The Raptors commentators were making some veiled (okay, not-so-veiled) references to Norman Powell’s scoring woes so far this season, so I decided to check out the trusty basketball-reference (without the services of which I would just be guessing at stats) to see exactly how Powell has been performing this season. Let nobody say that DownToBuck isn’t a fact-based enterprise. It often is, and it definitely is going to be right now once I drop these indisputable factual facts on your heads.
8-of-26 from the field and 3-of-16 from the three-point line through four games is not great. In fact, it sucks. This is Powell’s fifth season, and, if his MPG per game are anything to go by, he’s finally being given a larger role, but with a larger role comes a larger responsibility to not suck. Raptors fans will always be able to comfort themselves with thoughts of championship trophies and championship champagne baths and championship parades where people get shot, so Powell’s suckage probably wasn’t a huge concern for them, and now it’s not a concern at all because he just went 7-of-10 from the field, hit three of his five triple tries, crossed some fools up, and contributed significantly to this win over the Pistons. That’s like rookie year Powell numbers.
Honestly, I would prefer it if he just continued sucking forever. The memory of the Bucks trading him and a first-round pick (that became OG Anunoby) for that bum Greivis Vasquez just makes me want to take a nap in a human-sized microwave set on high power for three hours. I hate Greivis Vasquez. If Powell turned out to suck as much as Vasquez did, then the trade becomes the Bucks just giving the Raptors a pick for free.
Wait, that’s still horrible. I’m going to go check if Amazon sells any microwaves that can contain me.