Drake Powell scored 10 points Tuesday night vs. the Hornets, going 3-of-9 overall and 2-of-6 from deep. Not a particularly good shooting night but he did add six boards, and it was notable for one thing: it was the first time all season that the 6’6” guard had put together back-to-back double-digit scoring nights after his season-high 16 points on Sunday vs. the Kings. If you look at the two games, 56 minutes, the numbers aren’t bad: 26 points on 9-of-17 shooting overall, 6-of-12 from deep. And it was his third double-digit scoring game in four games!
But still… as Brian Lewis wrote in between those games, his development can best be described as “tricky.’
“Up-and-down rookie season” is an apt description of Drake Powell’s first year with the Nets.
Of the Nets’ record haul of five first-round picks last June, Powell was the most athletic, but also the most raw on offense. His growing pains on that end of the floor have been protracted and pronounced.
Powell was the biggest reach of the 2025 NBA Draft for the Nets. The final ESPN mock draft had him at No. 32, at the top of the second round. Using a Hawks pick acquired the night before, the Nets took him at No. 22. Of their four other picks, Ben Saraf was taken six spots earlier than the ESPN projection; Egor Demin, five spots and Nolan Traore three. Danny Wolf was taken 12 spots after where the worldwide leader than projected him.
The rationale for mocking him so low was simple: After a spectacular high school career in North Carolina, he was limited by Tar Heels head coach (and his cousin) Hubie Davis who saw him as a defense-first player which as Lewis noted, led to “a glaringly low usage rate” which in turn has led to reps on the ball “a work in progress” in Brooklyn.
Jordi Fernandez has been encouraging both in giving him minutes — he averaged 25.6 in March, by far his most this season — and in talking about his improvement.
“I think he’s done a good job,” Fernández said his effort following the Kings game. “He always tries to do everything we ask him to do. Obviously, there’s struggles, there’s positives. [Sunday], it was a little bit of up and down, the game, but ended up being very positive.
“The shot went in, which is fine. And then at one point he was more physical and aggressive defensively. And I want that physicality to be sustained for whatever minutes he plays. [Sunday], he played 28. So that’s how I want him to play, because he missed some long rebounds, some communication, and then he cleaned it up. So, normal. But overall his willingness to do it, I’m very happy with him.”
On the other end of the court, Powell, a naturally gifted athlete, has shown possibilities. Indeed, Lewis has unearthed an interesting fact about his defense:
The Nets don’t have a single good point-of-attack defender on the roster, somebody who can harass and harangue opposing ballhandlers.
The Nets drafted Powell in hopes he could grow into that role. And it’s no coincidence that when he posted a league-best 91.9 defensive rating in December, the Nets surged to go 7-4 that month.
There is general optimism about the 20-year-old as his teammate Noah Clowney noted
.“[T]But to see him shooting the ball was always good. Ochai [Agbaji], we know what he’s capable of from 3. I think Drake sometimes gets in — not gets in his head about the 3, but he hesitates a bit. So I’m glad when [the Kings] gave him space, he didn’t hesitate to shoot his s–t at all.”
