Brooklyn Nets forward Drake Powell is coming off an up-and-down season in which he showed some flashes of his perimeter defensive ability, but also where he has to grow on the offensive end. Rookies like Powell have to experience growing pains as they attempt to become better basketball players, but Brooklyn has to be hoping that he can turn the corner soon.
"The Nets had five first-round picks in 2025. With the exception of the outstanding Egor Dёmin, the Nets look as if they whiffed on this entire group," John Hollinger wrote for The Athletic when giving his take on the Nets' 2025 NBA Draft class. Hollinger had only positive things to say about Egor Demin, but he seemed lukewarm at best on the rest of the class, including Powell.
"I don’t know
what to say about Powell except bleeeech. Across six summer-league games, he shot a Swainian 8 of 44 with 10 turnovers," Hollinger wrote in his blurb on Powell's performance in Brooklyn's summer circuit. "Aside from an 18-point eruption in the Nets’ second-to-last game, he just didn’t look like an NBA player — a non-shooter whose feel and decision-making inside the arc aren’t nearly good enough to offset that fact."
Powell, 20, finished his stint in the California Classic and Las Vegas Summer League with averages of 5.8 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 1.2 steals per game while shooting 18.2% from the field and 16.0% from behind the three-point line. To illustrate how much Powell struggled during the summer circuit, he shot just 1-for-28 over his first four games before dropping 18 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the floor against the Sacramento Kings.
Prior to entering the Draft, Powell was regarded as a player who could be a force on both ends of the floor due to his athleticism and his offensive repertoire when looking at his high school tape. However, Powell has struggled to find his place on the offensive end of the floor thus far in the NBA and if summer league was any indication, he has plenty of work to do on that end to realize his full potential.
This article originally appeared on Nets Wire: What to make of Nets' Drake Powell's performance in the summer league?
