Jakob “Der Große Wiener” Poeltl can only make layups. That is his entire offensive game. He cannot do anything else. Even when it looks like he can totally dunk it, he opts instead for a layup while barely jumping. Energy conservation? Perhaps, but to me it looks like he’s a being a pillow-soft Euro softie white tissue paper soft cottony Euro.
Accordingly, all the buckets in this vid are layups. Just like last time. At least Valanciunas would sometimes hit midrange jumpers. Was that a bad thing? It must have been, because Valanciunas is being increasingly marginalized in favor of the King of Layups. Or, it’s more important for a Euro’s all-consuming softness to be on the offensive end rather than the defensive end. Poeltl is a nice, solid defender, or so I’ve been told. If someone’s not blocking a shot, I don’t know what’s happening on defense. Raptors fans are usually right about these things, though.