2025 Rookie Observation (20): The draft market of North Carolina s freshman 3D wing is constantly declining?

Drake Powell

Team: University of North Carolina (NCAA)

Date of birth: September 2005

Place of birth: Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States (Church Hill)

High School: Northwood High School

Grade: Freshman

Position: Fighter, Swinger

Naked foot height: 196.2cm

Weight: 90.9kg

Wandspan: 213.4cm

Standing height: 261.6cm

Expected market: The first round to the second round

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Honor: 2024 McDonald's High School All-Star Game

Number of the United States High School Student Ranking (2024): On3 ranked 16th (four stars), 247 ranked 11th (five stars), ESPN ranked 13th (five stars), Rivals ranked 14th (five stars)

Note: 1: Father Dederick Powell (Dedric) Powell also played at the University of North Carolina.

Season data:

37 appearances (24 starts), 25.6 minutes per game, 7.4 points and 3.4 rebounds (0.7 frontcourt rebounds), 1.1 assists, 0.7 steals and 0.7 blocks, 0.7 turnovers and 1.8 fouls, shooting percentage of 48.3% (2.8/5.7), three-point shooting percentage of 37.9% (1/2.6), and free throw shooting percentage of 64.8% (0.9/1.5).

Advantages:

Powell is a wing player with outstanding physical talent and athleticism. During the joint trial, he even jumped out of a 43-inch run-up jump, which is enough to show how excellent his athletic ability is.

Powell has certain breakthrough ability and ball-holding offensive ability. His starting speed and explosive power are pretty good, and he can also maintain his shot stability after the confrontation. Powell has a great role in conversion offense, he has a great finishing ability, and he is always able to make the right decisions during conversion offense. Powell has good ball movement ability, his empty cutting ability is quite good, and he can find opportunities at the basket. Powell's ability to catch and shoot is also good. His shooting percentage is still stable outside the three-point line. He occasionally performs some mid-range and close shooting after holding the ball.

Powell is a very excellent defender. He moves very fast. He is very focused on the defensive end. He can keep up with the opponent's offense. He has a high oppressive attitude towards the ball. He has excellent defensive awareness. He can complete various defensive rotations. He has very comprehensive functions on the defensive end. He also has the ability to defend players from multiple positions. He has strong assisted and supplemented defense abilities. He even has a certain ability to protect the basket. Powell's defensive aggressiveness is also excellent enough. His spiritual attributes are full, he is full of energy on the court, and his defensive enthusiasm is extremely high.

Powell also has certain passing abilities. He can complete some assists in the conversion offense. He can occasionally have some eye-catching passes, and he also has the ability to find teammates who cut into the inside.

Disadvantages:

Powell has a certain ability to hold the ball, but his ability in this area still needs to be improved. With his current dribbling ability, it is difficult for him to assume more ball rights on the offensive end, and he can only play a relatively minor role. When he meets a better defender, he may also find it difficult to complete breakthroughs and hit the inside.

Powell's three-point shooting percentage looks pretty good, but there are some problems with the shooting movements, and there seems to be some leaning back, and his shooting speed is not too fast. Due to the number of shots, his three-point output is not too high. Whether Powell can maintain such a three-point shooting percentage after entering the NBA arena is a potential question mark.

Powell seems to have certain passing ability and support ability, but he does not have that many highlights in this area. It is also an unknown number of how much ability he has in this area.

Expected market:

Powell's draft market looks to be declining. Powell was previously considered to have a first-round market, but it seems that his current draft market is about to fall out of the first-round zone. Although Powell seems to be an all-round 3D player with both offense and defense, and has great potential to explore, his overall performance in the NCAA arena this season is still a little mediocre, and his importance in the team is relatively limited. Especially on the offensive end, Powell is indeed unable to play a greater role at present. It is probably because of this factor that Powell's draft market is also declining, and it may decline further.

Personal prediction: Although Powell's data is average and his functions on the field are slightly limited, judging from the current situation, his upper limit should not be that low. Powell should have the opportunity to become a good 3D type wing player. His role on the defensive end is very outstanding. With the accumulation of defensive experience, his performance on the defensive end can be further improved. Powell has at least been able to maintain a relatively stable three-point shooting percentage and offensive efficiency this season, and he also has some other highlights on the offensive end, which also shows that he is a player with high plasticity and he also has considerable potential to explore on the offensive end. What's more, his physical talent and athletic ability are there, which is unquestionable.. Under such circumstances, Powell's draft market should not fall any further, and the draft pick may be more suitable for him at the beginning of the first round and the last round.

Target teams:

Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers, Milwaukee Bucks, Cleveland Cavaliers, Brooklyn Nets, Phoenix Suns 3D type wing players should be very needed by many teams. The Celtics lack such players in the second team with excellent talent, stable defense and good three-point ability; the Lakers also lack this type of wing players, and they can also add similar players to the second team; the Bucks are likely to lose Gary Trent Jr. this summer, and they also need to supplement this type of players; the Cavaliers also had problems on the defensive end during the playoffs, and they may also need players like Powell; the Nets have many players with excellent scoring abilities, but the team's outside players' defensive abilities are generally average, and Powell is also the candidate they can consider; the Suns need this way too young players who do not need too much ball rights and can play a role in both offense and defense.