Everything Norman Powell

[Hotshot]

Define "cold."

Like, hard to call 1 PPP cold. So, Miles hit 33% or better in 39 of his 70 games.

So, 44% of his games could reasonably be described as cold. Streaky.

Out of the 56% of his games where Miles shot the ball well, how many of them was he overall net positive where his defense wasn't a net negative?!

[WJF]

DeMar played 35 minutes a game, Danny Green will play 25 minutes per game, right off the bat there is minutes at the 2 spot to be had. Look for OG to see some time at the 4 this year in small ball lieups and Norm could see regular burn. We don't have great 4/5 depth and will go small to compensate.

[DanH]

Out of the 56% of his games where Miles shot the ball well, how many of them was he overall net positive where his defense wasn't a net negative?!

Most of them? He was mostly used as part of a dominant bench unit, that was utterly reliant on the threat Miles represented, even on nights where he was shooting poorly.

[LJ2]

There is no doubt in my mind that CJ Miles will shoot a better percentage from 3, this season (provided he's on this team LOL).

You think Lowry, Green, CJ, Kawhi and JV could be on the floor at the same time? Crazy if we could have that much shooting on the floor and still play solid D.

[Yuri Gagarin]

When norm cracked the rotation i recall looking at his g league numbers and he didnt shoot the 3 well. I think it was a lucky streak of threes in his glory days I wouldnt count on it. So he can play good d but his offense might be limited.

[DanH]

DeMar played 35 minutes a game, Danny Green will play 25 minutes per game, right off the bat there is minutes at the 2 spot to be had. Look for OG to see some time at the 4 this year in small ball lieups and Norm could see regular burn. We don't have great 4/5 depth and will go small to compensate.

Norm will probably not be seeing regular burn. A lot of DeMar's minutes came at the 3, with Delon or FVV playing the 2.

We are stacked at the wing. Try to construct a full rotation and you quickly see it is hard to find minutes for OG, Green and Miles to play enough, let alone squeezing Norm in there. Even with a lot of small ball.

[Yuri Gagarin]

Thats a huge contract i dont know what ujiri was thinking.

[white men can't jump]

I'm honestly kidding.

It's irritating to watch a 'sharpshooter' have such terrible off-nights, though. When he's on, he's on. When he's off, oh god, it's bad.

Miles isn't a "sharpshooter". That is the fundamental misconception that Raptors fans seemed to have adopted as truth once we signed him.

He is left-handed, veteran version of Ross who costs less and has worse D. He has a quicker release, which is nice, but he's not an elite shooter like half of GSW, Korver, Redick, and any guy you can count on to shoot 40%-plus from deep or at least close to it.

Miles is a 36% career 3pt shooter who's only shot over 40% one season in a 13-year career. I'd love for him to have a better season this year and top that 40% mark again, but can't really count on it.

Of the guys on the roster, we have these shooting %s for career:
Lowry .370
Leonard .386
Green .395
Serge .367 (Let that sink in, Ibaka is a more efficient shooter for his career than Miles, our "sharpshooter")
Miles .361
FVV .410
Delon .362
OG .371
JV .397
Siakam .216
Powell .324

Siakam and Powell have not been good. OG has just one year, and JV has basically just one year without too much volume.

Miles is definitely a "shooter". It is the only skill he really brings to the table, and mostly valuable because he can get hot and doesn't need a lot of space with his quick release so the D has to pay at least some attention to him. It's pretty hard to call him a "sharpshooter" though. I mean, supposedly none of our other guys are? But all of them who can shoot have higher career %s than Miles.

It might be harder to justify having Miles on the court this year. We have more shooters this year, and the two we added in Green and Leonard are great defensively. And that's the same reason it should still be hard for Powell. His strength tends to be D and energy, but we have guys who do that and are better on offence.

[ReubenJRD]

Miles isn't a "sharpshooter". That is the fundamental misconception that Raptors fans seemed to have adopted as truth once we signed him.

He is left-handed, veteran version of Ross who costs less and has worse D. He has a quicker release, which is nice, but he's not an elite shooter like half of GSW, Korver, Redick, and any guy you can count on to shoot 40%-plus from deep or at least close to it.

Miles is a 36% career 3pt shooter who's only shot over 40% one season in a 13-year career. I'd love for him to have a better season this year and top that 40% mark again, but can't really count on it.

