As the No. 9 pick in the first round in '16, Pearltel from Austria didn't get much chance at his parent team, the Raptors, and he was basically used as a coolie blue-collar worker in the team's first two seasons, and in the '18 swap involving Carl Jr. and DeRozan, he was sent to the Spurs by the Raptors along with DeRozan.
Coming to the Spurs, Poeltl was favored by Bobo and played the masterpiece of his holy city career last season
Coming to the Spurs, Poeltl is also deeply valued by coach Popovich, although his playing time in the first two seasons has not changed much compared to his second year with the Raptors, but since the 20-21 season, Poeltl's role in the team has begun to become more, especially last season he blasted the Spurs career-best 13.5 points, 9.3 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.7 blocks, as a big man with passing ability, Poeltl is indeed a bit of a "civilian version of Jokic".
Sent back to Toronto by the Spurs before the deadline, Poeltl has become the core of the Raptors' interior line
However, for a rebuilding team like the Spurs, they don't seem to want to continue working with Poeltl, whose contract is about to expire, and before the trade deadline, the Spurs sent him back to Toronto, and Poeltl, who put on the Raptors jersey again, did help the parent team's penalty area tremendously. Earlier in the Raptors' 17-point win over the Thunder, Poeltl scored 16 points, 12 rebounds, 4 assists and 1 block in the starting 29 minutes of playing time, although he was not feeling good and shooting only 4 of 11. After winning this victory, the Raptors temporarily ranked ninth in the Eastern Conference with a 34-36 record, and still have hopes of making the playoffs.
Returning to the Raptors Poeltl ushered in a significant improvement, and he is key if the Raptors want to make the playoffs
In the past few seasons, the Raptors have indeed been a big weakness in the box, and Nas sometimes even has to let Siakam play as the No. 5 guest, but this time the return of Poeltl injects a shot in the arm to the team, returning to the Raptors in these 14 games, he averaged 14.8 points, 9.8 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game, compared to the previous Raptors just playing a coolie inside is indeed a big improvement, if the Raptors want to stabilize the playoffs and try to get a playoff ticket, Poeltl is definitely the key.