Dwight Powell: Does His Solid Summer Really Mean Anything?

Dwight Powell has had a solid summer but does it really mean he’s ready for a significant role next season?

I just can’t decide what to think about Dwight Powell.

There were times last season when he looked like a player who could grow into a serviceable professional in the very near future, and then other times when I wondered if he wouldn’t be better suited getting minutes in the D-League.

Then he put up pretty good numbers for the Mavericks’ Summer League squad in Las Vegas this July, and then again recently for the Canadian National Team in their run to the Tuto Marchand Continental Cup championship this week.

Powell finished fifth on the team with 8.2 points, and third in rebounds with 5.2 for the Canadians during the tournament, playing alongside NBAers Andrew Wiggins, Kelly Olynyk, and Cory Joseph among others.

Encouraging stuff, yet I’m still wavering.

Powell is athletic, has some touch on his jumper, and plays hard. And I’m certainly rooting for him because he has obviously put in the work to improve his game.

But I just don’t know if it’ll be enough. Powell has gotten stronger but even through his overall good performance during competition this summer is still prone to giving up ground in the post defensively, and is still muscled out of position when working the glass far too often.

To make it possible for Rick Carlisle to make him a regular member of the rotation Powell will need to be able to defend in the post and rebound well. It’s as simple as that. Everything else is just gravy. And often times I find myself unconvinced that he’ll be able to do those things.

Plus, while he’s been playing well this summer, it’s come against mostly second-tier talent.

Then I remember he’s capable of doing things like this:

And playing like this against other NBA talent:

And I’m back to thinking that there is a place in the league for him, and that this summer was indeed the step Powell needed to take in order to become a rotation player behind Dirk Nowitzki.

I suppose this is mostly a wait-and-see situation and we will get to see more of Powell for Team Canada in the coming days. But if you’re like me, October 28th can’t come soon enough.

What do you think?

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