2021-2022 MAVS NEWS: 4th in West | WCF loss [ARCHIVED]

[KillerLeft]

I have a theory on this.  If you are watching the game, you often see the end of a scoring play and he's often the closest guy to some ugly and memorable scoring plays by the other team.  It looks really bad at times.

However, if you watch Powell instead, you see a guy that is all over the place helping (too much sometimes).  He does a lot of impactful little things that don't get noticed if you aren't watching him the whole time.  Sometimes that help he's providing others is such that he can't recover and you see the ugly result I referenced before.  But his hustle and mobility are pluses.

Interesting thing I've noticed lately.  Powell isn't helping as much when matched against top guys (I'm thinking Towns and Jokic most recently).  He played both quite credibly (no one stops those guys).  Part of the reason was he stuck with them more tightly (or was allowed to...we don't know what the scheme actually calls for).  We've also made some changes in how Powell is allowed to deal with the PnR that I like.  I much prefer jumping the screen for Powell rather than drop coverage (another way Powell looks awful is when we play drop coverage and a ball handler gets up a head of steam).   

BTW, thanks for the well reasoned and well articulated post.

Great post. 

I agree that Powell is an overlooked and underrated defender. The worst part of his game is when he meets the ball at or near the restricted area and he's prone to looking pretty weak, physically, in that situation. But, while that seems to be the only thing a lot of fans notice about his defensive game, I've long thought his strengths (intelligent and efficient movement) prevent scoring and even discourage shot attempts by rerouting the ball. 

And to further this, I think many players' defensive contributions get overlooked routinely because a large portion of the viewing audience only recognizes how effectively each defender pressures shot attempts when their man takes them. In reality, the defender's primary goal is to prevent their man from getting to the place they want to reach in order to shoot or even to deny their man an angle to receive the pass cleanly. There are so many facets of defense that go unnoticed. Often, the guy who gets credit for contesting the shot well is really benefiting more from his teammates' hard work denying the action's goal than he is from his own skills.

If a player lets his man slip away or gets overpowered at the end of 3-4 possessions in one game, he'll get roasted around here. But, what if that same player prevented 19 "first option" shots from even being attempted over the course of the same game?