Why the Spurs Should Release Josh Powell

[timvp]

I think the increase in productivity from Powell is in correlation to the mystery bandage under his right ear...

Brain transplant? Could explain his improved play . . .

He's the anti-Bonner. Bonner fails the eyeball test but passes the plus-minus tests. It looks like it's the reverse with Powell.

Problem is Powell fails the plus/minus test and the regular stats test. That double whammy makes it close to impossible to overlook, especially since the sample size is large.

So they should release a player who is playing extremely well, because he's never played this well before. That's some logic there.

I think it's good logic. If you're predicting a player's future, would you rather use a sample size that include 4,000+ minutes of regular season and playoff minutes ... or 100 minutes of preseason action? I think the choice is clear, especially for a 30-year-old power forward who is unlikely to change much.

[timvp]

How is this guys defense? The last thing we should be looking for in a big-man is nice stats.

Just looking at him, you'd think he'd be able to play about average defense. But the advanced stats point to him being a well below average defender.

It's hard to find a keeper in other teams' garbage cans, but the Spurs have done it over and over, and more often recently. Neal, Green, and Mills come to mind.

There hasn't been a player whose resume is as bad as Powell who the Spurs have resurrected.

Even Francisco Elson had a better resume. His had a career PER of around 10.7 before he joined the Spurs but his plus/minus stats were good in his last season in Denver.

Powell would be the ultimate reclamation project. But I just don't see it being worth the risk. Even if he just plays 500 minutes for the Spurs, history tells us he's going to make the team much worse.

I would not spend any time researching the numbers that you have posted on Powell's career. I have more faith in the Spurs system and it's ability to make use of league capable position players.

Nothing about Powell suggest he's "league capable". He's been very likely the worst player in the entire league in the last five seasons. If not the worst, definitely in the top five.







Truth be told, I actually started researching Powell's career to put together a write-up detailing how he could be a sleeper would could blossom on the Spurs. But everywhere I turned, Powell just looked worse and worse ... to the point where I think he's not even worth keeping as the 15th man.

Powell is the worst kind of bad player: The kind that passes the eye-test and thus earns minutes that he will ultimately waste.

[SpurNation]

Truth be told, I actually started researching Powell's career to put together a write-up detailing how he could be a sleeper would could blossom on the Spurs. But everywhere I turned, Powell just looked worse and worse ... to the point where I think he's not even worth keeping as the 15th man.

Powell is the worst kind of bad player: The kind that passes the eye-test and thus earns minutes that he will ultimately waste.

Great work as always. And there's no reason to not trust your opinion and research. So this should make it an easier task between choosing Curry or Brown. Which, I wonder what the research entails in that regard? Is Brown the clear cut front runner if the team only chose one out of those three?

[tp2021]

Well, If Powell sucks for the rest of the preseason and Curry is still great, keeping Curry wouldn't be a bad move. Spurs don't really other options for the 15th spot because I haven't been really impressed by Brown or Witherspoon.

Even if Curry is kept after the training camp, it won't mean he will be here for the year. Spurs still have until the guaranteed contract deadline in January to figure out if he is legit or a fluke.

They could do this just the same, right?

[spurraider21]

I wonder what Danny greens PER was before coming to the spurs

[timvp]

I wonder what Danny greens PER was before coming to the spurs

Green's PER was 12.3 with the Cavs. Not great but 20% better than Powell has ever accomplished.

[timvp]

I dug a little deeper into Powell's past and it's ugly. I checked out his regularized adjusted plus/minus (basically a more complex/precise version of plus/minus) ... and wow. I said he might be the worst player in the NBA -- that was being kind. The guy is literally the worst thing the NBA has seen in the last decade.

Each season, he's been consistently horrible. It doesn't matter what team he's on or what system he plays in. Powell is a disaster.

2007 - 5th worst regularized adjusted plus/minus in the entire NBA
2008 - 2nd worst (And this was the best season of his career)
2009 - Worst (I'm talking the entire NBA, mind you)
2010 - Worst (back-to-back years? wow)
2011 - 3rd worst

That's five straight seasons being in the top five worst players in regularized adjusted plus/minus. That's a stunning feat. He played for five different teams in those five seasons and yet consistently had a huge negative impact at each stop.

It'd be difficult to accomplish that amount of suck even if you are trying to do that. First, you have to stick in the league for that long. Second, you have to keep tricking coaches into thinking you can help. Third, you have to be horrendously bad without it being too obvious.

