Drake Powell didn’t arrive in Brooklyn with an offensive popularity. At North Carolina final season, the 6-5 wing was recognized virtually completely for his protection, a high-motor stopper whose freshman minutes have been tied to effort, not scoring. He knocked down the occasional mid-range jumper, hit 38.1% of his 3s on restricted makes an attempt, made easy reads and confirmed loads of athletic juice as a cutter and transition finisher.
Even so, the Tar Heels didn’t ask him to create a lot for himself or others, which fed the scouting labels that forged him as a easy 3 and D wing. However 11 video games into his rookie 12 months, Powell has proven a extra versatile and assured offensive recreation than the one he carried out of Chapel Hill.
In Monday’s 113-100 loss to the Knicks at Barclays Heart, the 20-year-old matched his profession excessive with 15 factors on 5-for-10 taking pictures, including two rebounds, 4 assists and a steal in 24 minutes off the bench. 9 of these factors got here within the third quarter, the place he confirmed simply how snug he’s grow to be with the ball in his arms.
It began with a nook pump faux that despatched Tyler Kolek flying previous him, adopted by a robust baseline drive and a delicate floater over Guerschon Yabusele. He later relocated to the highest of the important thing for a 3-pointer, then beat the buzzer with a side-step triple from the appropriate wing that burned Kolek once more. Considered one of his hardest makes got here within the fourth, a turnaround jumper from the mid-range over Kolek as soon as extra.
Brooklyn’s system has completed greater than give Powell room to breathe. It’s given him room to develop. With higher spacing and confidence instilled by his coaches, the rookie has proven layers of his recreation that hardly ever surfaced in school. He’s attacking closeouts aggressively, studying defenses sooner and enjoying with a stage of freedom that may solely speed up his development.
The Nets see a younger participant whose on-ball craft is rising recreation by recreation, and a rookie who’s starting to know how his athleticism and really feel can translate on the NBA stage.
“As we go, he’s going to continue to understand the league, the schemes, especially defensively,” head coach Jordi Fernández stated. “Again-to-back video games the place I think about him a really, superb defender with a very excessive ceiling defensively, and I’m going to maintain difficult him to be higher.
“And then offensively, he saw the ball go in. He’s going to keep trusting the shot… He has to be comfortable shooting it a little faster. This is just going to come with time and work, which I think he’ll be OK, but I’m happy with how he looked out there… He looked free out there, having fun, playing really hard. We have to keep taking positive steps, for sure, with him.”
For Fernández, the indicators are encouraging. For Powell’s teammates, they’re acquainted. They watched him put within the work all through the summer season, and what he’s exhibiting now appears much less like a shock and extra just like the pure subsequent stage of his growth.
“We’ve seen him throughout the summer, so we knew what he was capable of,” Noah Clowney stated. “Toward the end of the summer, we started putting him in different positions where he was handling it a lot more. So, yeah, most of it we’ve seen before. He’s just showing y’all all that now.”
What’s new is the arrogance he’s carrying into every possession, constructed by repetition, belief and the work he’s invested behind the scenes. And as his position grows, Powell is aware of he has to maintain leaning into that mindset and says the steerage round him helps him do precisely that.
“I’m just out there playing basketball, trying to be aggressive and just trusting myself, my teammates and my coaches,” Powell stated. “My player development coach, Corey Vinson, he’s been great. We have multiple film meetings and those are very important to me. I want to continue to buy into those, because I think that’ll help translate onto the court.”