Of the guys on the roster, we have these shooting %s for career:
Lowry .370
Leonard .386
Green .395
Serge .367 (Let that sink in, Ibaka is a more efficient shooter for his career than Miles, our "sharpshooter")
Miles .361
FVV .410
Delon .362
OG .371
JV .397
Siakam .216
Powell .324

Siakam and Powell have not been good. OG has just one year, and JV has basically just one year without too much volume.

Miles is definitely a "shooter". It is the only skill he really brings to the table, and mostly valuable because he can get hot and doesn't need a lot of space with his quick release so the D has to pay at least some attention to him. It's pretty hard to call him a "sharpshooter" though. I mean, supposedly none of our other guys are? But all of them who can shoot have higher career %s than Miles.

It might be harder to justify having Miles on the court this year. We have more shooters this year, and the two we added in Green and Leonard are great defensively. And that's the same reason it should still be hard for Powell. His strength tends to be D and energy, but we have guys who do that and are better on offence.

Thanks for that.

Well, I did say 'sharpshooter,' which I don't agree with myself. I don't think he is at all. He was more frustrating than not to watch last season, and he got burned by Love in the playoffs which made it an even tougher pill to swallow.

He reminds me a lot of J.R. Smith who can get hot, but when they're bricking open jumpers it really feels like 6-on-4.

[A.I]

Thanks for that.

Well, I did say 'sharpshooter,' which I don't agree with myself. I don't think he is at all. He was more frustrating than not to watch last season, and he got burned by Love in the playoffs which made it an even tougher pill to swallow.

He reminds me a lot of J.R. Smith who can get hot, but when they're bricking open jumpers it really feels like 6-on-4.

I put the blame for the Miles on Love matchup on Casey. Miles has his flaws on defense, Casey put those flaws on full display.

[ReubenJRD]

I put the blame for the Miles on Love matchup on Casey. Miles has his flaws on defense, Casey put those flaws on full display.

Oh absolutely. I personally don't think he's a roster fit. Casey wanted to play him at the four, and that showed to be a total failure.

90% of the roster is interchangeable position-wise, while Miles can really only guard slower forwards and guards. He's solely a small forward, and I don't trust him on the floor defensively unless he's hidden, which can be done with the number of defenders now.

Otherwise, I really don't think he'll be a big part of what they do unless he elevates his play on the perimeter--just by hitting shots, and hitting them consistently.

[DanH]

Miles isn't a "sharpshooter". That is the fundamental misconception that Raptors fans seemed to have adopted as truth once we signed him.

He is left-handed, veteran version of Ross who costs less and has worse D. He has a quicker release, which is nice, but he's not an elite shooter like half of GSW, Korver, Redick, and any guy you can count on to shoot 40%-plus from deep or at least close to it.

Miles is a 36% career 3pt shooter who's only shot over 40% one season in a 13-year career. I'd love for him to have a better season this year and top that 40% mark again, but can't really count on it.

Of the guys on the roster, we have these shooting %s for career:
Lowry .370
Leonard .386
Green .395
Serge .367 (Let that sink in, Ibaka is a more efficient shooter for his career than Miles, our "sharpshooter")
Miles .361
FVV .410
Delon .362
OG .371
JV .397
Siakam .216
Powell .324

Siakam and Powell have not been good. OG has just one year, and JV has basically just one year without too much volume.

Miles is definitely a "shooter". It is the only skill he really brings to the table, and mostly valuable because he can get hot and doesn't need a lot of space with his quick release so the D has to pay at least some attention to him. It's pretty hard to call him a "sharpshooter" though. I mean, supposedly none of our other guys are? But all of them who can shoot have higher career %s than Miles.

It might be harder to justify having Miles on the court this year. We have more shooters this year, and the two we added in Green and Leonard are great defensively. And that's the same reason it should still be hard for Powell. His strength tends to be D and energy, but we have guys who do that and are better on offence.

Miles didn't get open shots last year. His 3PT% is a little misleading.

Wright shot 36%. 76% of his 3's were wide open.
Serge shot 37%. 63% of his 3's were wide open.
Fred shot 41%. 67% of his 3's were wide open.

Lowry and Miles are both sharpshooters - meaning teams don't freaking leave them open.

