How and why Norman Powell became Neil Olshey and the Portland Trail Blazers’ trade-deadline prize – OregonLive

Portland Trail Blazers president of basketball operations Neil Olshey attached trade bait to his hook and cast his line in many different directions, hoping to entice nibbles from teams looking to move desirable players prior to Thursday’s NBA trade deadline.

Ultimately, Olshey discovered that he lacked the proper bait coveted by most teams looking to part ways with premier talent: draft picks.

That forced Olshey to shift his focus to teams willing to take young talent and favorable contracts. In the end, Olshey’s fishing expeditions landed guard Norman Powell from Toronto in exchange for guard Gary Trent Jr. and forward Rodney Hood.

The deal certainly wasn’t earth-shattering. Powell is not a household name. But the Blazers did get better by landing a high-end offensive player with defensive abilities. And while that might describe Trent on the surface, the reality is that the former second-round pick out of Duke is 22, while Powell is 27, more proven, more versatile and more ready to offer the Blazers what Olshey believes they needed: a veteran guard who can help them at both ends of the court.

“This was an opportunity to get a guy that has an established body of work that we think maybe solves some of the issues we’ve been having on the defensive side,” Olshey told The Oregonian/OregonLive. “And, in terms of shot creation in games, help when teams overcommit to getting the ball out of Damian Lillard’s hands.”

Powell is averaging 19.6 points this season while shooting 49.8% from the field and 43.9% on threes. He has taken his game to a new level the past two months. In March, Powell is averaging 25.8 points per game while shooting 53.8% from the field and 45.3% on threes. During the month of February, Powell averaged 22 points per game while shooting 53.3% and 46%.

Powell scored 25 points or more 11 times this season as the third guard in Toronto.

So why didn’t the Blazers pursue an impact forward when their best two players, Lillard and CJ McCollum, are guards?

First off, Olshey said he likes the Blazers’ collection of forwards and centers, especially with Jusuf Nurkic set to return Friday at Orlando from a broken wrist.

“We explored a lot of different options,” Olshey said. “Obviously, with Nurk coming back, with the way (Robert) Covington has played, (Enes) Kanter’s performance, our commitment to Carmelo (Anthony), our frontcourt was pretty well set.”

Also, any available forwards or centers who might have provided the same type of upgrade Powell does at guard, weren’t within the team’s reach without overspending, which would defeat the purpose of making a deal.

Olshey added that there could be an opportunity to add additional depth in the buyout market, but going hard after a forward wasn’t a priority.

FINDING A DEAL

The ultimate goal regardless of position, Olshey said, was to add someone who could help immediately, but also offer some contract certainty next year by having at least one additional season remaining on their deal.

“Those deals either just didn’t materialize, or they weren’t players we were interested in,” he said. “Some we pursued.”

The Blazers’ lack of draft capital, however, limited their ability to make such a deal. Portland, during the 2020 NBA draft, traded the draft rights to first-round pick Isaiah Stewart, along with its first-round pick in 2021, to Houston in the trade that landed Covington.

Most of the teams with players Portland inquired about prior to the trade deadline were seeking draft picks for a rebuild, Olshey said.

For example; Orlando (15-29), clearly having entered rebuild mode, received a first-round pick in addition to players for forward Aaron Gordon in a deal with Denver. Orlando received two second-round picks for sending Evan Fournier to Boston, which could absorb his $17.5 million salary because of the trade exception the Celtics received for signing and trading Gordon Hayward to Charlotte last offseason. Also, the Magic netted two first-round picks in their four-player deal that sent All-Star center Nikola Vucevic to Chicago.

That’s three first-round picks and two second-round picks the Magic can use to start over.

“We just didn’t have a lot of draft capital,” Olshey said. “We don’t have a second in this year’s draft. So, we were behind the curve a little bit on some of the teams that were shedding high-level players but were prioritizing draft picks over either young players or established players under contract.”

