Jakob Poeltl spent much of the first 2 months of the season glued to the pine at the end of Dwane Casey’s rotation. Lucas (Bebe) Nogueira was Casey’s preferred backup centre and Nogueira performed well in fulfilling that role early on. Jakob sat and watched as the season went on. He went down to the D-League when asked to and put in work. He then returned and sat on that same pine bench.
He watched the way Dwane Casey sat Jonas Valanciunas during the 4th quarters of most games for not playing defence. He watched Bebe substitute in and solely focus on his defence.