Jakob Poeltl on the differences between the Spurs and Raptors' playstyle

Raptors centre Jakob Poeltl explains how the Raptors and Spurs are different in their schemes on offence and defence.

Video Transcript

- You're the new guy. I mean, who knows what-- nothing else to ask the other guys.

- Tomorrow night we'll be talking to you again.

- You got-- so this will be two practices. Like, are these-- how important are these right now for you in terms of picking things up and getting to a spot where you can be as comfortable as you are in this defense as you were in maybe Pop's?

JAKOB POETL: I mean, they help, for sure. I think especially just running through these plays and stuff like that. We're not really having live practices. So the defensive schemes, that's more like a mental thing for me to get used to.

And I think, yeah, running through it in practice only does so much. It's about doing it game speed in the game and being able to react in time, getting used to or almost making it a habit where if I have to react in a split second, I'll do the right thing. Mm-hmm?

- Did you find, one game to the next, it was a big jump in terms of what you knew and how comfortable you were?

JAKOB POETL: For sure. It was like night and day.

- Yeah.

JAKOB POETL: First day was kind of like-- I don't know. You're getting thrown into the deep end. You're just kind of trying to make it work. Obviously, I knew about the schemes. I knew about the plays. But I didn't really have it down yet. Like I said, it's about getting into a habit of doing things. So that was tough the first game. I think it was a lot better already in the second game.

- What's the biggest change mentally you have to make from what you were doing in Pop's scheme to what you do here?

JAKOB POETL: Oh, it's tough. There's a couple of things. On defense, obviously I spoke about this before, kind of going from a sit back, passive type defense, being very careful, not giving up fouls, to a very aggressive style defense, trying to force turnovers, maybe making a couple less solid plays but by trying to be aggressive and forcing the opponents to make mistakes.

And then on offense, I feel like I'm just in a little bit of a different role. In San Antonio, I had the ball in my hands a lot. I was trying to create for other guys. So far here, I'm just in a lot of pick-and-roll situations. Obviously we have really talented one-on-one scorers, MP, Fred, all those guys. So yeah, I'm just trying to play more of a supportive role on offense, I guess.

- How do you work on that defensive change and being aggressiveness in practice and moving your play on the front line and all those things? How do you practice that stuff?

JAKOB POETL: I mean, there's really not that much to practice. You just do it over and over again in reps like that. And I think at the end of the day, everybody, every player out there has their own individual defensive identity. So I'm going to apply my own identity to this scheme. But I'm going to just adjust my personal style to this more aggressive way.

I can only do what I'm capable of doing. You know what I mean? Just like everybody else who's out there-- so, yeah, it's just about these small, little adjustments in mindset almost.

- How have you noticed that you and Precious can coordinate defensively and [INAUDIBLE]?

JAKOB POETL: I mean, the great thing about Precious is that he can guard multiple positions out there. You can put him on a big. You can put him on smalls. In these lineups where we were playing together yesterday, he was guarding. Yeah, arguably the best shooter for most of the times. So I think that's good.

And then you get into situations where can switch. And I'm not worried about him switching onto a big. I feel like I can guard most smalls out there or at least make it difficult on them. So yeah, that's definitely-- it's very good for us.

- Is it going to change again when OG comes back? I mean, you're learning all this without him right now. And then he comes back, and obviously he's a big part of what this team does defensively.

JAKOB POETL: For sure. I mean, I haven't seen it. I don't know I don't know if the whole thing changes when OG comes back. I feel like he's just going to kind of slot in. But yeah, I can't speak on it until he comes back playing.