DENVER — To this day, it’s a bit of a mystery to Jakob Poeltl.
“I honestly don’t know for sure myself, like, what caused it,” he said, speaking about his no-longer-troublesome back problems. “But I think it’s more accumulation of time and, like, a bunch of work and …”
And the rest is reflected in a long list of missed games over the course of the 2025-26 season — 33 out of a possible 68, the most games he’s lost to injury in any season over the course of a 10-year career.
But it seems like the worst is behind him now and, not coincidentally, the Toronto Raptors are the beneficiaries. Poeltl will never win style points or draw attention for his speed, power or any other quality that normally gets a second look in the NBA.
But having a smart, agile and efficient seven-footer that understands how to complement his teammates on the floor is a welcome addition to any NBA team and having Poeltl back and in good health is perfectly timed as the Raptors jockey for playoff position in the Eastern Conference.
Over his past 10 games, Poeltl has averaged 12.5 points, 8.6 rebounds, 2.3 assists, 1.3 blocks and a steal while converting 71.1 per cent of his field-goal chances and — as a bonus — 81 per cent of his free throws.
On the surface it’s still a notch behind his 14.5/9.6/2.8/1.2/1.2 on 62.7 per cent line from last season which represented his high-water mark in almost every category and was part of the reason he earned a three-year, $84-million contract extension this past summer that covers him through the 2029-30 season.
But on a per-possession basis, it’s essentially right on par, which bodes well for the future, even if Poeltl is keeping his focus firmly on the present.
For Poeltl, it’s a relief after months of uncertainty. Unlike other injuries, his back problems presented a challenge because the progress wasn’t linear.
“I think the hardest part about it was that there wasn’t a steady timeline,” he said. “With most injuries, you kind of know how long it’s gonna take, and sometimes it takes a bit longer or sometimes it takes a little less time but, generally, you know what the recovery process is.
“But what the time was exactly in this scenario was a big question mark. Like, we almost made up some timelines, kind of hoping that this would be when I would feel better again but, realistically, it wasn’t something that time was just gonna fix. So, I think that was the hardest part.”
But the hardest part seems to be behind him now.
After putting up 36 minutes banging against Pistons all-star Jalen Duren — the chiselled, six-foot-11 22-year-old — Poeltl was arguably the best centre on the floor, at least as indicated by his 21 points, 18 rebounds and five assists (Duren came in at 20 points, 11 rebounds and no assists).
“I felt fine, honestly,” said Poeltl, who hadn’t played 36 minutes in a game since Dec. 1, 2024. “Every game’s a little bit different, like you have different energy and stuff. I felt good on Sunday. Felt fine afterwards. Obviously, after a big game, you feel your body aching a little bit, but I think that’s normal for everybody, so I wasn’t too worried.”
The Raptors win Wednesday over the Chicago Bulls didn’t provide much of a test for the team collectively — 30-point wins over tanking teams shouldn’t — but for Poeltl watchers it was another checkpoint that he passed through easily. He finished with 17 points and eight rebounds on 7-of-10 shooting in 20 minutes, but it was the ease with which he changed ends that stood out.
He got a steal in the third quarter sprinting the floor to catch up with Bulls centre Jalen Smith, getting back in plenty of time to cut off an entry pass. He then immediately took off on a rim run the other way and was rewarded when RJ Barrett hit him for an easy lay-up that he converted while being fouled. He blocked a shot sliding with Bulls forward Matas Buzelis, eventually corralling him at the rim. His final bucket of the game came when he turned the corner on the 26-year-old Smith from above the three-point line and beat him to the rim.
There are bigger tests coming, like on Friday when the Raptors take on Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets.
The three-time MVP looms like the Rocky Mountains, although with much more rounded shoulders.
The Nuggets have won five straight against the Raptors with Jokic in the lineup and are 9-1 against the Raptors in Denver.
Jokic is averaging 28.2 points and 12.6 rebounds along with 10.6 assists — the latter two numbers leading the NBA — on 57.3 per cent shooting so far this season. Since the former second-round pick morphed into a perennial MVP candidate in 2020-21, he’s averaged 27.2 points, 12.3 rebounds and 7.1 assists on 60 per cent shooting against Toronto.
“He’s a very talented guy. Kind of like a Swiss Army knife. He does a lot of different things out there on the court,” said Poeltl. “I think it’s one of those situations where you try to do your best to take him out of his comfort zone, just try to make him work all game long. And you just kind of accept the fact that he’s gonna make some tough buckets. He’s gonna make some tough plays. And for him there is a lot of playmaking as well. But you just try to force as many tough decisions as possible on him. And try to make him make as many mistakes as possible.”
It’s as good a strategy as any given Jokic made a career-high tying 10 turnovers in the Nuggets’ loss to the tanking Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday, and is averaging a career-worst 3.9 turnovers this season.
And there are some reasons for hope, from a Raptors point of view.
Foremost among them is that the Raptors could have multiple options to use against Jokic. There’s hope that rookie Colin Murray-Boyles could be available Friday night after missing nine games with a left thumb injury that has been bothering him since he got it caught in an opponent’s jersey on Dec. 23, though he has officially been listed as doubtful.
Murray-Boyles gives the Raptors an option who has the quickness and comfortability of playing with him on the perimeter matched with the strength to at least hold his ground when Jokic begins his slow-motion rumbles to the rim. History suggests that resistance might be futile, but Murray-Boyles could at least give Jokic a different look.
“He’s definitely a different kind of player compared to Jak,” said Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic. “His ability to pressure the ball, his ability to move his feet … he allows us much more switchability and he’s just got a gritty approach to the game. It really helps us. He’s finding ways to get stops, he’s finding ways to get rebounds and he’s really improving with his offence as well.”
However, for all his strengths, Murray-Boyles stands only six-foot-seven, leaving Poeltl as the Raptors’ only player taller than six-foot-nine. Any of the teams the Raptors could realistically meet in the first round of the playoffs have quality size. Without Poeltl, the Raptors quality and size diminishes in an instant.
There are still some long-term concerns about how Poeltl’s contract will age. Presuming he hits his games-played and minutes-played incentives over the life of the deal he’ll be set to earn $27.3 million at age 34, a significant bump from the $19.5 million he’ll earn this year and next. A pricy, aging centre with a wonky back can present a roster-building challenge, which the Raptors experienced at the trade deadline this year when they were unable to find a market for Poeltl in any of the deals they explored.
But for now, that’s a tomorrow problem. For today, Poeltl is healthy and playing well, and the Raptors will need to put considerable load on his shoulders as they pursue a playoff spot in April and anything beyond that.
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