Subscribe
Follow Us
Jakob Poeltl is quietly becoming one of the more coveted names in the trade market today. The San Antonio Spurs big man is having a career year, and his team is actively shopping him for a pretty penny. Many teams are interested in Poeltl, including his former team Toronto Raptors. Now, a couple of surprising teams have entered the mix: the New Orleans Pelicans AND the Portland Trail Blazers, as SpursTalk's LJ Ellis reported Monday.
“Two surprising teams that are active in Jakob Poeltl trade talks are the New Orleans Pelicans and the Portland Trail Blazers,” Ellis wrote. “The Pelicans and Blazers have notable centers in Jonas Valanciunas and Jusuf Nurkic, respectively, however both teams have inquired about Poeltl’s availability.”
As noted in the quote above, both the Blazers and the Pelicans have a starting-caliber big man on their roster. However, Poeltl fills a much different niche than either Valanciunas or Nurkic. The Spurs big man's skills are focused more on defense, while also being a solid rim-running threat on offense.
The Spurs are, quite clearly, not interested in competing for this season, at least. They already dealt star point guard Dejounte Murray before the season started. Now, they're looking to deal another promising young player from presumably draft capital. Their goal is quite simple: get as much chances at Victor Wembenyama as possible.
We'll see if any of these new teams will pull the trigger on a Jakob Poeltl trade. The former Raptors' lottery pick can contribute to a title contender with his useful skillset.
