We've got bad news ahead of Toronto's last game pre All-Star break as Collin Murray-Boyles is listed as out for tomorrow's game against the Detroit Pistons due to his thumb injury. He made his return from his initial thumb contusion injury on January 28 and featured in six competitions before re-aggravating the injury on Super Bowl Sunday against the Indiana Pacers. He was able to play 8 minutes, registering 2 points and a block before the thumb injury came up yet again.
The Toronto Raptors are up a creek without a paddle with the Jakob Poeltl contract. They need to trade it, and no one wants it, creating a thony problem with no elegant solution. Yet the shifting sands of the NBA are continually opening up opportunities, and if a Giannis Antetokounmpo trade comes to pass, the Raptors may suddenly get their chance.
Coach Darko also announced that the Austrian centre has been cleared for contact, meaning he is ready for practice, and now it's just a matter of getting his conditioning back into game shape. With how cautious Rajakovic has been with dealing with RJ Barrett's return, it's almost a certainty that Poeltl would most likely be on a minutes restriction when we see his return to NBA competition.
So far in 21 games played for the Toronto Raptors at the time of writing, Jakob Poeltl is averaging just 9.7 points, which is his lowest mark since the 2020-21 season, on 69.3 percent shooting. He is also averaging 7.7 rebounds, also his lowest since 2020-21, along with 2.1 assists in 25.3 minutes of action per game. Much like I wrote about Immanuel Quickley before him, there is a lot of uncertainty and arguably more disappointment surrounding the Jakob Poeltl discourse heading into 2026.
Poeltl was only able to feature for seven minutes in the contest and came away with just two points and two rebounds before leaving the game. The Raptors ended up losing the game 96 to 81. Poeltl will miss his tenth game of the season tomorrow, as he's played and started in all 21 games that he was available for.
The Toronto Raptors could potentially be facing the Milwaukee Bucks without their starting center Jakob Poeltl tonight, as the big man continues to face injury issues. Poeltl has been hampered with a back injury since before the season began and Toronto's staff has been doing their best to manage this injury and have even sidelined Poeltl as a result of this injury management. Poeltl has missed 7 games this year due to this back injury, and you can clearly see that it has impacted his movement and his play this year.
