The Raptors have often been forced to play small ball with center Jakob Poeltl sidelined by a back injury, The Athletic’s Eric Koreen notes. Power forwards Scottie Barnes, Collin Murray-Boyles and Sandro Mamukelashvili have been filling in during his absences and the results have been predictable.
With Poeltl out, Toronto lost to the Celtics last week while getting out-rebounded 55-37. Poeltl played just seven minutes on Sunday and the victorious Nets beat the Raptors on the boards, 48-39.
Poeltl has been nagged by back issues since the opening weeks of the season. He signed a three-year extension during the offseason.
“It’s pretty unpredictable. He goes in the game and is great in the game. He might wake up in the next morning feeling good or not feeling good. Same thing with practice,” Raptors coach Darko Rajakovic said. “We have a long-term plan for him which consists of managing his injury, which consists of building his strength, which consists of him playing through a certain level of pain. Long-term, we are not concerned at all. It’s just something we’re dealing with in the middle of the season. If it were the offseason and we were to shut him down for two weeks, he would be completely fine.”
Here’s more on the Raptors:
- Poeltl and RJ Barrett missed Tuesday’s game in Miami, Josh Lewenberg of TSN tweets. The injury report listed Poeltl as having a lower back strain, instead of “injury management.” Barrett has been out since Nov. 23 due to a knee injury.
- Michael Grange of Sportsnet argues that the team needs to acquire depth at the center, rather than hoping Poeltl’s back issues subside. He doubts the Raptors will take a big swing and try to acquire Anthony Davis from the Mavericks. He hears that the Mavericks seem to be leaning into keeping a reasonably competitive team together when healthy. Grange believes the front office should chase a reliable backup instead.
- Another approach the Raptors could take to address their frontcourt depth issues is to sign a free agent, Grange notes. Veteran Mo Bamba is currently toiling in the G League and perhaps a 10-day contract next month might be a worthwhile pursuit (Twitter links).
- They could also use another shooter, Koreen writes in his latest mailbag. He suggests the Raptors pursue potentially available wings such as Quentin Grimes, Keon Ellis and Collin Sexton.
“and the results have been predictable.”
It’s absolutely crazy how normal and obvious it is that the league has gone big and small ball now plays absolutely negative defense every time, negating any good offense playing small might bring.
We all, all of us, can see it. Steve Kerr cannot.
Anyone care to explain why Kerr refuses this?
Imo he is still trying to duplicate that last chip team.
He didn’t have a real center then. He used shooting as strength thru depth. He went deep in his bench. So always had fresh ball handlers and shooters. He believes he can win with a depth of guards and wings.
Today bigs are more mobile. And guys like Jokic are changing the game again. Its all about winning to me. All teams should be able to go big or small. With a 15 man roster. Considering you play defense half the game. A true big is your best asset on D. As a rim protector and rebounder.
Kerr teams play good D. But its perimeter D. And rebounding from threes are usually long rebounds. Not necessarily for a true big. So he is playing the analytics here. Its like I said many times here. All NBA teams should go big or small with 15 man roster. Kerr thinks he’s perfected the Bulls triangle offense lol. Funny thing is. Both Bulls and Spurs teams he won with. Were built around rim protection on defense.
CNB was drafted with the 9th pick. Passed on Maluach and Queen. And now they want to add more wings. Grimes, Sexton, Ellis aren’t wings. Raptors are one of worst rebounding teams in NBA. Yet they want to add guards to play the wing ????
Go Figure ????
And they have 7 yes SEVEN wings on their roster.
Now they 17–13 and 5the un the East. Don’t let that fool you. Magic, Cavs, Heat, Hawks all within 2 gms.
This so called new NBA. Really amusing to me.