Toronto Raptors: Where does each player rank at their position?
Norman Powell
While Kyle Lowry has proved it all and done it all, Norman Powell still has question marks surrounding his game and that’s okay.
Powell is still only 26 years old and has spent a significant amount of his career on the bench for the Raptors, starting in only 65 games in four years. Last season, despite some shaky moments, was by far Powell’s best season in the NBA, averaging 8.6 points, 2.3 rebounds, and 1.5 assists per game, shooting an effective field-goal percentage of 58-percent – a career-high.
Whereas in the past, Powell had the tendency to look a little lost, and a lot hurried – which caused a displeasing amount of turnovers and ill-fated drives to the rim, this past season was a much calmer, collected, and composed version of Powell. Long gone were Powell electing not to shoot an open three and driving into the woods instead. He had a sense of belief, something that evaded him in 2017-18 or so it seemed.
No one is expecting Powell to be a world-beater this season, however nice it may be. As a starter, though, Powell will need to contribute more unless he splits his time evenly with Fred VanVleet, which seems unlikely at the moment.
Unfortunately for Powell, there are a lot of quality shooting guards in the NBA – namely, the likes of James Harden, Klay Thompson, and Bradley Beal. Even the mid-tier starting shooting guards are talented, and because of that, Powell struggles in the rankings.
His defensive potential makes him a more appetizing option than the likes of Jordan Clarkson, while we’ve seen more of him than the likes of Damyean Dotson and Dwayne Bacon, so Powell probably slots in somewhere between 27-24, but we’ll cut it even and put him at 25.