09-18-2020, 12:58 PM
(09-18-2020, 12:31 PM)KillerLeft Wrote: The only thing I'm worried about, even regarding his contract, is the injury. I'm much more worried about his injury than KP's latest one, for example. But, if they decide to keep him, I'll assume they feel at least decent about it.
The injury is bad and severely hampers NBA players in particular. Now a recent success story I think you can look at is Rudy Gay. He suffered the same injury around the same age and is still a very productive basketball player.
I think Powell will still be crafty enough to be a good big off the bench even if he isn't quite soaring as high as he used to. I do wonder about his ability to put the ball on the floor bc that was an element to his game that was pretty exciting. It's not like he has a crossover or anything but the pump fake then hard drive to basket from the 3 point line is a really good skill for a player his size.
Wes Matthews suffered the same injury I believe even a year younger or so. Mavs guessed that he would still be an elite 3D player and clearly he never was the same player. He has remained a very good 3 point shooter but his explosiveness is not there and he has had no lift since his injury. The biggest issue with Matthews was that his defensive ability fell off a cliff.
To this day Wes has a reputation as a good defender but he just isn't. Luka completely destroys him on defense. Now Luka does that to a lot of ppl but I have watched enough post-injury Wes to see that he is an extremely overrated defender post-Achilles.
Powell plays a different position and wasn't a shot blocker or anything that would now be hampered but its for sure a concern.
All that being said we know Boban for example is slow and can't jump at all but is a very good offensive talent and good roll man. A lot of that is due to his size but being a good roll man requires some skills that other than physical tools and Powell won't lose those skills and craftiness.
I am optimistic he will be a good and useful player still off the bench. Starting days are over except maybe on KP rest days? I am still irritated the Mavs have given him so much money but it could be worse I suppose.