Dwight Powell is one of those players where their perception among their team’s fans and their supposed impact (as suggested by advanced stats) don’t quite match up. Mavericks fans don’t even like him that much. They don’t hate him, and they appreciate what he does for the team, but they are also very aware of his shortcomings. Meanwhile, advanced stats love this dude, painting him as one of Dallas’ very best players pretty much the whole time he’s been with the team.
Of course, advanced stats love players like Powell, the kind who have an efficient shot profile and put up great per minute numbers. But fans want their players to be not quite as one-dimensional (the dimension in this case being lobs) as Powell, wishing he could be a consistent shooter or something more than a mediocre defender.
I think they’d like him a lot more if Luka Doncic could just figure out how to throw lobs to him more consistently. Doncic is a great passer, so that’s not the problem, and Powell is a great finisher, so that’s not the problem either. Than what’s the problem? Someone needs to find J.J. Barea (he should be found somewhere on the bench) and ask him, because that dude is the best at repeatedly finding Powell for jams. There’s no reason the Doncic-Powell connection shouldn’t be happening 10 or 15 times a game.