Ex-Raptors wing opens up during podcast about his emotional trade from the city

You gotta hand it to Norman Powell.

The man is 31 years old and in his ninth NBA season, which is far from the time when players of his caliber and age range tend to break out. But alas, the former Toronto Raptors standout has stood the test of time and emerged as one of the best, if not the absolute best, player on the Los Angeles Clippers roster this year.

On the season, Powell is putting up a career-best 24.2 points per game, shooting an efficient 49.6% from the field and 42.8% from three, along with 3.6 rebounds and 2.2 assists. He had a strong case to make the 2025 All-Star Game, in all honesty, but a competitive Western Conference landscape saw him snubbed from the festivities, while his castmate James Harden ultimately got the nod.

But before NBA fans were treated to this Most Improved Player-worthy campaign from Powell, his last on-court stretch that showed this much promise was definitely during the 2020-21 pandemic Raptors season, in which they temporarily played their home games in Tampa.

The Toronto Raptors experienced a significant fall from grace that year, as their roster was severely depleted due to injuries and COVID protocols. Powell was right there to carry much of the load during that tumultuous time.

It looked like Powell was just about ready to become a game-changer in the Raptors' plans, evolving from a quality role player into someone the team could trust to be a serious offensive threat on a nightly basis. He was averaging nearly 20 points a game and shooting the lights out, but the Raptors ultimately decided at the 2021 trade deadline to go younger by trading the blossoming Powell to Portland in exchange for fellow sharpshooting wing Gary Trent Jr.

Seeing as Powell was due for a new contract in the offseason and the Raptors seemed set on a rebuilding direction, the deal for Gary Trent Jr. at the time looked like a good move. However, their GTJ experiment didn't yield the most desirable results. Which begs the question: did the Toronto Raptors let a star slip away in letting go of Norman Powell so soon?

Powell discussed the sudden trade in a recent appearance on The Young Man and The Three podcast, which is referenced in the X post below:

Norman Powell on his trade from Toronto to Portland

Powell clearly had a strong connection to Toronto and did not want to leave. Instead, it was the team that made a critical judgment call, and while you can't really blame them for doing it, it does look foolish in hindsight. No one could have foreseen the outcomes in Powell's and Trent Jr.'s careers.

Powell mentioned on the podcast that there was a belief he would ask for a high salary extension. However, he clearly stated that the Raptors could have simply paid him what they gave Trent Jr.—3 years, $54 million in the 2021 offseason—and he would have accepted it. Instead, Powell signed a 5-year, $90 million extension with the Portland Trail Blazers, but he wouldn't stay long in Rip City, eventually ending up with the Clippers shortly thereafter.

I personally don't think Powell is just saying this for no reason. He was always a guy I saw with die-hard loyalty to the franchise, and I believe he really could have been on pace to carry much of the offense alongside Pascal Siakam and company at that time.

Now, the big question in terms of NBA butterfly effects is this: if Powell had stayed, would the Raptors have lost enough games to still warrant their 4th overall selection in the 2021 NBA Draft, ultimately allowing them to add their star of the future in Scottie Barnes?

Sometimes it's sad to look back at what could've been, but you also need to recognize that every business move was made for a reason and is largely responsible for the present version you see now. We could be living in a very different Toronto Raptors era if Norman Powell had, in fact, stayed—whether for the greater good or to set the franchise back in mediocrity.

But as Kanye West once said, "I guess we'll never know."