Toronto Raptors’ biggest mistake in 2025 NBA free agency

Make no mistake about it, Jakob Poeltl is a very good player and his presence was keeping the Raptors competitive last season. He averaged 14.5 points, 9.6 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 1.2 steals and 1.2 blocks — stuffing the stat sheet and being one of the most consistent starting centers in the association.

Poeltl was very good to the point where the Raptors had to sit him out of games entirely or reduce his minutes so he wouldn’t inadvertently allow the team to win more ballgames that intended. Alas, that did not mean that the Raptors had to pull the trigger on a contract extension when they did.

Poeltl still had two years left on the four-year, $78 million contract that kicked in at the start of the 2023-24 season, although he did have a player option for the 2026-27 campaign. Perhaps the Raptors were a bit paranoid that he would leave for nothing should he be given the chance to hit free agency in 2026, which is why they agreed to a four-year, $104 million extension, with Poeltl accepting his player option worth $19.5 million for next season.

This means that Poeltl, in addition to the two years left on his deal, tacked on three more years on his contract, and in those three years, he’ll be making a total of around $84 million. That contract will take him to his age-34 season, which should concern Raptors fans.

This is not to say that Poeltl is not worth the kind of extension he signed. In fact, this is the going rate for centers of his caliber these days. That value is around the same amount of money that the likes of Isaiah Hartenstein, Nicolas Claxton, Naz Reid, and Myles Turner are making.

However, it has to be said that those four players made that kind of money after they hit free agency. This means that the teams signing them had to go above and beyond just to get them to sign on the dotted line due to the competition that could have snagged them away.

Alas, there was no such problem when it came to the Raptors with Poeltl. All the Raptors did in signing Poeltl to that kind of contract was bid against themselves and hamstring themselves even further in terms of cap flexibility.

The Raptors’ cap sheet is already clogged as it is; Ingram, Scottie Barnes, and Immanuel Quickley are under contract for the next few seasons at huge dollar amounts, RJ Barrett has two years left on his deal making nearly $30 million, and now, Poeltl and his huge contract will be on the books until the start of the new decade.

It’s a bit of a problem that the Raptors are paying top dollar for a team that isn’t a no-brainer contender in the Eastern Conference, the league’s weaker side. And Poeltl further complicates the Raptors’ predicament with a huge contract that is disregarding a potential decline over the next few seasons.

Of course, the cap is rising every year, so Poeltl’s contract will not be taking as big of a percentage of the team’s cap space as the years progress on his contract. But this was absolutely not a deal that the Raptors should have already made. They could have afforded to wait; instead, they have to hope that Poeltl doesn’t decline within the duration of the contract so they can at least trade him away should things not work out in their favor in terms of their contending hopes.