Game #26: Toronto Raptors 115 - Phoenix Suns 109

[LJ2]

Norm's issues in my opinion are all mental. He got an extension and that can play a toll. He then had a pretty big injury and those are not always the easiest to recover from.

I don't know what it will take to get him out of his head.. maybe he just needs one good game and he'll bounce back. His best skill is defense. Just needs to try and stop the guy in front of him. Like he did in the playoffs against the Bucks.

Norm only needs to look to OG to see how to impact the game without having to fill up the boxscore. Weird thing is that he was great at it last year. He's out of place in the new offence at the moment but you gotta think he'll figure it out.

[JawsGT]

Norm has just been awful this year.

Coincidence that when he was in the starting line up they struggled and now he's on the bench and they're struggling?!

He really needs to stop forcing his game and being so damn predictable with the straight line drives. One thing he really, really needs to work on in the off season is a mid range game and there's no excuse when you got the King of it on your team that is already friends with you. It would do Norm wonders with his speed if he could play with a change of pace, pull up from the mid range, some ballhandling in traffic, backdowns, fadeaways, spinmoves etc

Right now he has no confidence in his 3pt shot, teams are going under the screen and awaiting his straight line drive to the basket which 9x out of 10 is leading to a tightly contested shot when Norm already has pretty poor touch around the basket or having a help defender dig in to impede his ballhandling. He needs to start taking some pointers from DeMar immediately and also get back to picking his spots...and locking into his defense, ZERO excuse for why he isn't. We seen with PG and Middleton, he's 100% of locking down his man and it seems to feed his confidence besides leading to run outs and breakaway dunks.

Yeah norm needs to get a pull up jumper in his game. I wonder if the team's focus on taking 3's and shots in the paint is putting Norm in a bit of a predicament? His drives are awful, his pass outs are bad and his finishing is poor. It seems like he isn't reacting to the D but just forcing it down the lane and ending up in bad positions. A pull up mid range jumper may help him make better decisions with the ball as it would keep the defence on it's heels and never quite sure what he may do. He should be able to pick his spots better and find better lanes to the basket. Plus it would be more natural for him as a ball handler/decision maker to have that option of shooting from 12-18 feet. Take it when it's there, otherwise drive the ball or swing it.

[planetmars]

Norm's issues in my opinion are all mental. He got an extension and that can play a toll. He then had a pretty big injury and those are not always the easiest to recover from.

I don't know what it will take to get him out of his head.. maybe he just needs one good game and he'll bounce back. His best skill is defense. Just needs to try and stop the guy in front of him. Like he did in the playoffs against the Bucks.

[planetmars]

That game also sucked.. glad they got the win, but it was way too close. That team needs to get out of the West coast ASAP.

WTF with Troy Daniels getting like 30 points. Who the hell is he?

[MixxAOR]

Norm needs a hesitation dribble or jab step. Dude just has one speed right now.

[CalgaryRapsFan]

Norm is sucking, but I don’t mind giving him minutes to work his way out of it, though giving him a star to play beside would help him a lot.

I am worried about Norm. He reminds me a lot of Sonny Weems... good success early on, scoring mostly off the dribble right down the paint or in transition with highlight dunks, an occasional 3pt shot, good defense, overblown hype for a second round pick, starts believing his own hype and forcing his game, and then looks terrible once teams start adjusting to actually defend him.

I had similar thoughts in his first couple seasons, but didn't want to sound like chicken little, and wanted to just enjoy the ride. I hope he turns it around, but Casey needs to reign him in and remind him what made him successful - defense, effort, and playing hard off the ball. Stop pretending you're the second-coming of DeRozan, young gun.

[DanH]

Or you just let guys play through the ups and downs that always happen in an 82 game season.

Like, I'm a strong proponent of getting big samples before making decisions, and I do think that Wright coming back could make Norm's life easier, and a lot of Norm's issues hopefully can go away with some time and a mindset change, but...

But we knew coming into the season he would struggle with the bench. And he struggled way more with the starters than I expected, but his struggles with the bench are WAY worse. And so long as they keep rolling out all-bench units (which I expect even more of with Wright back and too many guards in the rotation), I can't see him getting a chance to play more of a background role, where he excels. And I definitely wouldn't screw with the suddenly working starting unit just to give Norm a boost (that judging from the start of the season may not be effective anyway).

So barring Casey starting to use the star+bench units more, I could see Powell struggling like this for a while. He's just not a 6th man type of player, and he's being used that way.

[S.R.]

Or you just let guys play through the ups and downs that always happen in an 82 game season.

[JamesNaismith]

Norm has just been awful this year.

Coincidence that when he was in the starting line up they struggled and now he's on the bench and they're struggling?!

He really needs to stop forcing his game and being so damn predictable with the straight line drives. One thing he really, really needs to work on in the off season is a mid range game and there's no excuse when you got the King of it on your team that is already friends with you. It would do Norm wonders with his speed if he could play with a change of pace, pull up from the mid range, some ballhandling in traffic, backdowns, fadeaways, spinmoves etc

Right now he has no confidence in his 3pt shot, teams are going under the screen and awaiting his straight line drive to the basket which 9x out of 10 is leading to a tightly contested shot when Norm already has pretty poor touch around the basket or having a help defender dig in to impede his ballhandling. He needs to start taking some pointers from DeMar immediately and also get back to picking his spots...and locking into his defense, ZERO excuse for why he isn't. We seen with PG and Middleton, he's 100% of locking down his man and it seems to feed his confidence besides leading to run outs and breakaway dunks.

[golden]

Took me 10 views to notice that Trump was in that gif. Lol.


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[DanH]

Bench has only struggled the last 5 games or so. Which have all been against bad teams.

Guess how many minutes total the most-used non-Wright all bench unit with a positive net rating has played on the season.

[Chr1s1anL]

It's pretty clear that Deebo is the best player on this team now. Lowry is too inconsistent.

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[Chr1s1anL]

Is that not even more concerning? How can they be struggling against crappy benches? I think it's clear that they've come back down to earth.

Lowry/DeRozan need to play with them more.

Right than people will complain about Lowry being broken down. Just cause they are bad teams doesn't mean they have a bad bench. Most good teams are top heavy and benches are alright. Also role players play better at home. Your best player have to carry you on the road.

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[tDotted]

Bench has only struggled the last 5 games or so. Which have all been against bad teams.

Is that not even more concerning? How can they be struggling against crappy benches? I think it's clear that they've come back down to earth.

Lowry/DeRozan need to play with them more.

[Chr1s1anL]

I joked on twitter that the matchup of the night was JV’s great clutch time net rating versus Fred’s horrible one, and JV won out, if slightly.

In seriousness, we’re throwing away points. The all bench units need to die, at least until Wright is back (against good teams anyway) to try to salvage the offence. VanVleet closing games is super dumb, and desperately needs to stop. Norm is sucking, but I don’t mind giving him minutes to work his way out of it, though giving him a star to play beside would help him a lot.

Take the road win, go home. Take some solace that the starters blew them out as they were supposed to, just the bench was garbage, and that bench look should never exist in meaningful games.

Bench has only struggled the last 5 games or so. Which have all been against bad teams.