I rarely come to a definite conclusion based solely on stats put these numbers are simply overwhelming. I don't care how good he plays in preseason, Josh Powell should not make the regular season roster. Period. End of story.




P.S.

In case you were wondering, guess who has the lowest regularized adjusted plus/minus over the last decade? Yep, our friend Josh Powell.

Congrats on the hot streak, Mr. Powell, but kindly GTFO before Pop mistakenly thinks you deserve regular season minutes.

[Obstructed_View]

Thank god the guy doesn't hit three pointers.

[racm]

Would rather have Eddy Curry (legit 7 footer with a serviceable offensive game, 6 fouls per game at worst) or Derrick Brown (combo forward who will see a lot of time playing against teams with their athletic combo forwards like MIA or OKC), tbh.

[Johnny RIngo]

I dug a little deeper into Powell's past and it's ugly. I checked out his regularized adjusted plus/minus (basically a more complex/precise version of plus/minus) ... and wow. I said he might be the worst player in the NBA -- that was being kind. The guy is literally the worst thing the NBA has seen in the last decade.

Each season, he's been consistently horrible. It doesn't matter what team he's on or what system he plays in. Powell is a disaster.

2007 - 5th worst regularized adjusted plus/minus in the entire NBA
2008 - 2nd worst (And this was the best season of his career)
2009 - Worst (I'm talking the entire NBA, mind you)
2010 - Worst (back-to-back years? wow)
2011 - 3rd worst

That's five straight seasons being in the top five worst players in regularized adjusted plus/minus. That's a stunning feat. He played for five different teams in those five seasons and yet consistently had a huge negative impact at each stop.

It'd be difficult to accomplish that amount of suck even if you are trying to do that. First, you have to stick in the league for that long. Second, you have to keep tricking coaches into thinking you can help. Third, you have to be horrendously bad without it being too obvious.

I rarely come to a definite conclusion based solely on stats put these numbers are simply overwhelming. I don't care how good he plays in preseason, Josh Powell should not make the regular season roster. Period. End of story.




P.S.

In case you were wondering, guess who has the lowest regularized adjusted plus/minus over the last decade? Yep, our friend Josh Powell.

Congrats on the hot streak, Mr. Powell, but kindly GTFO before Pop mistakenly thinks you deserve regular season minutes.

Looking at those numbers, it's strange that SA even gave him these pre-season tryouts. IIRC, the Spurs FO has always embraced advanced stats and Powell is about as bad as it gets.

[Dex]

Thank god the guy doesn't hit three pointers.

Except for that one he drained from about 3 feet behind the line at the halftime buzzer of the Atlanta game.

[dylankerouac]

Congrats on the hot streak, Mr. Powell, but kindly GTFO before Pop mistakenly thinks you deserve regular season minutes.

: (

[Texas_Ranger]

Bonner, Powell & Blair will be just great.

[Brazil]

timvp

[jiggy_55]

Pop is just trolling Spurstalk.

[therealtruth]

Thanks for the reverse psychology on Pop. Now we get to keep Powell.

[lakerhaterade]

Pop reads spurstalk. He reads timvp's takes and just does everything opposite to troll us tbh.

nah but really, I wonder if he or anybody on the coaching staff lurks on this site.

[jeebus]

Powell is gone, thank God

[timtonymanu]

Well, that is out of the way.

[Sean Cagney]

Powell is gone, thank God

He sucks..... YES THANK GOD! They still should have kept onto Curry or someone else who might help.

[Ice009]

If they are not keeping Powell, then why didn't the just keep Curry around for a while longer? They could have cut Curry at anytime within the next month or two. Why not keep him around and see how he fits on the team?

[Sean Cagney]

If they are not keeping Powell, then why didn't the just keep Curry around for a while longer? They could have cut Curry at anytime within the next month or two. Why not keep him around and see how he fits on the team?

I have no clue what the they are thinking half the time now and have not for years on end. I guess we get more BONNER and Blair, like that already didn't fail.

[ChumpDumper]

They don't want to carry 15 players at this time. It's pretty simple.

[Sean Cagney]

They don't want to carry 15 players at this time. It's pretty simple.

Yeah true, they will go on later to sign some PG we never heard of though lol.

[Bruno]

Powell has signed with a team in Greece.
Had Spurs been tempted to re-sign it at some point of the season, it's now not possible to do which is a good thing.