That forced the Blazers to enter into trade discussions with teams willing to listen to offers for players only. As it turned out, a player many teams inquired about, Olshey said, was Trent. One of those teams was Toronto, and the Raptors were willing to part with Powell, who fit what the Blazers were seeking.

WHAT POWELL BRINGS

While Powell’s offense speaks for itself, Powell also fulfilled Olshey’s desire to add someone who could defend top point guards to take some defensive pressure off of Lillard. Given what Lillard is asked to do offensively, Olshey said, providing him with defensive versatility in the backcourt made sense.

“We think he can guard 1 through 3,” Olshey said. “It gives us the ability to put a tough, long, rangy, athletic defender on point guards. That can shift Damian off the ball defensively so he’s not constantly engaged in so many pick and rolls on both ends of the court.”

Blazers coach Terry Stotts said he is impressed with Powell’s defensive intensity.

“The one thing that always stands out is that he is ready to play defense,” Stotts said. “You look at his stance every possession down; he’s down in his stance, he’s long and he’s ready to play.”

Offensively, the 6-foot-3 Powell offers more versatility than the 6-5 Trent, who is a growing offensive threat but has plenty of room for improvement.

The Blazers face many defenses designed to get the ball out of Lillard’s hands by sending a second defender his way. When that happens now, Olshey said, Lillard can now turn to Powell in addition to McCollum.

“Now it’s not just CJ that can put it on the floor and create a shot for himself or other people,” Olshey said. “Norman is an attack-mode guy, too, that can put pressure on defenses when they over-commit to Dame. And we anticipate being able to play those three guys together.”

Powell’s three-point shooting abilities fit right in with a team that set out this season to virtually launch threes at will. The Blazers rank second in the NBA with 42.8 threes taken per game.

“We are a three-point shooting team, he’ll get good looks, and I think that really fits in with our style of play,” Stotts said.

Powell also brings playoff experience, having made deep playoff runs with the Raptors, including reaching and winning the NBA Finals in 2019. Powell was a backup on that team, but he saw action. His best stretch of the playoffs that year came in the Eastern Conference finals against Milwaukee, when over the course of three games he scored 14, 19 and 18 points.

During last year’s playoffs at the bubble, Powell in 11 games averaged 13.4 points while shooting 49% from the field and 42.3% on threes.

“He’s played an impact role on a championship team,” Stotts said. “He’s got a lot of experience, winning experience. He knows what it takes to win in this league. And that’s why we got him. He’s ready to help us compete at a high level.”

POWELL’S POTENTIAL ROLE

So, will Powell start?

“That’s going to be Terry’s call,” Olshey said, but added that the trio of Lillard, McCollum and Powell would make for a good closing lineup.

Powell, even as the third guard, should be able to get 25 to 30 minutes per game, which was about what Trent was receiving (30.1 per game), even after McCollum returned last week from a broken foot and Trent went from being a starter back to his role as the third guard.

“Norman has had success as a starter, he’s had success coming off the bench,” Olshey said.

Powell has started games this season at small forward with the Kyle Lowry and Fred VanVleet, both 6-0. Starting him with Lillard and McCollum in the backcourt would mean starting forward Derrick Jones Jr. would have to come off the bench. He was brought in for his defensive abilities but is an average offensive player.

With Nurkic returning and the addition of Powell, Olshey said the team now has four plus-defenders, including Jones and Covington. That means, Olshey said, the Blazers should have two plus-defenders on the court at all times.

“I think that’s critical with how we’ve performed defensively so far this year,” Olshey said.

The Blazers rank 29th in defensive rating. That contributed greatly to the team’s inconsistent play. That six-game winning streak that left the Blazers at 18-10 came a month ago. Since then, the team is 8-8, and 4-4 since the All-Star break, entering Thursday.

Olshey said the team simply needed something else to shake things up. While Trent had developed into a good three-point shooter, the rest of his offensive game had yet to take off. Powell is a more potent creator and versatile scorer who is crafty inside and can get to the basket to draw contact.

