
Associated Press
29-03-2025
- Sport
- Associated Press
Jakob Poeltl's 24 points and 12 rebounds help Raptors beat Hornets 108-97 for 3rd straight win
TORONTO (AP) — Jakob Poeltl had 24 points and 12 rebounds to lead the Toronto Raptors to their third straight win, a 108-97 victory over the Charlotte Hornets on Friday night. Immanuel Quickley scored 19 points on 6-for-15 shooting, including 5 for 8 from 3-point distance, and added nine assists. Mark Williams had 18 points, 12 rebounds and five assists as Charlotte lost its fourth straight game. DaQuan Jeffries added 15 points. The Raptors used a 10-point run to take a 20-12 lead in the first quarter. Poeltl led the way with 12 points in the first half for Toronto, which led 49-47 at the break. Takeaways Raptors: Toronto's winning streak has been made up entirely of teams below it in the Eastern Conference standings, with the victory against Charlotte following triumphs over the Brooklyn Nets (23-50) and Washington Wizards (16-57). Toronto, ranked 11th, can complete a sweep of the lower teams in the conference with a win over the Philadelphia 76ers (23-50) on Sunday. Hornets: Star guard LaMelo Ball will miss the rest of the season with a right ankle impingement, and will also undergo a wrist procedure, the team said Friday. Ball wraps his fifth season with Charlotte with a career-high average of 25.2 points in 47 games. Key stat The Raptors outscored the Hornets by 15 points from 3-point distance, hitting 14 shots while the Hornets made nine. Key moment Poeltl's layup with 8:17 left in the third quarter put the Raptors ahead 61-60, and Toronto never trailed again. Up next Both teams play Sunday. Charlotte is at New Orleans, and Toronto is at Philadelphia. ___
Yahoo
06-03-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Jakob Poeltl addresses future with Raptors
Poeltl likes what he's seen and believes there are better days ahead, and he'll be ready to listen. 'I haven't given (my contract) any thought, like, those conversations are gonna start coming once the season ends, and I'm assuming pretty quickly after the season ends,' he said. 'I haven't had any conversations yet. But big picture, I mean, for sure … I've bought into this process and I've kind of gone through the tough times already. So, this is my home right now and I really hope it's gonna be in the future as well.' Source: SportsNet Cody Taylor @CodyTaylorNBA Cory Joseph, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Franz Wagner, Paolo Banchero and Wendell Carter Jr. are starting for the Magic. Scottie Barnes, RJ Barrett, Jakob Poeltl, Ja'Kobe Walter and Immanuel Quickley are starting for the Raptors. - 6:35 PM It's why the Raptors rebuffed any interest in teams trying to acquire Poeltl at the trade deadline by keeping their asking price at the high-end of the market — believed to be two good first-round picks or some equivalent. Instead, it's likely that the Raptors — who have Poeltl under contract next season before a player option kicks in ahead of the 2026-27 season — will engage in discussions on a contract extension that will keep Poeltl in Toronto through the rest of his prime. -via SportsNet / March 6, 2025 Josh Lewenberg: Scottie Barnes is OUT vs Indiana tonight. Jakob Poeltl returns. -via / February 26, 2025 Gary Washburn: Jakob Poeltl (hip) is OUT tonight for #Raptors. #Celtics. -via Twitter @GwashburnGlobe / February 25, 2025 This article originally appeared on Hoops Hype: Jakob Poeltl addresses future with Raptors
New York Times
25-02-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Immanuel Quickley's 3s, Gradey Dick's defence and more: What to watch from Raptors
TORONTO — It turns out removing Jakob Poeltl from the Toronto Raptors' lineup is not the perfect recipe for losing. This weekend, the Raptors played two teams that, although aggressively average, have been much better than them this season. As Poeltl, the Raptors centre, worked his way back from a hip pointer, Toronto had to play the Miami Heat and Phoenix Suns. Going into the weekend, the Raptors had gone 5-37 without Poeltl over the last two years. Advertisement Now it is 6-38, with an overtime loss to Miami and a decisive win over Phoenix. 'I think you can see mini-steps everywhere,' Chris Boucher said of the team's growth. 'But I think, altogether, it's really nice to see.' For those obsessing about lottery position, we're not doing this again (unless they beat the Celtics on Tuesday, of course). The Raptors (18-39) have the easiest remaining schedule, and with the Philadelphia 76ers (20-36) incentivized to lose to keep their top-six-protected pick, at least one team seems eminently catchable. GO DEEPER Why Sixers must shut down Joel Embiid before it's too late However, when the Raptors came back from the All-Star break, coach Darko Rajaković was very clear, saying he wasn't going to measure the rest of the season by wins and losses but on incremental growth. That would necessitate giving many minutes to lesser-used players. Scottie Barnes mentioned chasing a Play-In spot as a goal of his, and that isn't impossible. The Raptors are just four games behind the 10th-place Chicago Bulls, and none of the Bulls, Nets and 76ers are going to go all out to lock down that spot. Neither will the Raptors, but some team has to finish 10th. That's math. On the way to wherever this season ends up, there