The Toronto Raptors entered this season expecting Jakob Poeltl to continue to be reliable as their starting center.
Instead, he's been injured and ineffective, forcing the Raptors into a lot of small-ball lineups.
There's speculation that the Raptors could try to solve that at the trade deadline, but there aren't a lot of major targets. It'd be more of a subtle move just to patch up the problem.
They've got a chance to then take a longer-term look at it in the offseason and potentially in the 2026 NBA Draft.
If the draft was today, the Raptors would have the 17th pick.
ESPN's Jeremy Woo released a new mock draft, and in it, he has the Raptors using that selection to take 6-foot-11 Duke big man Patrick Ngongba II.
"Though his past month has been a mixed bag, Ngongba has helped himself this season, standing out as a long-term bet on instincts and playmaking at his size in what has become a thin class of centers," Woo writes. "Ngongba's plus passing enables Duke to play through him and gives him some feasible perimeter functionality if he can develop a reliable jumper. Though his conditioning has improved, his lack of vertical lift around the basket as a finisher has been a point of concern. He is well-rounded enough to become an eventual NBA contributor, but that requires optimistic projection from a physical standpoint."
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There is a ton of talent at the high end of the 2026 draft class, but by the time you're outside the lottery, it does get a bit thinner.
Ngongba couldn't necessarily be counted upon as the entire center solution, at least immediately. But it'd be a start.
Toronto has enough skill that if it can nail down its interior future, it can continue to compete in the Eastern Conference.
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