Rookie Jakob Poeltl is the first Austrian drafted into the NBA and for the most part has been a quiet presence on the end of the Raptors bench. The minutes dried up after that, but Poeltl continued to learn whether watching from the end of the bench, in practice, playing with the D-League Raptors 905. For most of that period Lucas Nogueira was eating up most of those backup centre minutes and doing a solid job. “He’s always in the right place, very few mistakes, he’s very physical, he’s not afraid, he loves contact,” Casey said. But down the road, and not too far down the road, it’s not hard to imagine Poeltl getting that introduction as the Raptors’ starting centre.

Source: National Post March 20, 2017 22:30 UTC