Height: 6’4
Weight: 215
Year: Senior
Position: Shooting Guard
2014-2015 NCAA Statistics:
16.4 PTS 4.7 REB 2.1 AST 1.8 STL 45.6 FG% 31.9 3PT% 75.1 FT%
Draft Projection: Late 1st Round/Early 2nd Round
NBA Player Comparison: George Hill
Man, I wish Powell had more minutes allocated to him in his first three years at UCLA. Norman Powell had a spectacular senior season that has scouts perplexed. How do you rate a senior who only had one solid year? It wasn’t his fault he didn’t get the minutes. Either way, I believe the first three years must be forgotten. When I saw Powell play this year, I immediately saw NBA potential throughout his game on both sides of the ball.
Powell is a very willing passer, one of the things I like most about him. He is extremely aggressive and takes the ball to the rack with force. No resilience from Powell, ever. He will be one of those young rookies who immediately gains the respect of the vets on the team, I can guarantee you that. One problem I have is that he is listed as a SG going into the draft. Now, it all depends what team he gets drafted by, but Powell can’t be a shooting guard in the NBA. He doesn’t have the three-point shot yet. He might be able to be a slashing winger if he can get that 3-point shot good enough, but I just don’t know right now if he can.
Norman Powell has two possible career paths. One takes him to a team that doesn’t see his value and sends him to the D-League where he can dominate which may or may not end up leading to a chance in the NBA one day. Sort of how Aaron Craft’s career has played out so far. The other path is the successful one. It’s the one where he can get drafted by a great front office with terrific scouts who see that Powell can thrive in the future if he comes off the bench early and learns behind the veterans. This path was the path George Hill took from his days in San Antonio. He was able to learn from Pop, Parker, and the rest of the veterans and improved his game. Later, he got his chance with the Indiana Pacers and has been their starting point guard ever since. I do believe Norman Powell has that same type of potential. With the start date for the NBA Draft looming, we are now only a couple days away from seeing which path is set forward for him.
Future Professional Potential: Solid Starter
