The fate of not having a star! He was teased as "Bryant", but averaged 21.8 points per game, and was still used as a bargaining chip!

Although six years have passed, for Raptors fans, the 18-19 championship journey is still fresh in memory whenever they look back. Among the teams that year, not only were there stars such as Kawhi Leonard, Kyle Lowry, Mark Gasol, but also high-quality role players such as Sergei Ibaka and Danny Green. Of course, there were also Fred VanVleet and Norman Powell, who were teased by fans as "Van Jordan" and "BobBobby". Although the fans of the Raptors at that time did not have much demand for the two, they also made more or less contributions in the process of winning the championship. Therefore, even though they also performed a span, they were still recognized by the fans.

However, perhaps many people did not expect that in the years after winning the championship, the two people who had obviously had a very similar initial environment and performance actually took a different path. Van Vleet seems to have opened up the Ren and Du meridians since the 19-20 season, and has performed brilliantly for many years. In the 21-22 season, he was selected into the All-Star lineup with 20.3 points, 4.5 rebounds and 6.7 assists, and received a three-year, $130 million maximum salary contract from the Rockets in the summer of 2023. In sharp contrast to Van Vleet, Powell quickly left the Raptors. Although he has performed relatively stably in recent years, he has never been able to catch up with Van Vleet's footsteps. Recently, he has been placed on the trading shelves by the Clippers. Let’s take a look at why Powell is destined to be without a star!

1. Although he has strong scoring ability, he lacks organization and passes.

Even if you are not a senior fan, if you observe Powell's games carefully, you will find that he is a player with obvious advantages and disadvantages. First of all, it is undeniable that Powell's scoring ability is very good, and even compared with star-level scorers, he is not at all inferior. This season, at the age of 32, Leonard was unable to return to the team in time due to injury, and the departure of Paul George and others, Tyron Lu brought Powell to the starter and gave him a lot of fire. Powell did not disappoint the team's trust. Even though Ka's return later, his shooting power was reduced, he still handed in perfect data of 21.8 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.1 assists this season, and his shooting and three-point shooting percentages reached 48.4% and 41.8% respectively, with an offensive efficiency of 116.2. It can be said that this year's Clippers can finally enter the playoffs as fifth in the West, and Powell's role is no less than James Harden, Zubac and others. This is why Powell can get stable playing time no matter which team he is in.

However, Powell's role in offensive end is almost nothing to show off except scoring. In other words, he is a pure scorer, and the coach of his team basically follows his characteristics and tactical arrangements. It is precisely because he is only good at scoring that the gap between him and VanVleet has widened. In the later stages of the Raptors, Van Vleet has become the team's main point guard, averaging nearly 6-7 assists per game, and the turnover rate has also been greatly reduced, so Van Vleet's tactical value is far beyond Powell. Looking at Powell, he averaged only 2.1 assists per game, with an assist-turnover ratio of only 1.2, and an assist-to-return ratio of only 9.7, but his round-the-robin holding rate reached 25.5%. In other words, in Powell's hands, the ball is basically dominated by individual endings, and rarely helps his teammates score. Of course, this does not mean that Powell's unique style of play is, after all, this is also the team's arrangement for him. But it is precisely because of the lack of organization and passing ability that basically determines his career limit.

2. Lack of defensive ability and average playoff performance. After

, let's talk about another characteristic with obvious gap between Powell and VanVleet, which is its extremely important defensive ability. When Van Vleet was in the Raptors, after the team sent off veteran Lowry, he immediately straightened him to become the number one core of the outside. In addition to three-pointers and organizational skills, his defense was also a major factor that impressed the team. Let’s take a look at Powell, who is 1.93 meters tall and weighs 97 kilograms. With a 2.1 meter arm span, his static talent is actually pretty good, at least he won’t suffer too much in defense. But the problem is that Powell's defensive awareness is indeed very mediocre. His enthusiasm is recognized by everyone, but positiveness cannot make up for the shortcomings in consciousness. Moreover, in the game, he often becomes the target target of his opponents. One data shows that under Powell's defense this season, the overall shooting rate of opponents is 3.8% higher than usual. Moreover, in the game, after the opponent often has a pick-and-roll tactic, it is difficult for Powell to give his opponent an effective limit. He only had 2.8 shot interference per round, which also reflects his defensive problem.

Finally, there is another problem, that is, the performance of the playoffs. As we all know, measuring whether a player reaches the star level depends on how he performs in the playoffs. After all, the playoffs are different from the regular season. Whether it is confrontation or rhythm, they are more intense than the regular season. This season, Powell's average data in the playoffs has dropped to 16 points, 2.4 rebounds and 2.4 assists. If he is asked from the perspective of an ordinary player, this data sheet is satisfactory, but from the perspective of a star, it is definitely difficult to show off. Moreover, so far in his career, his average number of playoffs is only 9.7 points, 2.2 rebounds and 1.1 assists, which is lower than the regular season. And what about VanVleet? Even though he is 31 years old and the Rockets' young people have grown up, he is still the team's decisive force after seven games with the Warriors, averaging 18.7 points, 4.1 rebounds and 4.7 assists per game, and his three-point shooting percentage reached 43.5%. Therefore, this is the gap between the two, which also explains why VanVleet can get the maximum salary, and even if Powell performs well, he can only serve as a bargaining chip.