Jakob Poeltl is very, very close to returning. This is a phrase we hear often in professional sports, much like when my uncle says he is very, very close to finishing the deck he started in 2012. There have been no setbacks, which is nice, but he is currently focusing on his game conditioning.
It is a strange thing to be a human being whose primary job is to be in game shape. Most of us are just in grocery store shape or walking the dog shape. While Jakob prepares his cardiovascular system for the rigors of the low post, Collin Murray Boyles has been thriving in his absence.
The Geography of the Dunker Spot
The real problem, if you want to call it that, is that both Poeltl and Murray Boyles love the dunker spot. They also both love being the roll man in a pick and roll. It is like having two people in a house who both really want to sit in the same beanbag chair.
You can try to put them on the floor together, but the space under the basket only has so much square footage. Someone eventually has to stand somewhere else, and standing elsewhere is not always what people are good at. Regardless, Murray Boyles has earned his minutes, so we will just have to watch them figure out the logistics of shared space.
Health and Other Miracles
Immanuel Quickley is also dealing with an ankle situation. He is going through pre game routines to decide if he can play against the Indiana Pacers. Ankles are delicate things, mostly just a collection of sticks and rubber bands held together by socks.
Some people on the internet believe the Raptors can win it all this year. They say miracles come true, which is a bold thing to say in a world where it rained for three days straight last week for no reason. I suppose if you believe in miracles, a basketball championship is as good a thing as any to apply that to.
Game Night in Indiana
We have a game thread for the Pacers tonight. Indiana is a place where they grow a lot of corn and take basketball very seriously, similar to how people in Scarborough take the quality of a beef patty. It will be a game of basketball, which is the sport we all decided to care about for some reason.
We will see if Quickley plays or if we continue to experiment with the geometry of our frontcourt. Basketball is mostly just tall people trying to solve math problems while running. Sometimes they solve them, and sometimes they just turn the ball over. We'll see which one happens more tonight.