James Harden was where Norman Powell is now, career-wise. He was much younger than Powell then, but the concept was the same: I can do more. A lot more.
Just like Powell, who’s established himself as one of the top sixth men in the league, Harden starred off the bench in Oklahoma City, where he won the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year award in 2011-12, his third pro season. Yet Harden knew he’d never get to be a headliner in OKC, not with Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook already locked in as franchise players. The Houston Rockets offered Harden something he couldn’t get in Oklahoma City: the opportunity to be what the advanced stats crowd now calls a heliocentric player.
Harden ran with the opportunity, becoming, as he famously put it years later, a system unto himself.
At 31 and in his 10th NBA season, Powell likely won’t become a superstar like Harden. But like his now-Clippers teammate, Powell has always believed he could do more, achieve more, than he’s had the chance to show in three NBA stops in Toronto, Portland and L.A. And he’s showing it this season, in a breakthrough campaign where he’s averaging a career-high 23.3 points per game, including a blistering 48.7 percent on 3s, and starting full-time for the first time in his career.
In doing so, Powell’s making a compelling case to be a first-time All-Star.
Almost everyone who makes an All-Star team does so early in their career, most in their 20s. It would be an incredible turn of fortune for a player who worked out for 17 teams before the 2015 draft, and expected to go late in the first round, only to fall to the second round and the 46th pick — and who’s been grinding ever since — to do so this late in his career.
“It’s something I’ve seen myself (doing), and envisioned and imagined myself to be,” Powell told The Athletic Wednesday.
“And not just one (appearance), but multiple. That goal has never changed. No matter how much I want to win, I have my own individual accomplishments that I want to achieve. It would be amazing. I envision it, just like DeMar (DeRozan)’s and Kyle (Lowry’s) were in Toronto at (the then) Air Canada Centre, (but) being in the Intuit Dome, and having my name called for a first-time All-Star, it would be a dream come true.”
Technically, forward Derrick Jones, Jr., whom the Clippers signed in free agency from Dallas, is replacing Paul George, who left amid great fanfare to sign the league’s top free agent deal last summer, in Philadelphia, in L.A.’s starting lineup. But as our Law Murray wrote a couple of weeks ago, it actually may be Powell who’s taken on George’s role in the Clippers’ offense this season.
With Kawhi Leonard still rehabbing his knee injury, Powell’s scoring punch is even more important now to the Clippers as defenses load up to try and take Harden away.
It’s been Powell who’s worked effectively off the Clippers’ massive center, Ivica Zubac, in two-man games. It’s Powell whose Usage Rate has ballooned to a career-best 26.2, while remaining wildly efficient, and who’s been the chief beneficiary of the looks Harden generates from the point. (Powell has missed the Clippers’ last five games with a hamstring injury; he’s questionable for Friday’s game in Minnesota against the Timberwolves.) And Powell’s held up more than well enough defensively so far to stay on the floor.
“He’s scoring at a high clip, and then, he’s been so much more confident in what he’s doing,” Harden said of Powell Wednesday after the Clippers dispatched the Wizards to improve to 12-8, continuing to lean in on defense.
“Not only just scoring the basketball, but when he gets into the paint, he sees where the help is coming from,” Harden continued. “Because they are trying to double-team him and things like that. So now he’s making the extra pass, getting guys open. Everybody’s getting shots. And that comes with, like, reps. When you get the opportunity, you get reps. And when you’re scoring efficiently, defenses have to throw different coverages at you. So he’s seeing different coverages, and he’s making the right play.”
Norman Powell back in 2016 during his time with the Toronto Raptors. (Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images)
Among guards playing 30 or more minutes a night, only New York’s Josh Hart (.700), Denver’s Christian Braun (.683), Toronto’s Ochai Agbaji (.649) and Powell’s former UCLA teammate, the Bulls’ Zach LaVine (.639), have a higher True Shooting Percentage than Powell’s .638.
