LAS VEGAS — Jakob Poeltl was at the OVO Athletic Centre in Toronto, going through a workout with some members of the Raptors coaching staff the morning after the NBA Draft when the phones started pinging.
Masai Ujiri, the president of the Raptors, and MLSE, the team’s owner, were “parting ways.”
It was a shock that was felt across the NBA. Ujiri had run the Raptors since 2013 and was one of the most recognizable figures in the league. From Poeltl’s perspective, the connection was personal.
Ujiri drafted him ninth overall in 2016, making him the first Austrian to play in the NBA, and watched him blossom as a central figure with the ‘bench mob’ — the Raptors’ bench unit that pushed the 2017-18 team to a franchise-record 59 wins. He then traded him to San Antonio in the summer of 2018 in the deal that returned Kawhi Leonard.
Ujiri re-acquired Poeltl at the trade deadline in the 2022-23 season in an effort to extend the window of contention with his old bench-mob peers — Fred VanVleet, Pascal Siakam and OG Anunoby — and then signed the centre to his first contract extension with the Raptors in a gesture of good faith to hold him over when that plan fizzled.
“That was a little bit of a crazy moment, I didn’t expect that,” said Poeltl this past weekend in Las Vegas, where the Raptors veterans are holding a mini-camp during Summer League. “Obviously I have really good relationship with Masai, he was the one who first drafted me and also me coming back in the trade here … really sad to see him go, he’s done a lot of great things here with the Raptors so I’m definitely going to miss him.”
The timing was potentially awkward because Poeltl was most of the way to the finish line on his next contract extension with the Raptors, during which Ujiri had been front and centre in the negotiations.
“Obviously that was an extra conversation there, like, ‘hey, does this change anything, what’s going on, what’s the deal with our future?’” said Poeltl. “But honestly, at the end of the day, it didn’t change much.”
The deal was made official last week, with Poeltl agreeing to opt in to his $19.5-million player option for the 2026-27 season and the Raptors signing him for three additional seasons for $84.1 million. Only $5 million of the $27.3 million on the books for the 2029-30 season, when Poeltl will be 34, is guaranteed, although the guaranteed amount can increase by $5 million per year each year he plays at least 1,400 minutes in a season beginning in 2026-27 and by another $2.5 million if he plays those minutes on a team that makes the playoffs.
Regardless, for the next two season the Raptors have one of the better two-way centres in the NBA under contract for 11.8 and 12.6 per cent of the salary cap.
And from Poeltl’s point of view, cracking 1,400 minutes shouldn’t be a problem with reasonably good health, given he played 1,686 in 57 games last season.
Through three games at the Las Vegas Summer League, it’s pretty apparent that internal competition for those minutes will be somewhere between slim and none.
While newly signed free agent Sandro Mamukelashvili should provide some depth at centre and a different set skills — Mamukelashvili brings some shooting and face-up tools Poeltl lacks — Poeltl remains the only proven, rim-running and rim-protecting big in the organization.
Long term, there might be some reason for optimism for Ulrich Chomche.
The 6-foot-11 Cameroonian teenager got some attention through the first two games of Summer League because he’s much improved compared to where he was at last year when the Raptors used the 57th-overall pick to take Chomche out of the NBA Academy and the Basketball Africa League.
He came into Tuesday’s 101-97 win over the Denver Nuggets averaging 9.5 points, 5.0 rebounds, three steals and 1.5 blocks in 21 minutes per game while shooting 54.5 per cent from the floor. More importantly the level of awareness he plays with has increased significantly: he talks on defence, and he screens quickly, assertively and with a plan.
“The angle of the screen is more important because I have to force the player to go over, not under. By forcing him to go over, it gives the point guard a chance to play two against … one,” Chomche explained the other day. “… The point is to get (his teammate) open for a shot whether it’s Immanuel Quickley or Jamal (Shead). I have to make sure I set good screens for them because Jamal is very quick attacking the rim and Quick is very good with shooting. So angle of the screen is very important.”
Chomche’s willingness to learn has earned him the respect of his peers as well.
