From Austria, to the United States. From Utah to Canada. Thursday night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY., former Runnin’ Ute Jakob Poeltl was drafted ninth overall by the Toronto Raptors in the 2016 NBA Draft. He joins his former teammate at Utah, Delon Wright, who was drafted 20th overall by the Raptors in the 2015 Draft.
The high draft number comes as no surprise as the center could have entered the Draft last season, but elected to stay in college for another year. However, by playing two years in Pac-12, he thinks this better suited him for what to expect at the professional level.
“Playing the past two years at Utah was an unbelievable experience,” Poeltl said in an interview on ESPN. “Not a lot of guys coming over from Europe get the chance to learn the American-style of play.”
Poeltl is now the first Austrian to enter the NBA, and earlier this year he said he hopes to represent his native land well. He hopes his play inspires more kids in Austria to play the game.
As a sophomore, Poeltl was named the Pac-12 Player of the Year, averaging 17.2 points and 9.1 rebounds, often carrying the Utes to victory. He had a somewhat disappointing last game in the Round of 32 in the NCAA Tournament, however. Gonzaga’s center Domantas Sabonis got the better of him as the Zags outplayed the Utes, beating Utah 82-59. Sabonis finished with a double-double, 19 points and 10 rebounds, whereas Poeltl struggled to meet half of that, finishing with only five points and four rebounds.
Although his NCAA Tournament numbers weren’t ideal, he played well for the majority of the season. In the Pac-12 Tournament in the semi-finals against Cal, he had 29 points and 11 rebounds. Poeltl was also given the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award, which is presented to the nation’s best center in college basketball.
The Utes have now had former players drafted into the NBA two years in a row.
In the 2015-16 season, Wright saw some time on the court coming off the bench for the Raptors, and averaged 8.5 minutes per game.
Prior to this, the Runnin’ Utes had gone 10 years without having a player drafted. The last player to be drafted before Wright was Andrew Bogut, who was drafted as the first overall pick by the Milwaukee Bucks in 2005.
Bogut now plays for the Golden State Warriors and averaged 5.4 points and 7.0 rebounds this past season. His season ended on a low note, however, as he suffered a left knee sprain in Game 5 of the NBA Finals. He was sidelined for the remainder of the series as the Warriors went on to lose to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Other notable former Utes who have played in the NBA include Keith Van Horn, drafted second in 1997 by the Philadelphia 76ers, Michael Doleac, drafted 12th in 1998 by the Orlando Magic, and Andre Miller, drafted eighth in 1999 by the Cavs. Miller has bounced around from team to team since then and is currently on the Spurs roster.
Only time will tell as to how Poeltl will pan out as an NBA player, but he’ll make certain to put in the time and work, just as he did in between his freshman and sophomore seasons at Utah.
Last summer, the Austrian worked to improve his free throw percentage. He put on about 20 more pounds to have a more dominant physical presence in the paint. From his first year to his second, his free throw shooting improved from 44.4 percent to 68.9 percent, and he averaged 8.1 more points per game.
Next up, Poeltl should be participating in the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas in early July.
@kbrenneisen