Every NBA player was great in high school, as Powell was at Lincoln in San Diego, where he won a state championship in 2010. Many wind up at Power 5 schools in college, and Powell certainly did, playing for UCLA, where he teamed with not only LaVine, but future and current NBA players Kevon Looney and Kyle Anderson. But by the time they reach Powell’s age, they’re almost always locked into a role, a perception of who they are. And that perception’s almost impossible to shake.
But Powell’s never doubted himself.
With the league desperately looking to tinker with the All-Star format, it’s not certain how the teams will be selected for this year’s game. Will there still be 12 players taken from each conference to form the three eight-player teams format currently under consideration? (Under this proposal, the three eight-player teams would be joined by a fourth team — the winner of the Rising Stars Challenge on Friday night of All-Star Weekend — in a four-team bracket competition on All-Star Sunday.)
Powell, in the fourth year of a five-year, $90 million deal through 2025-26, should be on the short list of candidates this year, regardless of format. In doing so, Powell would achieve a mark reached several times by his idol, the late Kobe Bryant.
“He puts in that work to be great,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said. “I’m glad people are finally getting a chance to see that he can really play, and the work that he’s put in has paid off.”
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
It appears that the oldest player to make his first All-Star team at your position was Kyle Korver, in 2015, with the Hawks. He was 33 at the time. You’re 31. What do you think that says about how we pick All-Star players? When you hear ‘Norman should be an All-Star this year,’ do you think ‘Yes, my numbers show I’m one of the top players in the league this season,’ or do you think ‘I’ve always been this good, but y’all didn’t notice because I wasn’t getting the minutes or chances?’
I feel like I’ve always been doing this. I feel like it’s just gone underneath the radar, just based on the teams I’ve been on, the guys who they promote, who the franchise guys are. But if you look at the different pockets when I’ve had the opportunity to start, been the number one, number two option, my numbers have been this. For me, it’s fully getting a chance to fully be able to play my game, have the opportunity to go out there and be a go-to guy every single night. But I feel like I’ve always had the potential. I’ve always put up the numbers. I’ve always been super efficient. It’s just that the opportunity was the biggest thing.
How do you stay in the moment after so long, when it was always, ‘OK, I’m behind DeMar in Toronto. I’m behind Kawhi. I’m behind C.J. (McCollum) and (Robert) Covington (in Portland),’ and so on?
The biggest thing for me is just being a winner. Growing up, watching, listening to Kobe talk, whatever it takes to win, while having expectations for yourself, that’s been me. I’ve always felt that winning was the most important thing, so whatever role I was put in to help the team win, I was going to do that, while still continuing to strive for and show them that I could have more, I could carry more of the weight, and the load of the team. The biggest thing is winning, and I want to win championships. I want to have a great winning record when I’m done playing. And whatever that is, it’s kind of hard to break through that when teams already have their go-to guys and stuff like that. But that’s all I’ve been focused on.
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Did your experiences winning a state title in high school and getting to the Sweet 16 with UCLA in 2014 and 2015 prepare you for that focus on winning?
Definitely. I mean, going from the number one guy in high school, going to UCLA under Ben Howland, taking a back seat to Shabazz (Muhammad) and Kha (Khalid McCaskill) and them, then switching over and having coach (Steve) Alford and being the leader of the team, a go-to guy, opening up my offensive game, I just think going through the coaching change, the system change, players moving in and out, transferring, whatever it is, it all prepared me for what happens in the NBA, at the professional level – just being focused on my lane and what I want to achieve while everything else is going on. My whole career, before getting to the league, has prepared me for this moment.
You played with Slo-Mo (Anderson) and Loon at UCLA, and none of you were high draft picks, and you’re all still in the league. What was in the water for those teams?
I just think the approach. Listening to the details. We have a lot of NBA guys coming back and talking to (alumni) throughout the summer at the Rico Hines runs. Russ (Westbrook), K-Love (Kevin Love), even Josh Shipp and Mike Roll, guys who’ve played great overseas and things like that, coming and talking to us about the profession, what it takes to be a professional, just the mindset and the approach. Being at UCLA, you get the top guys, so I think that just helped, along with the standard that John Wooden set for us, and following that every single day. They bring the talent in. The biggest thing is trying to make it mesh. They’re trying to compete for championships, so they instill that winning mentality from the start.
