TORONTO — Three thousand, nine hundred and forty-five points scored.
Four hundred and nine games played.
Two hundred and sixty-eight wins.
One championship.
What you see above are just some of the cumulative numbers Norman Powell put up during the regular and post-season of his five-plus-year span with the Toronto Raptors.
Of course, just hours before the NBA’s trade deadline expired Thursday, Powell was traded to the Portland Trail Blazers in exchange for young guard Gary Trent Jr. and veteran swingman Rodney Hood.
It was an emotional day for Powell, as he expressed sadness and a little regret over being traded from the only NBA team he’s known since a draft day trade in 2015 (he was taken by the Milwaukee Bucks in the second round with the 43rd-overall pick).
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Even though the wound is fresh, those old allegiances will have to be put aside quickly as Powell and his new Blazers teammates will face off against his old buddies on the Raptors on Sunday at 7:00 p.m. ET on Sportsnet and Sportsnet ONE, just three days after he was dealt.
It’s funny how the schedule works out sometimes.
“It’s definitely gonna be a little weird and, I don’t know, I feel like there’s going to be a lot of emotions seeing everybody — coaches and stuff are still calling and texting me,” Powell said of playing his former team after his debut game with Portland on Friday night. “So I feel like it’s going to be a little weird but I’m gonna be locked in and ready to go at them once the ball goes up. I don’t have friends in this league when we’re in between the lines.
“So I’ll talk to them before, but once that ball goes up they’re opponents and I’m trying to get a win and help this team win. So I’m ready to compete and go at them.”
In that debut contest, Powell impressed, scoring 22 points on an efficient 7-of-13 shooting, including a 5-for-7 mark from deep to help the Blazers pace the Orlando Magic, 122-105.
This was the highest mid-season scoring debut in Trail Blazers history and also served as a stark reminder of the kind of player the Raptors traded away.
The business decision to trade Powell was sound, as he’s heading toward a big pay day in free agency and simply played himself out of Toronto’s price range. And getting a player like Trent back in return helps soften the blow, as he’s a similar player to Powell who just happens to be younger and on a much cheaper contract.
Still, though, 20-point-per-game scorers who boast a true-shooting percentage close to 65 per cent don’t come around too often, so he will be missed on a Raptors team that has now lost 10 of its past 11 games — including another heartbreaker on Friday night — and are mired in 11th place in the Eastern Conference.
Raptors head coach Nick Nurse didn’t seem all that enthused that he’d be seeing Powell that soon, given how locked in the former Raptors guard is right now — let alone the human element of it all, seeing an old friend-turned-foe who’s now trying to go out there and beat you, and vice versa.
“It will be strange,” Nurse said after his team’s practice on Saturday. “Sometimes they make that joke, ‘Is that too soon?’ It feels like it’s too soon to be seeing Norm coming in here against us. We are barely really over him being gone. I don’t know if I have any special tricks [for him] or not. We’re going to do our best to try and defend all those guys.
“He certainly had a good [first] game. I saw most of it this afternoon, he played really well. Looked like he went right from here to there and stayed hot. So, I’ll dig into it a little more game-plan wise and see what we can come up with.”
The Raptors should expect big things from Powell on Sunday evening, particularly because the Blazers will likely need him to step up offensively like he did Friday night against the Magic. Superstar guard Damian Lillard will reportedly play after being questionable with a left knee contusion, but some of the scoring load is sure to still fall on Powell’s capable shoulders.
Toronto will be dealing with absences of their own, as left knee swelling will keep Patrick McCaw out of the game and DeAndre’ Bembry and Paul Watson Jr. remain in health and safety protocols that will force them out of Sunday’s contest.
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COVID protocols have been the main culprit for the slump the Raptors have been in since just before the all-star break but, according to Nurse, the situation that Bembry and Watson are dealing with is different than the one that sidelined Pascal Siakam, Fred VanVleet, OG Anunoby, Malachi Flynn and McCaw before.
“I wouldn’t say it’s the same,” Nurse said when asked about similarities between the two COVID protocol scenarios. “I think there’s some differences in there, but I’m really not allowed to discuss what those are. But I would say, to answer your question, it is not the same.”
During that period when the five Raptors were forced out, Powell was a shining beacon for the Raptors, even when things were at their bleakest.
So far, those dark days for Toronto have yet to subside and on Sunday there’s a chance Powell may oddly be instrumental in keeping the Raptors in the shade.
A six-year relationship doesn’t just disappear overnight, but on Sunday night, when the ball tips, it’s going to feel like it.
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