will be a lot to sort through. Given some of the bizarre lineups we might see, much of it will be meaningless. With that in mind, I thought it would be helpful to create a guide for what matters and what doesn't the rest of the way — standings, reverse or right side up, not included. Barnes is having a career-worst season from deep, but we shouldn't pretend it's an anomaly. Barnes shot 34.1 percent from 3 last year and is at 27 percent this year. Through four seasons, that has been his band. At his best, he has been a slightly below-average shooter from 3. At worst, he's been a poor one. Advertisement Barnes is young enough for this to change, but it probably isn't going to radically flip in the short term. A 20-game stretch of good shooting to end the season shouldn't stop Barnes and the Raptors from rethinking his shot diet in the offseason. He has hit 17 of his 69 pull-up 3s this year, a career peak if you discount his rookie year, when he attempted just 32 of those shots in 74 games. In a functional offence, Barnes will need to excise those attempts. For now, it's all noise. Whenever Brandon Ingram begins playing regularly for the Raptors, it should serve to further limit the primary creation duties for Immanuel Quickley. Accordingly, Quickley's play will be even more dependent on his shot-making. That is his best NBA skill. On Friday against Miami, Quickley attempted 11 3s, the first time he reached double digits in his 17 games this year. (He was on a minutes restriction upon returning from his groin injury earlier this month, making it difficult for him to get to that volume.) 'It's his teammates (finding him), but also it's (him) trusting when he gets off the ball, the ball is going to come back,' Rajaković said. 'It's great to see him take that number of shots.' Quickley's 3-point accuracy and volume will be huge as the Raptors try to inch toward half-court competence. He's shooting 40.2 percent from deep for the year. Quickley had 9 points and six assists, a plus-19 along with Barnes, in a sensational fourth quarter against the Suns. Nick Nurse was right, early in Barnes' career, when he pushed him to get to the rim as often as possible. That is where his size and passing make him the most dangerous. While he has improved in the short midrange, he is still most threatening in the paint. Advertisement He is shooting below league average in the deep paint this year. He's fallen from 73.3 percent last year at the rim to 70.2 percent this year. The Raptors' spacing is poor, and that keeps him from getting cleaner looks. The Raptors need to work to get him early post-ups in transition, but he is the player who pushes the pace in transition the most. It's hard for him to get an early opportunity if the rest of his team isn't helping him set the tone. Similarly, the Raptors should have him work as a screener more often. That is tough to do when Poeltl is on the floor, but Barnes' best role, right now, is as a screener. He will need to do more of that when Ingram is healthy. Get him catching the ball on the move as close to the paint as possible. The Raptors are 25th in defensive rating, allowing 115.6 points per 100 possessions. Considering how good they were defensively during their stretch of seven wins in eight games, that might be jarring to read. A huge part of defence is continuity. Several veterans, including the irreplaceable (on this roster) Poeltl, will likely rest often during the last third of the season. Davion Mitchell going to Miami will also hurt the Raptors at the point of attack. The Raptors might trend up defensively just because of the level of their competition down the stretch, but there won't be much to learn in such a broad statistic. The Raptors force turnovers at the 17th-highest rate in the league, making them average in the pursuit. The Raptors need turnovers to generate more transition offence and limit their half-court offensive possessions, the team's weakness. Defensive ball pressure isn't applied only to create turnovers, but for the Raptors, that outcome is crucial. With just Poeltl as a true rim protector, the Raptors can't thrive defensively with a conservative style. More and more, forcing turnovers is correlated with good overall defence, as shot-making improves throughout the league. The Thunder, Clippers, Magic, Grizzlies, Timberwolves, Warriors and Rockets are all top-11 in opponent turnover percentage, and they have top-nine defences. Given how poor the Raptors' opponents are the rest of the way, they should be able to turn pressure into turnovers more often than they have been this season. Do you want to be concerned? Look at Gradey Dick's 3-point percentage. He is shooting 35.7 percent for his career, certainly not what the Raptors were expecting when they used a lottery pick on him in 2023. Advertisement If he's not a high-volume, high-percentage 3-point shooter, Dick will struggle to be a rotation-worthy player. That is because he has backslid as a defender. He is not as bad as he was early in his rookie year, but other teams are picking on him. If you're the Raptors, you have to hope his 3-point pedigree eventually shines through. If he can't continue to grow defensively, however, he will be setting his ceiling at sixth man. Barrett, averaging 21.9 points per game, will be above the 20 threshold for the third time in four seasons. However, he