“That’s my guy. (He’s improved) a lot,” said Jonathan Mogbo. “Catching the ball, getting that little floater touch, rebounding, out-letting, doing a lot of little things, not reaching, getting the steal in transition and finishing it. He’s learned a lot. Age is just a number. With him, we try to treat him as a grown man. He’s taking it bit by bit every day.”
But even the most optimistic projections don’t have Chomche playing productive NBA minutes this coming season, at least not a team with playoff aspirations. The best-case scenario is for Chomche to get steady minutes with Raptors 905 after his season came to a premature end last year when he suffered a minor knee injury that required arthroscopic surgery.
After this G-League season, the Raptors will have a better idea at that point if Chomche is on a path toward being an NBA contributor. He’ll only be 20 years old this time next summer.
He set plenty of solid screens in his third game and showed some of his potential with a pair of putbacks on some offensive rebounds in the first half. He also had a nice finish on an alley-oop in the third quarter.
But he showed his limitations, too: Driving out of the lane before throwing up a wild miss and fumbling a pass in the pick-and-roll early in the third quarter. Every shot outside of three feet is an adventure and his feet and hands aren’t always on the same page. Defensively, his technique on perimeter closeouts needs a lot of work.
But there are flashes, such as the blocked shot he managed out of nowhere on a Nuggets drive late in the fourth quarter that he followed up with an impressive assist in transition that put Toronto up eight with 4:42 to play.
Still, behind Chomche things get even more bleak in terms of the Raptors depth at centre.
Colin Castleton has struggled as a 25-year-old in Summer League, which is a red flag. Even if he was playing better, his ceiling doesn’t project much beyond a third big on a decent NBA roster.
Chomche’s ceiling is at least still TBD at this stage. He finished with seven points, four rebounds and a block in his 18 minutes Tuesday.
What mattered most Tuesday was the Raptors’ use of rabid full-court pressure they’ve established as a standard for themselves. The Raptors shot to the lead in the third quarter with a 19-0 run fuelled by five Nuggets turnovers in the first four minutes of the second half.
It was a hard-fought game that grew chippy at points in the fourth quarter, never more than when Nuggets wing EJ Liddell was ejected after a flagrant foul against Ja’Kobe Walter, who led the Raptors in scoring with 26 points. Things got interesting down the stretch of the fourth quarter as Denver trimmed a 10-point Raptors lead with 1:53 left to a single point with 14 seconds to play before AJ Lawson celebrated his 25th birthday by icing the game with a pair of free throws with four seconds left.
The win improved the Raptors to 3-0 to keep their goals of a Summer League championship alive. They forced the Nuggets into 24 turnovers and are in first place heading into Thursday’s game against the Golden State Warriors by virtue of their tournament-best plus-17 point differential.
What any that will mean when training camp opens is uncertain, but the rest of the Vegas stay should be fun for all involved.
Toronto has at least two more Summer League games to help fast-forward Chomche’s future. Then, the Raptors have a season to play, a playoff spot to push for and will be relying heavily on Poeltl, who is one of the few sure things the Toronto has on its roster.
Last season, Poeltl averaged a career-high 29.6 minutes, hit career highs with 14.5 points and 9.6 rebounds and tied a career-best mark with 2.8 assists. Perhaps the truest test of his value is what happens when he doesn’t play: Toronto is 13-34 over the past two seasons when Poeltl has been out.
A fair question is what Poeltl can expect from those around him. His experience with the Raptors has been full of change, and the hope is that everything old is new again and the group the team has at Summer League includes some ‘Bench Mob 2.0’ vibes. Chomche is one of several young Raptors going into their second year that the team is hoping can help Toronto compete for a playoff spot next season.
“It’s very cool to see. I mean, that’s like the perfect environment for them to kind of flourish there, because they’ve kind of built this chemistry over the last season and got a bunch of playing time on an NBA court, and they’re going out there in the Summer League and can really show that off, it’s really cool to see,” Poeltl said. “It’s like the fruits of your labour paying off in a way. Obviously now you have to do it on an NBA court. It’s a little bit of a different stage, but this is the good opportunity for us to really get the ball rolling, for these young guys to really show off what they got, and for us to see who can really help us make a push here.”
But any push the Raptors make will rely first and foremost on Poeltl, the team’s only legitimate NBA centre, at least for now — even if Chomche is doing his best to bring his own NBA future into view.
