Full disclosure: Jakob Poeltl’s appearance reminds of a white(r) Blake Griffin.
With that out of the way, we can reflect on how it sucks that the Raptors are such a good team because it means that their bountiful collection of young talent doesn’t get as much time as they need to develop unless they go down to the D-League. Yeah. It sucks. I bet there’s a sizable contingent of Raptor fans who wish the team was bad so that they could bring out a lineup of Vanvleet, Wright, Caboclo, Nogueira, and Poeltl. No one can deny that that would be a sick lineup.
Instead, we get to watch Jakob Poeltl rot on the bench while the Raptors actually win games. It’s easy to forget that he was a top-10 pick this year with how little he gets on the court. They did start him a few games, which is probably more evidence of Dwayne Casey’s hatred of Jonas Valanciunas, but even then he didn’t make much of an impression. I was worried that the whole season would come and go with our favorite Austrian Death Machine not putting together even one double-digit scoring game.
But wait! It says in this video “12 Points”! Yes! The long wait has come to an end! Your eyes do not deceive you! Poeltl made 4 shots and 4 free throws, giving him an officially official 12 points that will forever be recorded in the annals of the NBA. Forever!