https://youtu.be/O9l7zJJumpY
If Norman Powell doesn’t watch out, he’s going to find himself evicted from DownToBuck’s vaunted Hall of Scrubs onto the cold, unforgiving streets of general NBA highlightdom, where the view counts may be bigger but camaraderie and warmth are absent. It’s not a decision I take lightly, the banishment of a longtime channel fixture, but it’s one I sometimes I have to make. Nikola Jokic was great, and I loved following his career, but now look at him: MVP candidate, and I probably held on to him for a year too long.
Powell maybe doesn’t have the same kind of MVP potential as some of the people I’ve kicked out (another example: Harrison Barnes), but the stats don’t lie; he’s just averaging way too many points right now. After this performance, he’s up to almost 18 PPG per game, and if you take out his slow start (where the coaches didn’t realize that he was a total beast and were busy trying to marginalize him in favor of, like, Matt Thomas [which I am actually in favor of, Wisconsin pride worldwide HECK YEAH]), it gets even better. He’s scored in double figures every game for over a month now. Mid-to-high 20-burgers are commonplace. He might be flying under the radar a bit still, I’m going to blame the fact that he’s playing in Toronto (fine, Tampa, not much difference) for that, but I simply cannot ignore the raw pointage he’s displaying night-in, night-out.
One large benefit of excising Powell from my channel is that then I don’t have to think about his existence NEARLY as often. I won’t bore you by repeating all the reasons why Powell torments my dreams, or all the reasons why Powell hates the Bucks, but it would significantly lessen the stress I experience while looking at boxscores if I didn’t even have to ponder what he was up to on any given night. I might glance over his name, but I think I could avoid it triggering barely-repressed memories of the abuse I suffered at the hands of Greivis Vasquez.
I have not made a final determination, but if he scores 32 again and I don’t end up making a video for it, you’ll know the reason. But if I’m taking him off, that means I get to add someone back into the fold. That would be exciting. I’ve been kind of missing Harrison Barnes…