Raptors need more game from Powell, and he knows it
TORONTO — NBA basketball is a zero-sum game. You either win or you lose, and if you can help in the former you have value, and if you contribute the latter there’s always someone else a team can turn to. And into that reality comes Toronto Raptors guard Norm Powell, an eminently likable young man who has done fine things for the team in the past, but someone who just can’t seem to get out of his own way these days. The sentimentalists want him to do well because he’s a good kid who’s been a good player in the past; the harsh realists know there can’t be a lot of time spent waiting to see if he does. And truthfully, there does seem to be an excessive amount of hand-wringing over the 11th man on a 45-17 team who fell out of the rotation simply because a bunch of other backups outperformed him, and he hasn’t done anything to force coach Dwane Casey to play him. That’s just a fact of the hypercompetitive nature of the NBA — everyone’s gunning for someone’s job — but Powell is a fan favourite, has dealt with up-and-down playing time in the past, and most people are pulling for him because they’ve seen what he can do. “We’ll try to help him as much as we can as staff — extra work, extra film work, encouragement if need be — but we’re professionals,” Casey said. “When we go in, we have to go in and do our job, whether we feel like we’ve been slighted, we’re frustrated or whatever. We’re pros. “That’s what they’re paying us for — to do our jobs under stressful situations, or maybe uncomfortable situations — and Norm has done that. I’m not saying he hasn’t done it. I understand it, but I don’t feel sorry for a guy going through that because that’s what we’re here for, to do our job.” Powell — whose four-year, US$42-million contact extension kicks in this year and should provide enough relief from any reason to press — does admit to having moments of frustration during games. He’s looked tentative at times when he’s been on court, forcing issues instead of simply playing free. “I’ve been caught in that pressing, like worried about making something happen and it’s not happening,” he said. “You’ve just got to go out there and clear your mind and just play basketball the way you’ve been playing it your whole life. This is going to fall. Things are going to switch around.” Despite his difficulties — and really, most have to do with how well the other backups have played more than what Powell has or hasn’t done — there is great hope he can somehow magically find a comfort level in the final 20 games of the regular season. As the Raptors discovered in each of their last two playoff runs, the third-year swingman can be a game-changer in the post-season. “Go back to his rookie year: up and down in the D-League, not playing much, start, don’t play. Next thing you know, you’re a part of us winning a series in the playoffs, playing in the Eastern Conference finals,” all-star guard DeMar DeRozan said. “That goes a long way. Even last year, him not playing much, we start him in a playoff game and we win the series from there on out. It speaks volumes of the type of player that Norm is and the heart that he’s got.”