With free agency looming at his side, returning to the North remains a possibility for Jakob Poeltl.
As he spoke with reporters in the Raptors’ 2022-23 exit interview on Thursday, the big man expressed his consideration of going back to Toronto for a multi-year deal.
As such, like the majority, he expressed uncertainty on the team’s future moving forward.
“I think so, yeah,” Poeltl said. “Obviously, like, somewhere summertime in the NBA, like, who knows what’s gonna happen? Like, I don’t know what we’re gonna look like as a team, what my situation’s gonna be like.
“I think, looking back at the months that I had here, I enjoyed my time. And I feel like we, I don’t know, kind of leaving with this, like, bad taste in my mouth. And I personally feel like I want to do better than that.”
After collapsing on their Play-In tourney last Wednesday against the Chicago Bulls, the Raptors got mountains of questions to answer regarding their direction moving along. This includes their case on Poeltl, whom they re-acquired from the San Antonio Spurs last trade deadline.
Poeltl, who is in his final year of a three-year contract, is set to hit the offseason market as an unrestricted free-agent. After giving up a future draft pick capitals just to attain him, the big man only represents the Raps’ ongoing dilemma of picking between trying to still contend or finally head towards rebuilding stage.
With plenty of teams in dire need of enforcing presence down low, Poeltl will truly attract plenty of lucrative offers from the outside, as he averaged 12.5 points, 9.1 boards, 2.7 assists, 1.2 blocks in 62.9 percent shooting this season.