Powell is shooting 55.2% on two-point shots, compared with 43.8% for Trent.

So, if Powell is so amazing, what’s in this for the Raptors? Well, Powell has a player option worth $11.6 million for next season that he could decline to become an unrestricted free agent. Trent, on the other hand, will become a restricted free agent, giving the Raptors a chance to evaluate him up close, then decide if they want to match any offer he receives from another team this offseason.

Raptors president Masai Ujiri told reporters Thursday that he liked what Trent offers the team.

“We got, I think, a young, promising player in Gary Trent Jr., who is restricted and has really, really good upside …,” Ujiri said. “I think he fits the core of our team. That’s what we’re excited about.”

Many teams felt the same way about Trent, whose trade value increased dramatically, Olshey said, because he received more extended playing time after McCollum broke his foot and missed 24 games.

RISK VS. REWARD

The downside to this deal is that now the Blazers face the potential of losing Powell to free agency and ultimately having parted ways with Trent and Hood in order to have Powell for a couple of months.

Olshey said the hope is to re-sign Powell, drafted in the second round by Milwaukee in 2015, beyond this season. But if the Blazers lose him, Olshey said, then they would simply have to move in a different direction.

But the risk is worth it, Olshey said, because Powell makes the team better right now and he believes that the Blazers, when fully healthy, have the potential to make a deep playoff run.

Keeping Powell on a big deal would give the Blazers an even more lopsided roster in terms of money spent based on positions. The Blazers already have $69 million combined committed next season to Lillard ($39 million) and McCollum ($30 million). Paying, say, $20 million per season to Powell, would mean that the Blazers would have $89 million committed to three guards for the 2021-22 season.

But if Powell continues on his current trajectory, and that trio is running teams ragged and sinking threes at the rate expected, the Blazers would be all in.

But why couldn’t Trent fill that role? The second-round pick out of Duke in 2018 was popular with teammates and certainly blossomed last season, especially at the NBA bubble.

This season, Trent is averaging 15 points per game while shooting 41.4% from the field and 39.7% on threes. However, he’s struggled in March. Over his past 11 outings, Trent was shooting 38% from the field and 33.3% on threes. Trent has the potential, Olshey said, to develop into what Powell has become. Given that Lillard is 30, turning to a 27-year-old Powell to help the team’s hopes of winning a title simply made more sense at this time.

Losing Hood costs the Blazers forward depth. However, Hood had yet to return to the player he was before rupturing his Achilles in December 2019. The Blazers brought Hood back on a two-year deal with the second year not guaranteed. In 38 games this season, Hood was averaging 4.7 points in 19.1 minutes per game while shooting 36.3% from the field and 29.8% on threes.

Last season before his injury, Hood in 21 games averaged 11 points on 50.6% shooting while hitting on 49.3% of his threes.

Because of Canada’s travel restrictions due to COVID-19, Toronto has been playing its home games in Tampa, Florida, this season. So, it’s possible that Powell could join the Blazers in time for Friday’s game at Orlando.

Portland (26-18) started a four-game trip Thursday with a 125-122 win at Miami (22-23).

After the game, McCollum, Lillard and Kanter were asked about the addition of Powell.

“He’s an explosive scorer, a catch-and-shoot specialist who can get to the basket,” McCollum said. “I’m looking forward to seeing how we can utilize him and put him in his best position to succeed.”

Kanter has played numerous times against Powell and said he would bring a lot to the Blazers.

“He’s fearless,” Kanter said. “Obviously, offensively he is an amazing player, but on the defensive end he brings a lot of energy. I feel like what his mindset, with his hard work and his basketball IQ, he is going to take us to the next level.”

The downside of the trade is that teammates had to say goodbye to Hood and Trent.

“We’re excited to have him,” Lillard said of Powell. “We know that he can make us a better team on both ends of the floor. But also sad to see two of our brothers go.”

— Aaron Fentress | [email protected] | @AaronJFentress (Twitter), @AaronJFentress (Instagram), @AaronFentress (Facebook).

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