With one move, the Raptors have done an organizational 180. Whether that was a wise choice remains to be seen

The NBA centre has been cast as an endangered species more than once over the years. Depending on the season-to-season wax and wane of big-bodied dominance in the NBA lane, there’ve been plenty of moments when the impending death of the traditional pivot has been prophesied.

In a game that’s been dominated by dynamic wing players, in a sport taken over by the three-pointer at the expense of the low post, certainly it’s easy enough to imagine a world where the relatively lumbering seven-footer is no longer a dominant force.

And if you’re a fan of the Raptors, you’ve spent the bulk of the last couple of seasons watching a franchise attempting to convince itself that it certainly wasn’t a force worth the required investment, at least since the departures of championship centre tandem Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka in 2020. In the wake of the double swing-and-miss that was Aron Baynes and Alex Len — the centres who signed with the Raptors ahead of the doomed season that ended in the Tampa tank — the Raptors tried a different tack. Fielding a lineup heavy on 6-foot-9-ish wings, bereft of a true starting centre, the Raptors made a bet that they could somehow fill that gaping hole in the middle with some committee-produced amalgam of length and athleticism and skill and hustle.

On some nights, maybe they could convince themselves the bet was paying off. Certainly the notion that the Raptors were pioneering some new wave of a largely position-less game was appealing enough, especially with Masai Ujiri loudly scoffing at the idea of bowing to convention.

“We are going to create our own direction,” Ujiri explained a couple of years back. “We don’t have to go with the wave of what the NBA is doing, we are such a copycat league.”

Not that there’s anything wrong with innovation. If the Raptors had taken the same approach with a little more depth on the bench, with a little more shooting on the perimeter, with a little more play-making star power at the core, who’s to say they couldn’t have done some damage without a centre? Let’s not forget the Raptors won 48 games last season, and even gave the Sixers a brief scare in the post-season’s opening round, without anyone resembling a traditional big in their midst.

Still, there’s a reason the Raptors ditched the centre-less philosophy at last week’s trade deadline by re-patriating seven-footer Jakob Poeltl to the franchise that drafted him ninth overall back in 2016. Despite the occasional rumour of their imminent demise, seven footers with know-how and heft and skill remain a valuable commodity in the NBA.

Indeed, there’s a reason why Nikola Jokic, the centre for the Denver Nuggets, is currently favoured to become the first player since Larry Bird to win three straight most valuable player awards. And there’s a reason why, in voting for Jokic’s previous two MVPs, the runner-up was Joel Embiid, the centre for the 76ers. An NBA centre that wraps the virtuoso skillset of Jokic and Embiid into an uncommonly hulking package is a rare prize, to be sure. And perhaps the rarity speaks to the reason the Raptors hadn’t employed even the palest of imitations until they acquired Poeltl.

Now, nobody’s pretending Poeltl should be mentioned in the same conversation as Jokic or Embiid. But he does play the same position. And he’s already demonstrated, in three games as a reborn Raptor, that there’s a lot to be said for team management finally getting around to filling a gaping chasm in the roster. Certainly Poeltl’s uber-efficient production in Tuesday’s win over the Magic, in which he reeled off 30 points on 15-for-17 shooting while adding nine rebounds and six blocked shots, suggested he’s stepped into a ready-made role that’s been waiting too long for a competent occupant. As a setter of screens who can pop open for a mid-range jumper or roll to the hoop with a soft touch, as a physical presence who can rebound and protect the rim — the evidence is slim and anecdotal, and its repeatability will be tested in the 23 games that’ll unfold after this weekend’s all-star break, but it’s not exactly difficult to imagine the Raptors looking like a more formidable team featuring an actual centre than they did trying to go without one.

“I think that was the goal of the trade. I can fill that true centre position,” Poeltl said after Tuesday’s win over the Orlando Magic. “I just feel like I’ve been just getting more comfortable with every game out there.”

Now, whether or not it made sense to bet on this particular iteration of the Raptors with the Poeltl trade is another matter, entirely. Tossing away a top-six-protected first-round draft pick in 2024 and a couple of second rounders, not to mention Khem Birch, to acquire an impending free agent — it reads more like a panic move for instant gratification than a masterstroke in long-term team building.

Exactly where the Raptors can go in the final 23 games is anyone’s guess. But if they make their predictable rise in the standings they’ll be simultaneously hurting their 2023 draft position in exchange for a sniff at the play-in tournament, or maybe a modest playoff seed. Two years ago Ujiri scoffed at such a futile pursuit by coining a trademark phrase, “Play-in for what?” Now, apparently, the mood has shifted: “The play-in’s for us.” The play-in’s for us, and so is a traditional centre. Whether it was wise to make a run at the former by paying dearly to acquire the latter — at least the Raptors have yet again created their own direction. Wherever it is they’re headed, it’s in the screeching wake of a late-season organizational 180.

Dave Feschuk is a Toronto-based sports columnist for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @dfeschuk