The Wooden Influence is still there?
Oh, yeah, that’s not going anywhere. He is UCLA. That Pyramid of Success, even Coach (Mick) Cronin, like, everybody they bring in, you’ve got to have that mentality, you’ve got to have that approach. And not only on the court, but teaching the players how to be men, and (how to) carry themselves off the court. Every coach they’ve brought in, whether the fan base or media like it or not, in between the lines, in between the locker room and meeting with the coaches, they’re always making sure they’re coaching up great men. That’s what’s helped the success, not only for me and Kyle and Kevon, but Zach and Jrue (Holiday) and Russ and Kevin Love, all these guys, Jaime (Jacquez, Jr.), Lonzo (Ball), everybody that’s come through the program, you not only hear about the player they are, but their character.
I know “Understand the Grind” is also a business for you now, but how did you learn to put in the level of work you do in the offseason?
That’s family. My mom and my uncle, watching them. My mom took care of me and my two older sisters. My uncle, after the rough start of his life, getting kicked out of the house, being in and out of the (legal) system, being able to create his own business, a painting company, and work and grind and make ends meet. And then, I watched so much of Kobe and his mentality, what it takes to be successful, what it takes to be in the NBA, and wanting it more. And having that passion and drive and desire. Just mixing everything that I’ve had with my family and role models like Kobe, watching Dwyane Wade and his approach and his skill set, and just implementing little pieces I can take for myself. I mean, I’m not 6-6, or this, that and the other. But I’m athletic. I can get to the rim. And learning how to shoot has really opened up my game. I have a love and belief in myself that I belong.
How did you develop your offseason workout?
Kobe always talked about multiple workouts during the day, getting up super early. And that started early. I used to write notes to my mom. There was a gym right across from our townhouse. She didn’t believe me. One day, she drove (to the gym), got up. She was panicking. And I didn’t even know. I’m re-enacting things I saw on videos, and she’s sitting there just watching the whole time. That’s where it started. … During lunch in high school, I was not going to eat; I was getting shots up in the gym. ‘Cause that’s what it took. My favorite player said that. and I was like, this is what I’m going to do. Whatever he said was the road for success, I was going to follow it.
Do you remember the last time you interacted with Kobe?
The last time I talked to Kobe was when he had his players only private camp, up at the Sports Academy. It was invite only. Honestly, that was probably the craziest moment for me, because I had been such a fan of his. So it was like a three-day camp. And, like, the first day, I was like, I’m gonna get there, I’m gonna ask so many questions. He walked in, and I was just like (slackjawed). I’m stuck. And you’ve got Jordan Clarkson, and Kyrie (Irving), and Kawhi came. They’ve all been around Kobe so much, they’re just there with him and talking. And I’m like … I’m just listening. I want to ask a question, but I don’t.
And after that first day, the second day, he’s watching us do drills and stuff. We’re breaking through, like, jab steps. And he’s like, ‘that’s not gonna work; that’s not gonna work.’ And I’m like, ‘Damn, man, I score with this.’ And he’s like, ‘Nope; your jab step’s not this, your angle.’ And just listening to him tell me the details, of how precise you’ve got to be to beat a guy (off the dribble). And after that drill, him pulling me to the side and talking about my game. He watched me. Phil Handy (the longtime Lakers assistant, who helped Bryant run the session) was our coach in Toronto. He’s just telling me how you raise a killer, how you become a killer in the league. And just removing the emotional side of the game, and just thinking tactically (about) your approach.
And that’s what stuck with me, that tip he told me on the side — just removing emotion and thinking tactically when you’re out there playing, and thinking the game through, rather than ‘Oh, I missed a shot, now I’m up and down, I got a turnover, I got a bad call.’ Remove all that. That doesn’t matter. What matters is the task at hand.
(Top photo: Ronald Martinez / Getty Images)
