It’s not the Most Valuable Player award and the championship that Norman Powell was hoping before, but the Las Vegas Summer League once again recognized Powell’s summer dominance on Sunday, naming him to the All-NBA Summer League Second Team.
Powell made the First Team a season ago, but a panel of media members decided he was only among the 10 best, rather than five best, this time around. The truth is that Powell showed he’s too advanced for this setting, although there’s plenty of good reason to still have him there if you’re the Toronto Raptors. Taking on a primary ball-handling role in the offense and generally drawing the toughest defensive assignment, Powell averaged 19.8 points, 4.4 rebounds, 2.4 assists, and one steal while hitting 12 of his 26 3-point attempts, getting to the line seven times per-game, and somehow improving his offensive efficiency metrics from last summer. He also took on a large leadership role, something we’ll have more on later this week or next.
The best part about this would-be snub is that it almost certainly motivates Powell’s grind, because everything motivates his grind.
The Raptors went 4-1 in the tournament, losing a knockout game when tournament MVP Tyus Jones drew a questionable foul call on Yanick Moreira, sending Jones to the line for game-winning free throws at the buzzer.
The full All-Tournament teams are as follows:
Samsung All-NBA Summer League First Team
Tyus Jones (Minnesota)
Jordan McRae (Cleveland)
Bobby Portis (Chicago)
Ben Simmons (Philadelphia)
Alan Williams (Phoenix)
Samsung All-NBA Summer League Second Team
Jaylen Brown (Boston)
Thon Maker (Milwaukee)
Kelly Oubre Jr. (Washington)
Norman Powell (Toronto)
Tyler Ulis (Phoenix)
As an interesting Raptors’ side note, Jakob Poeltl had the highest points per-possession of any first-round pick in the tournament, per Synergy, but he also received the fewest possessions per-game. Insert your Jonas Valanciunas offensive usage jokes here.