will get there less efficiently than last year. In 32 games as a Raptor last year, he had a 61.5 percent true shooting, which places extra value on 3-pointers and free-throw attempts. This year, it's at 55.6 percent. That drop has been almost entirely based on his shooting inside the arc. Barrett has fallen off majorly at the rim and a little bit in his favoured push-shot area, from further out in the paint. However, Barrett's inefficiency is being driven by a career-high usage percentage. His least efficient stretch of the season was in the 11 games Barnes missed with a sprained ankle early in the season (Quickley was out for all but two of those games, too). Barrett's usage pushed 30 percent and his true-shooting percentage was 51.7 percent in those games. Since then, he is at 58.3 percent true shooting, with his usage at a more manageable 27.3 percent. Some weird lineups could send those numbers down late in the season. Do not overreact. On a personal level, it's fun to watch a player with a sub-15 usage percentage simply try to make the right basketball play on both ends. Agbaji's commitment to play soundly is laudable. Agbaji could be one of the most interesting players this offseason for the Raptors. With the Ingram deal, the Raptors will face a salary crunch, and getting off of Agbaji's $6.3 million deal for next year could help them avoid heading into 2025-26 as a tax team. On the other hand, he is young, athletic and defensively versatile. He also doesn't need the ball. There is a case for the Raptors to try to offer him a contract extension as he enters the final year of his rookie deal. Advertisement In the interim, Agbaji closing the season strongly would help the Raptors in either scenario. He has slumped as a shooter since a hot start to the season but is still around league average (on admittedly low volume) in 2025, and 39 percent for the whole season. That skill will determine if he's a rotation staple or a fringe player. (Photo of Immanuel Quickley: Cole Burston / Getty Images)
Reuters
30-01-2025
- Sport
- Reuters
Defensive-minded Raptors aim for sixth straight win vs. Bulls
January 31 - The Toronto Raptors will be out to extend their season-best winning streak to six games and exact some revenge against the visiting Chicago Bulls on Friday night. The Raptors earned a 106-82 road victory Wednesday over the Washington Wizards. It marked the first time the Raptors have won five straight since March 24-April 1, 2022. They have won seven of their past eight games. Scottie Barnes scored 24 points to lead the scoring for the Raptors, who converted 27 Washington turnovers into 32 points. The Raptors turned it over only 14 times, resulting in 12 points. "I thought we played with a lot of intensity at the defensive end," Toronto coach Darko Rajakovic said. "The good thing is that we kept the foot on the gas the whole game." Toronto held Washington to 38.9 percent (28-for-72) from the field, including 16.7 percent (5-for-30) from 3-point range. Jakob Poeltl and Ochai Agbaji each added 12 points. Eight players scored in double digits as the Raptors shot 47.7 percent (42-for-88) from the field overall and 35.5 percent (11-for-31) on 3-point attempts. "We are trying to develop winning habits, and we are trying to develop the right culture," Rajakovic said. "We don't take anything for granted." The Raptors are evolving into a strong defensive team with Poeltl playing an important role. "There are so many things that, defensively, he's covering for us (and) doing an outstanding job of communicating," Rajakovic said this week. "He's our connector on the offensive end. He does an unbelievable job for us." "I don't think the way that we play basketball has necessarily changed a bunch," Poeltl said. "Right now, we're having a good run, we're playing (well) on defense and it's making our offense look better as well, so I think, yes, there's a little bit of that different edge that we're having right now these last few games but, at the end of the day, I don't want to get too high or too low on us." The Raptors will try to avenge a 122-121 home loss to the Bulls on Dec. 16 when Nikola Vucevic scored 24 points to lead Chicago. The Bulls lost 122-100 on the road to the Boston Celtics on Wednesday to open a three-game road trip. That helped the Raptors move to within 4 1/2 games of the Bulls for the final Eastern Conference play-in spot. Chicago's Zach LaVine (paternity leave) did not play Wednesday and is expected to miss the next two games as well. The Bulls allowed the Celtics to score 27 points off 15 turnovers. "Especially against the reigning champs, you just can't give them opportunities," Bulls guard Coby White said. "Against good teams like that, you have to control what you can control." White scored 16 points after missing the previous four games with a bone bruise in his left ankle. Reserve Patrick Williams also had 16 points. White lost four turnovers and Williams had two. Lonzo Ball, who had nine points, committed three turnovers. "They capitalized on the turnovers," Chicago coach Billy Donovan said. "They turned them into points, and then, obviously, the other part was the fouling." The Celtics took 15 more free throws, going 22-for-27 while Chicago was 11-for-12. Immanuel Quickley (hip) and Kelly Olynyk (calf) are listed as questionable for the Raptors after sitting out Wednesday.
