The Exchange
Toronto's official release and the NBA trade tracker confirm the February 9, 2023 package: Jakob Poeltl to the Raptors for Khem Birch, Toronto's 2023 second-round pick, its 2025 second-round pick and a protected 2024 first. The first was protected 1-6 and conveyed in 2024 when Toronto landed at No. 8. Basketball-Reference maps the two seconds to No. 44 in 2023 and No. 37 in 2025, but those pick labels should not be confused with players who necessarily stayed with San Antonio. The transaction has to be graded through the actual asset chain.
Toronto Return
Poeltl immediately returned to a starting-center role and gave Toronto the interior size and screening the roster had lacked. The Raptors re-signed him in July 2023, so the return was not a short rental. His value is real and multi-year: Toronto acquired a proven center who already understood the organization and remained part of the core beyond the trade-deadline season. The cost became much steeper once the protected first conveyed at No. 8. Toronto did not surrender an abstract future first; it surrendered a top-ten selection after a 25-win 2023-24 season.
San Antonio Return
The 2023 second became No. 44, which San Antonio used on Sidy Cissoko. The 2024 first became No. 8. The Spurs selected Rob Dillingham and immediately traded his rights to Minnesota for an unprotected 2031 first-round pick and a 2030 first-round swap protected only for the No. 1 pick. That draft-night conversion is the most important downstream result because it turns the original Toronto first into two pieces of distant first-round equity. The 2025 Toronto second later became No. 37, but San Antonio had already routed that pick to Dallas in the 2023 Grant Williams transaction; Detroit eventually selected Chaz Lanier after another trade. That later player should not be counted as Spurs value from the Poeltl deal.
Final Verdict
San Antonio receives an A- because it turned a veteran center into a top-eight first, two seconds and additional future first-round leverage through the Dillingham draft-night trade. Toronto receives a C+ because Poeltl has provided legitimate multi-year starter value, but the No. 8 pick was a high price for a team that did not become a contender after the acquisition. The final verdict is San Antonio Spurs Win. The grade recognizes that the 2030 and 2031 assets remain future value as of 2026 and therefore stops short of treating them as already realized star production.