Jakob Poeltl Secures His Future with the Raptors: Million-Dollar Extension
Toronto Raptors center Jakob Poeltl has reached an agreement to extend his contract with the franchise for four years and $104 million, ensuring his stay until the 2029-30 season.
Poeltl will exercise his player option for the 2026-27 season, valued at $19.5 million, and will add three additional years to his current contract.
Negotiations between the Raptors and Poeltl’s representatives, Michael Tellem and Sam Goldfeder of Excel Sports, considered various contractual structures, including the option of extending the contract. Ultimately, an extension was chosen that gives the team flexibility in the next two seasons.
In the past season, Poeltl averaged career-highs in minutes played (29.6), points (14.5), and rebounds (9.6), with an impressive 63% field goal percentage, ranking in the top 5 in the NBA among qualified players. He is one of three players in the league who has maintained a field goal percentage above 60% over the last eight seasons, alongside Rudy Gobert of Minnesota and DeAndre Jordan of Denver.
In his five seasons with the Raptors, Poeltl has recorded a 64% field goal percentage, the best percentage in franchise history for players with more than 500 field goal attempts. In addition, he ranked among the top 10 in field goal percentage on floaters (minimum 100 attempts) and on field goals on layups/dunks (minimum 300 attempts) last season, according to GeniusIQ. He also excelled in assists after screens per game and points per game generated by assists after screens.
At 29 years old, the center has achieved four games with 30 or more points in his career, two of them in the recent season.
Poeltl, selected by Toronto in the ninth position of the 2016 NBA draft, also played more than four seasons with San Antonio, where he averaged 8.8 points, 7.3 rebounds and 2.1 assists in 326 games with the Spurs. The Raptors reacquired the center from San Antonio in a trade in February 2023.
Additionally, Toronto has signed power forward/center Sandro Mamukelashvili to a two-year, $5.5 million contract, with a player option for the second year.
