Dallas Mavericks: How Much Can we Expect From Dwight Powell?

The Dallas Mavericks got to see a lot of growth from Dwight Powell during the last season and, as he heads into a potential contract year, can we expect even more growth?

There is a perception across the NBA that players who don’t develop in their late teens or early 20’s will never be able to develop because they’ve missed their window.

Dwight Powell is now 26 years old and just barely starting to show flashes of what the NBA was hoping for from him. Despite the common belief that Powell is already through his developmental years, can we expect growth from the big man during the 2018-19 season?

The simple answer is yes, I fully believe tat Dwight Powell is going to grow even more in the upcoming season. Here are just a few of the areas of growth he has already shown.

Shooting

Powell was able to develop somewhat of a three-point shot this year, which is not necessarily an easy thing to do. He went from shooting about 25% from deep in the first three years of his career to over 33% this last season.

His field goal percentage increased too, from about 50% to almost 60%. This is especially impressive considering his shots per game increased substantially this year as well.

I expect to see his three-point percentage continue to rise and his field goal percentage to stay about where it’s at.

Rebounding

Dwight Powell is still not a magnificent rebounder (5.6 boards per game), but he is an excellent offensive rebounder. More than 30% of the rebounds Powell pulled down this season were on the offensive end, which is fairly impressive.

I expect to see Powell’s overall rebound numbers to improve if he continues to get similar minutes. If his minutes diminish, I still believe his per game numbers should look pretty good.

Awareness

One of the big knocks to Dwight’s game early on was that he would get lost easily and he couldn’t finish. After this year, Powell has now become one of the best alley-oop finishers in the league. Last season, Powell converted 68/81 alley-oops into made baskets, either layup or dunk.

That is good for 5th in the league behind names like Anthony Davis (104/125), Clint Capela (96/123), DeAndre Jordan (89/104), and Andre Drummond (78/103).

This shows an improvement in his catching and finishing abilities as his alley-pop conversion rate is about 84%. It also shows his shot selection improving as 81 of his 401 shots were above the rim, accounting for 20% of the shots he took.

Next: Will Kyle Collinsworth be Back in the League Next Year?

The improvements by Powell are noticeable and important and it seems like the big man is continuing to improve. Hopefully we will see that again in the upcoming season.