Early Sixth Man of the Year Rankings: Do any Nets crack the list?
By Andrew Hard
T5. Norman Powell
If there’s anyone who might drop off this list later in the year, it will probably be Powell.
Yes, the Clippers traded away a ton of their depth in the James Harden trade, which theoretically should mean that Powell’s role with the Clippers is automatically more important. However, to start the year, his scoring is down three points per game from last year, and his three-point percentage is down by almost five whole percentage points.
Powell has also dealt with the injury bug throughout his career, and history tells you not to rule out Powell missing some time at some point this season. He has yet to play an entire 82-game season in his nine-year career.
To add onto those problems for Powell, he might be surpassed by Bones Hyland as the best bench player on the Clippers. Hyland is off to a hot start to the year, shooting nearly 42% from three, and he is playing the most minutes per game so far in his early career. In fact, his 26.2 minutes per game for the Clippers is tied with Powell.
Even with all that, Powell has much higher odds to win the award at +1200, tied with Malik Monk.