Expansion draft gives Raptors escape hatch to cut ties with tough contract

If the NBA does indeed have an expansion draft in a few years, the existing teams will feel all different types of ways about it.

Some will be annoyed that they have too many good players and that some talented guys have to be left unprotected.

Others will likely not mind, figuring they've got their core and not much else beyond it.

And then there are the Toronto Raptors. They've got a very logical player who has talent but isn't on a good contract, Jakob Poeltl.

The expansion draft could present the perfect opportunity to move on from a guy like Poeltl.

If the Raptors protect the right guys, Poeltl might be by far the best choice to be picked by one of the expansion teams, trending toward being Seattle and Las Vegas.

That would remove an issue from the Toronto books.

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The Sporting News' Stephen Noh writes in a new mock expansion draft that Poeltl could join in Seattle with Anthony Davis, who in his scenario is unprotected by the Wizards.

"Poeltl is currently on one of the worst deals in the NBA," Noh writes. "He's not a bad player at all, and he has held the Raptors together with his defense and screening. But he's massively overpaid, and he's dealt with back problems that have kept him out of a lot of games. He'd be good insurance for the games that Davis misses."

When the Raptors signed Poeltl, it seemed like a deal that would age better, but it simply hasn't.

If he remains a contributor over the stretch between now and a potential expansion draft, though, he'll be worth picking for one of the new teams, and that could help Toronto, too.

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