As a Raptors fan, I’m surprised to see a lot of people saying he’s one of the weakest defenders on the team.
When he was on the Raptors, he was a decent defender (maybe even very slightly above average), with a defensive rating of 106 in his final year where he played the most minutes: https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/norman-powell-defensive-rating-career
It seems like his rating dropped off significantly once he left Toronto though. Is it because he’s lost a step in athleticism to stay in front of his guy? Or is his IQ not there, or does he just not try hard enough like Harden?
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Oh his defense is so bad. He gets lost off ball, his POA is barely any resistance, and we’re almost always playing him at the 3 where he’s undersized so we get killed on the boards. I guess he still gets deflections once in a while?
I mean he’s tries…he’s completely on some Olé type bullshit defense but he’s not all team defense either.
I ain’t ever seen someone get beat off of the dribble and lose his man as much as Norm. He still has the athleticism. I think it’s his IQ
Do they place him on the 3 spot?
I think he’s likely the worst defender of any player that sees real minutes.
He’s had some good moments as a help defender recently, which has been a pleasant surprise. But he also loses his man a bunch too, and in a scheme that switches as much as the Clippers do, hurts. That might be an IQ issue
His on-ball defense is just bad. He gets blown by by guys who aren’t even offensive stars too often. To me it’s not an effort problem at all, he just ends up flatfooted a lot and his reaction time is too slow
imma raptor fan and his defence was trash here too that’s why nurse would bench him many times lol