San Antonio Spurs Jacob Poeltl
Photo: Kin Man Hui-San Antonio Express-News

For the first time in his professional career Jakob Poeltl will enter free agency as an unrestricted free agent.

The 27-year-old Austrian center, who could be a trade candidate this season with teams like the Lakers, Clipper and Warriors being mentioned, talked about being able to choose his destiny as a free agent.

According to Poeltl, players feel like pawns when they are traded because they have no control of when and where they are going.

Via Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports:

“I’ve never been in this situation where unrestricted free agency is coming up. It’s a cool situation for sure, because in the NBA, a lot of times you are — I don’t want to say stuck — but it feels like you’re a little bit of a pawn. They can just trade you around wherever they want,” Poeltl told Yahoo Sports. “It’s not the mentality you should have while you’re playing, but it’s the reality of it. Your contract can get passed around, more or less, whenever and however they want. So it’s nice to be in this situation where you can kind of decide your own fate and evaluate what’s going to be the best situation for me.”

This season Poeltl is averaging 12.9 points, 9.9 rebounds and 3.5 assists in 27.3 minutes per game.