Player Facts
Height: 7'0"
Weight: 245lbs.
Date of Birth: Oct. 15, 1995
College Experience: Utah (2 years)
Selections
All Star: 0
All-NBA: 0
All-Defensive: 0
Player Grades
Speed/Explosiveness: 6
Physical Strength: 8
Positional Size: 10
Positional Wingspan: 9
Paint Scoring: 9
Midrange Scoring: 3
Three-Point Scoring: 1
Dribbling: 5
Passing: 6
Perimeter Defense: 5
Interior Defense: 9
Rebounding: 9
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STRENGTHS
Intro
The University of Utah product has evolved into a player that brings elite interior defense. The 7'1" big man is light on his feet yet provides staunch rim protection through timing, instincts, and length. Offensively, Poeltl's a screening, cutting big man with soft touch around the tin while serving as a hub that the offense can flow through.
"Big Yak" was originally acquired by the Spurs in a blockbuster 2018 trade. The transaction was headlined by Kawhi Leonard and DeMar DeRozan's exchanging of places. Jakob managed to find his footing in Popovich's rotation as a quality defense-first center. He's since found his way back to the Raptors organization.
Pillowy Touch
Parts of his offensive game that immediately stand out are his soft hands and feathery touch. He consistently makes difficult catches in traffic, regardless of the feed's velocity. Additionally, the former Ute smartly keeps the ball up after catching it, never giving smaller defenders the chance to dig in.
Rolling
When he rolls with force and conviction, he can be a dangerous dive man. He's one of the tallest rotation players in the league at a true 7-feet tall. When he plays big, Poeltl can be tough to deal with rumbling down the lane.
The Austrian center will take long, loping strides down the gut of the defense. He's got more mobility in his last 1-2 steps than most fives. He also does a good job of using his length to extend the ball away from bodies on finishes.
2024-2025 had him in the 71st percentile as a scoring roll man. He brings enough threat to finish here to collapse the defense and open up passing opportunities. Jak is evidently a selfless player and can make some nice interior reads in particular to Scottie Barnes and co.
Soft Roll Game
Jakob has made strides as a short roll player, even after coming into the league relatively comfortable in these spots. His short roll passing is solid, with above-average vision and passing accuracy for a center. When defenders cheat to truncate his roll, Jakob zips it to an open corner shooter.
His short rolling value doesn't end with his strong reads. He has a great floater in his bag that he tosses up if given the space. Jak has worked to become somewhat of a push shot powerhouse, shooting very respectable clips on what is not an easy shot.
Poeltl is also a value-adding screen-setter. He tends to reside towards the top of the league in both screens and screen-assists per-36. 2024-2025 had him in the total screen assists top-12 alongside Bam Adebayo, Domantas Sabonis, and Nikola Jokic.
Timely Duck-Ins
The pivot is also someone who will duck in at the perfect moment. These, and other little cuts, make him a valuable off-ball player on offense despite no jump-shooting ability. His soft hands once again come into play here, as quick lobs and shovel passes can come in hot from penetrators.
Poeltl's shot diet works in tandem with his interior touch to make him a high-efficiency rim finisher. 73.6% on strong volume was his 2024-2025 figure inside the charge circle. Using his left hand is not a problem either, with impeccable either-hand touch off the window.
Cleaner-Upper
The remainder of his scoring punch comes from garbage-bucket getting. He diligently follows his driving teammate into the paint to clean up a potential miss.
His dexterity allows him to complete high-degree-of-difficulty tip-ins rather than having to come back down first. When he does have to gather himself, it is done swiftly, and his second jump back up is fast.
He steadily gives you 4-5 offensive boards per-36 in a given campaign. A direct result of such is impact putback scoring numbers. In 2024-2025, he notched 2.7 points nightly on putbacks alone.
Defensive Damage
Poeltl has become a premier paint protector in this league. He may not get his appropriate due; however, the advanced stats love his work on the defensive end.
Opponents' <6 feet shooting clips plummet when he's present: -11.8% difference in 2019-2020. Since that absurd rim-protecting season, he remains an analytically valuable difference-maker on the backline.
A good place to start is his pick-and-roll defense. Jakob fluidly backpedals to contain the pair of attackers. Furthermore, his mobility allows him to hedge/show, then get back to protect the rim.
Jak defends the post well too. He is light but has moments of looking stronger than his frame suggests. His defensive footwork here and discipline not to bite on fakes add supplemental value.
Rim-Denier
Help-side defense is another thing the Austrian big man excels at. He makes punctual back-line rotations, converging inwards to stifle slashers. He's a high block percentage guy, and a lofty raw blocks guy.
The principle of verticality is something that guides Jakob's paint defense. Being an outlier on the court height-wise, extending that 9'3.5" standing reach skyward is more than enough. The smart, relatively fleet-footed Jakob makes sure he gets there in time to provide a legal contest.
Jakob Poeltl brings down defensive rebounds at a formidable rate to close out possessions after protecting that iron. He's recorded a couple of top-20 seasons in defensive rebounding percentage and total rebounds collected, respectively. That near-7'3" reach is a big boon in high-traffic rebound areas.
WEAKNESSES
Stopping Short
Quite lean for a five-man, Poeltl finds himself stopping shy of the basket at times. In an attempt to avoid contact, he may flip up a shot that otherwise could have been a layup or dunk. While he has the finesse to hit these bunnies too, things like his free-throw rate suffer because of this evasive approach.
The already-efficient Poeltl would rise into another stratosphere if he dunked the basketball more. Perhaps this is a mindset-change away, or alternatively, a 10-pound-gain away.
The lack of vertical pop also contributes to him not being a big-time lob threat like Jarrett Allen. Whatever the case, he needs to up his dunks from being merely a small percentage of his made buckets annually.
Dreadful Shooting
Jakob struggles mightily with his jumper. He will seldom take a midranger and provides zero floor-spacing out to three. The four-man beside him must be a strong spot-up shooter or else the lineup will have some scoring problems.
His inability to stretch the floor would be more palatable if he could make his free throws. This is not the case; Jakob has a rough go of it at the stripe. He had regressed from a mid-50s guy to a mid-40s guy. 2024-2025 finally post a FT% north of 60% at 67.4%, but this must be repeated over a multi-year sample to deem it as more credible, sticky growth.
Leftover Weak Points
To exacerbate his on-ball scoring woes, posting up is not a viable avenue to explore. He's always been a roller/cutter type who needs to look to be manufactured by others. To support this, look no further than just a combined 56 post-ups between 2018-2019 and 2019-2020, with it remaining a relative weakness.
The only defensive flaw worth focusing on is his perimeter work on guards. It's tough to be asking a 7'1" player to contain backcourt speedsters, which is why he's typically in a sag. On an island, though, Jakob will likely get beaten.
Players Appearing Here – Check Out Their Profiles
- Kawhi LeonardOpens in a new tab
- DeMar DeRozanOpens in a new tab
- Scottie Barnes [Coming Soon]Opens in a new tab
- Bam Adebayo [Coming Soon]Opens in a new tab
- Domantas Sabonis [PATREON]Opens in a new tab
- Nikola Jokic [PATREON]Opens in a new tab
- Jarrett Allen [Coming Soon]Opens in a new tab
- Fred VanVleet [PATREON]Opens in a new tab
- Pascal Siakam [PATREON]Opens in a new tab
