Portland Trail Blazers’ reported interested in Jakob Poeltl is a huge mistake

The Portland Trail Blazers are one of two surprise teams entering the Jakob Poeltl sweepstakes ahead of the NBA’s Feb. 9 trade deadline, according to SpursTalk.

The other reported franchise – the New Orleans Pelicans – are in a similar boat as Portland with an established center in Jonas Valanciunas already on the roster (the Blazers have Jusuf Nurkic). But if the rumors are true, apparently both front offices see Poeltl as an upgrade.

New Orleans has a load of future draft picks, a roster full of young talent, and a chance at winning the Western Conference. The Blazers can’t claim any of those three things. So while the Pels could take a flier on the six-year veteran, Portland would be offloading assets it doesn’t necessarily have for a player it doesn’t necessarily need.

It would be a massive mistake for the Portland Trail Blazers to trade for Jakob Poeltl

On the surface, acquiring one of the NBA’s better centers seems like an intelligent move. Poeltl is averaging close to a double-double this year at 12.2 points and 9.3 rebounds per game. He’s more mobile than Nurkic, which makes him a better fit with this Portland roster, both offensively and defensively.

The Blazers also have a serious need for size and the 7-foot-1 Austrian would literally fill that void.

But the price is too high for Portland to be in on Poeltl, both in the short and long term.

SpursTalk reports the latest offer for the big man comes from the Boston Celtics, who would be willing to lift any protections on their 2028 first-round pick that already belongs to San Antonio.

The reported asking price coming out of Spurs camp at the beginning of the season was two first rounders. In a vacuum, a couple of future firsts to upgrade from Nurkic to Poeltl seems reasonable. But the issue comes in the form of the 27-year-old’s impending free agency.

Poeltl will be an unrestricted free agent at the conclusion of this season. Any team that gives up a first-round pick, or more, would be under pressure to re-sign him. After all, why give up future assets like that for a half-season rental?

The move would be even more confounding for Portland as Poeltl wouldn’t be a significant enough upgrade to move the Blazers higher than the bottom few playoff seeds in the west, if that.

Adding to the confusing interest is the fact that Jerami Grant is also an unrestricted free agent after this year. Portland already has $70 million tied up between Damian Lillard and Anfernee Simons on next year’s cap sheet.

Surely Portland would rather spend to bring back Grant. If the franchise shelled out to extend Poeltl as well, the Blazers would be filling in the gaps between those four players with role players on cheap deals, and that quartet isn’t sending them to the top of the west.

(This is all assuming general manager Joe Cronin finds another home for Nurkic, who is owed more than $16 million next year).

It all adds up to making any links between the Blazers and Poeltl utterly baffling. If they do indeed pull a trigger on this type of move, it would create more questions than answers in Portland.