Lowry shot 37%. Only 35% of his threes came when wide open.
Miles shot 36%. Only 30% of his threes came when wide open.

Both are also far higher volume shooters than anyone else on the team, and Miles shot 50% more threes per team possession than Lowry. Basically every offensive play for the bench unit was trying to get Miles an inch of space to take a shot. Miles was far and away the leader in per-possession threes attempted in the entire league (among significant minute players). The only player with more who played even a little was Mo Speights, who played about half as many minutes as Miles. The next closest player with at least as many minutes played as Miles was Steph Curry.

Miles will almost certainly see a reduction in minutes (he should probably only play in those all bench units this season), but to think Green, for example, could take his minutes with the bench unit and have the same effect, is really missing the mark, in my opinion.

[inthepaint]

Miles strength is the corner 3 spot-up shot.

Last year, coaching not only remarkably under-utilized him in that area, but also had him take most of his shots from the top-of-the-key or "elbow" 3, which was T-Ross's old zone, but not Miles comfort zone. They were also heavily contested there. On top of that, they had the poor guy defend PF/C's types for long stretches in the playoffs.

He has a very quick release and was the only real spacing option for the 2nd unit, but this year, I don't think we're gonna see that all-bench unit as much anymore, so his role will be reduced in that sense. However, he can have a greater impact in comparison to last year if Nurse utilizes him better and play to his strengths.

[white men can't jump]

Miles didn't get open shots last year. His 3PT% is a little misleading.

Wright shot 36%. 76% of his 3's were wide open.
Serge shot 37%. 63% of his 3's were wide open.
Fred shot 41%. 67% of his 3's were wide open.

Lowry and Miles are both sharpshooters - meaning teams don't freaking leave them open.

Lowry shot 37%. Only 35% of his threes came when wide open.
Miles shot 36%. Only 30% of his threes came when wide open.

Both are also far higher volume shooters than anyone else on the team, and Miles shot 50% more threes per team possession than Lowry. Basically every offensive play for the bench unit was trying to get Miles an inch of space to take a shot. Miles was far and away the leader in per-possession threes attempted in the entire league (among significant minute players). The only player with more who played even a little was Mo Speights, who played about half as many minutes as Miles. The next closest player with at least as many minutes played as Miles was Steph Curry.

Miles will almost certainly see a reduction in minutes (he should probably only play in those all bench units this season), but to think Green, for example, could take his minutes with the bench unit and have the same effect, is really missing the mark, in my opinion.

3pt% isn't misleading. It is what it is. I was also using career numbers.

Miles is a shooter, he just isn't actually elite in terms of efficiency, and the reason he leads in per-possession threes is because he can't do anything else, and as you point out the whole goal of the bench unit was to get him shots...Most coaches would have just worked in another offensive threat to that unit, but not Casey with his hockey subs. It was also a big reason for the times the bench would struggle. We had no other players to truly pull the D, and with the Siakam-Poeltl big pairing teams could ignore them outside the paint a lot, especially Poeltl, making it hard to open up the floor.

I should hope Nurse will mix his rotations a bit more. We shouldn't need Miles' presence as much if the offence and rotations are more balanced. He could benefit from a % standpoint, but should take a hit in minutes and the amount of plays run to get him a shot.

[DanH]

3pt% isn't misleading. It is what it is. I was also using career numbers.

Miles is a shooter, he just isn't actually elite in terms of efficiency, and the reason he leads in per-possession threes is because he can't do anything else, and as you point out the whole goal of the bench unit was to get him shots...Most coaches would have just worked in another offensive threat to that unit, but not Casey with his hockey subs. It was also a big reason for the times the bench would struggle. We had no other players to truly pull the D, and with the Siakam-Poeltl big pairing teams could ignore them outside the paint a lot, especially Poeltl, making it hard to open up the floor.

I should hope Nurse will mix his rotations a bit more. We shouldn't need Miles' presence as much if the offence and rotations are more balanced. He could benefit from a % standpoint, but should take a hit in minutes and the amount of plays run to get him a shot.

I was as worried as anyone about the all bench unit going into last year, but you'll have to point me to the times the bench would struggle. They were one of the most dominant high minute lineups in the league last year. On balance, it's hard to imagine a more successful unit for the minutes they played.