Norman Powell’s NBA superpower should electrify Bulls fans on a nightly basis

On Tuesday, Bulls guard Norman Powell received recognition for his elite movement shooting results, his basketball superpower, throughout the 2020s, via a social media post by ALL CITY.

According to ALL CITY’s post, Powell holds a higher movement catch & shoot three-point percentage in the 2020s decade than four-time NBA champion Stephen Curry. 

For context, Powell has accumulated 562 total movement catch & shoot three-point attempts compared to Curry’s 1304 total attempts in the same category, within the same time span as Powell.

That Powell is as accurate as Curry in a style of shooting that is a tremendous team advantage, which helped Curry win his four NBA titles, should be another source of optimism for the foundation the Bulls can establish in the infancy of their roster rebuild.

Digging into a deeper context, Powell has been truly prolific in shooting three-point attempts off movement his entire career.  Over the course of his entire NBA career, 87.9% of Powell’s regular-season three-point attempts are assisted, according to Basketball Reference.

The nuance of Powell’s movement shooting reveals he is above average in spot-up shooting, according to NBA Playtype tracking data that logged Powell’s 2025-26 NBA regular season in the 55.9th percentile of spot-up players.  Powell earned 1.06 points-per-possession on his 2025-26 NBA season spot-up possessions.

Powell is also above average using off-ball screens to get up shot-attempts outside and inside the three-point arc.  For the 2025-26 NBA regular season, Powell finished in the 61.2 percentile of off-screen playtypes, earning 1.03 points-per-possession on off-screen possessions.

Where Powell is truly elite is in transition scoring, which should be projected to be a great partnership between Powell and guard Josh Giddey, who’s more effective as a transition player than a half-court player.

For the 2025-26 NBA regular season, Powell finished in the 70.1 percentile of transition playtypes, earning 1.23 points-per–possession on transition possessions.  

Translating Powell’s movement shooting to a team context

Powell’s ability to nail transition three-point shots should give a nice boost to the Bulls’ transition offense, which is anchored on Josh Giddey’s passing.  

Bulls head coach Tiago Splitter may lean on a bread-and-butter offensive action in half-court possessions, known as an Iverson cut that would ideally feature Powell running the action to get to open shooting spots on the floor or simply create space for teammates if the opposing defense decides to aggressively ball-deny Powell’s shot attempts.

Overall, adding a movement shooter of Powell’s caliber should be a boon to the Bulls, who, since acquiring Josh Giddey in the 2024 NBA offseason, have typically oscillated between spamming transition offense or running a stagnant half-court offense that doesn’t consistently penetrate or rotate an opposing defense.

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