NBA
Clippers debutant Powell: I fit perfectly with PG and Kawhi
Norman Powell ended up on the losing side in his Los Angeles Clippers debut but showed exactly what his new team can expect from him moving forward.
Powell joined the Clippers last week in a five-player trade with the Portland Trail Blazers.
Fellow two-way wing Robert Covington headed to LA with Powell, while the Blazers received Eric Bledsoe, Justise Winslow, Keon Johnson and a 2025 second-round draft pick.
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Portland look to be building for the future, and the Clippers are too – to an extent.
With Paul George and Kawhi Leonard out injured and uncertain to return this year, a 2021-22 title challenge appears to be off the cards. The Clippers are eighth in the West.
Moving forward into next season, however, with two superstars returning, both Powell and Covington should improve the team.
Powell's Clippers bow suggested as much, as he scored 28 points from the bench in Sunday's 137-113 defeat to defending champions the Milwaukee Bucks.
"Literally for all my career, I have been in every single role on the team," Powell said afterwards.
"[I have been] the guy fighting and scratching trying to get into the rotation, being in a rotation, being taken out of a rotation, playing alongside Kyle [Lowry] and DeMar [DeRozan], playing alongside Kyle and Kawhi, playing off of them [in Toronto].
"So, I think I can fit perfectly in here, with PG and Kawhi."
— LA Clippers (@LAClippers) February 7, 2022
The 28-year-old, who signed a five-year, $90million deal last August, is scoring a career-high 18.9 points per game this year.
Clippers president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank said: "We never thought it was realistic for us to get a player like Norm Powell for a team that won't have salary cap space for a long, long, long time.
"It's really, really hard to get players like Norm, who are under a long-term deal, who are in their prime.
"Norm's ability as a three-level scorer – the fact that when he's playing off the ball, he's such a prolific catch-and-shoot player – really, really, complements Kawhi and PG."
Covington, who had 13 points in his debut, added: "[I am] beyond excited.
"[The trade] is going to make us dynamic – more dynamic than what we already are – and it's going to be scary defensively."
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