While the title is a bit clunkier than my normal “flowful” (totally a word) attempts, I feel the metaphor carries some extra oomph, if only so I can type out the word oomph. Keep in mind that the pun is based on power hour, a term loosely defined as the last part of an investor’s trading day and with the recent Clipper’s acquisition (fleecing?) of Norman Powell (and Robert Covington) from the Trail Blazers, it seemed apt to sacrifice flow for accuracy. (That’s what she said.) So many parenthetical statements, so little time! And with Powell’s debut last night to the tune of 28 points on a 56/50/86 split in just 23 minutes, we’ll take a look at Powell, the Clippers, and try and answer the question why anyone still picks up the phone when Jerry West calls…
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A 6’4″ shooting guard during his stint with UCLA, Powell was considered to be a pure scorer archetype, a player who excels at putting the ball in the basket and a prototypical skillset for the position. He had both strength and agility and received high marks for his off-the-ball play ability, often finding space with good positioning, often against larger matchups. His defense was considered above average, able to disrupt passing lanes often and force turnovers. That being said, his negatives were mainly two-fold, shooting at the line and beyond the arc were not his strongest suit, but everything was there to easily project him as a first round pick but he ultimately fell to the 46th overall pick for the Raptors.
Fast-forward to the Raptors’ 2019 championship run, Powell found himself firmly established as an integral role player, emerging as a 3-and-D lynchpin, averaging over 30 minutes a game and provided a consistent 10/2/2 split. Now recently with the Blazers and with Damian Lillard out of the lineup due to abdominal surgery, Powell upped his game by averaging 20.3 points, 5.2 rebounds with a respectable 46/44/75 percentage split since the start of January.
In a laughable trade that netted Powell and Robert Convington for the likes of Eric Bledsoe, Justise Winslow, Keon Johnson and a future second-round pick, Jerry West has done two things; the first, reaffirming that you probably should not trade with this man. The second was to create some much-needed depth for the oft-injured star duo for the team in Paul George and Kawhi Leonard.
While much can be said about the Trail Blazers’ “one-year-rebuild” strategy, I find it curious that a team would unload valuable and useful assets like this for what is essentially scraps, but to help one of, if not the best team in the West for peanuts is questionable at best. Just think of the optimal matchups here, health-willing, you could have lineups that put Kawhi / PG / Covington / Morris / Batum or even Kawhi / PG / Norman / Morris / Batum. There’s a lot of iterations here that look downright filthy on the floor… the switches, the speed and agility, even the perimeter and passing lane pressure that this roster could produce during the playoffs is pretty hype. So yeah, I agree, it’s just one game with his new team, but if you watched, Powell already looked like the best player on the floor, especially with the Jrue Holiday assignment.
Ultimately, this move looks like a match made in heaven, bringing in a player on the cheap that fills all the needs of a franchise eyeing its first championship. And to all the Blazers fans out there, it’s okay. The league still has the Knicks… and to all the Knicks fans out there, uh. Yeah…
Jay is a longtime Razzball everything who consumes an egregious amount of Makers Mark as a vehicle to gain wisdom and augment his natural glow. Living in the D.C. area, he also likes spending time visiting the local parks and feeding lettuce to any turtles he encounters, including Mitch McConnell. You can follow him on Twitter @jaywrong.
