Fantasy Basketball Draft Guide 2025: Face-off, Mark Williams vs. Jakob Poeltl

Last Updated on October 18, 2025 7:32 pm by Keston Paul | Published: October 18, 2025

Our Fantasy Face-Off series will feature two SportsEthos staffers making their arguments in a head-to-head battle of comparable fantasy players.

This year the middle rounds feature a big group of centers that are flying off the board all in a relative row. You have safer names like Ivica Zubac, Jarrett Allen and Deandre Ayton in that mix but there are two who stand out — Toronto’s Jakob Poeltl and Phoenix’s Mark Williams. Today it’s Mike Passador representing Williams and Pedro Oliveira taking up the battle for Poeltl.

Last Season

Mark Williams

C, Phoenix Suns

Season	Team	GP	GS	MPG	FGM	FGA	FG%	FTM	FTA	FT%	3PTM	3PTA	3PT%	PTS	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO
24-25	CHA	44	41	26.6	6.1	10.2	60.4	3.0	3.7	80.4	0.0	0.1	0.0	15.3	10.2	2.5	0.7	1.2	1.6
23-24	CHA	19	19	26.7	5.2	7.9	64.9	2.4	3.4	71.9	0.0	0.0	0.0	12.7	9.7	1.2	0.8	1.1	0.9

Jakob Poeltl

C, Toronto Raptors

Season	Team	GP	GS	MPG	FGM	FGA	FG%	FTM	FTA	FT%	3PTM	3PTA	3PT%	PTS	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO
24-25	TOR	57	56	29.6	6.4	10.2	62.7	1.7	2.5	67.4	0.0	0.1	33.3	14.5	9.6	2.8	1.2	1.2	1.9
23-24	TOR	50	50	26.4	5.0	7.6	65.6	1.2	2.1	55.1	0.0	0.0	0.0	11.1	8.6	2.5	0.7	1.5	1.5

Mark Williams tied his career-high in games played in his third NBA season, but unfortunately that meant he was still only active 44 times. He missed the first 20 games of the season with a foot problem but started to roll in January, racking up double-doubles with steady output in blocks. Williams’ season was disrupted by a trade to the Lakers that was rescinded due to a failed physical, though he returned to the Hornets and put up some good lines in awkward circumstances. Despite the medical concerns Williams only missed nine of Charlotte’s final 30 contests after rejoining the team, with five of those coming in back-to-backs and one more in the season finale for a tanking team. He posted career-highs in points, rebounds, assists, blocks and FT% to deliver a 56/40 finish in 8/9-cat leagues.

Jakob Poeltl turned in a career year in 2024-25, thriving in an expanded role for a Raptors team that needed everything he brought to the table. While his importance to the defense as Toronto’s only credible rim protector was well-known, injuries to the team’s top players pushed the big man into more work on offense and he responded with more than his fair share of quality scoring efforts. With the squad missing some primary ball-handlers, Poeltl also chipped in nine games of five-plus assists. He was an early-round value up to the All-Star break and was playing so well that he got semi-shut down thereafter, missing games regularly as part of the Raptors’ tank efforts. Poeltl’s extra offense was more than enough to outweigh dips in FG% and blocks, and a career-high in FT% didn’t hurt the cause either. He ended up ranking 51/43 in 8/9-cat leagues.