PORTLAND, OREGON - NOVEMBER 15: Jakob Poeltl #25 of the San Antonio Spurs puts up a shot against Jusuf Nurkic #27 of the Portland Trail Blazers during the fourth quarter at the Moda Center on November 15, 2022 in Portland, Oregon. The Portland Trail Blazers won 117-110. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement.
At first, the Austrian giant was buried on San Antonio’s depth chart behind longtime All-Stars LaMarcus Aldridge and Pau Gasol. And so Poeltl fixated on their minute actions while riding Gregg Popovich’s bench. In practice, sparring sessions with the pair of post-playing savants offered Poeltl glimpse after glimpse at tricks of the trade. A shoulder bump here, a quick succession of footwork there.
“I’ve never been in this situation where unrestricted free agency is coming up. It’s a cool situation for sure, because in the NBA, a lot of times you are — I don’t want to say stuck — but it feels like you’re a little bit of a pawn. They can just trade you around wherever they want,” Poeltl told Yahoo Sports. “It’s not the mentality you should have while you’re playing, but it’s the reality of it. Your contract can get passed around, more or less, whenever and however they want.
There are no ongoing contract extension conversations between the Bulls and Nikola Vucevic, sources told Yahoo Sports. Chicago never truly had significant negotiations to restructure their starting center's deal. Whether that points to greater trade activity with the Bulls, of course, remains to be seen. Chicago officials have told inquiring teams they believe they can make the playoffs when healthy.
New York appeared eager to find a deal before Dec. 9, sources told Yahoo Sports, the two-month deadline for teams to acquire a player via trade and still be able to aggregate that player’s salary into a future deal before the trade buzzer sounds in February. Eric Gordon was one of the early targets for New York, sources said, although clearly no deal came to fruition.