The Chicago Bulls added Norman Powell last summer because he's an All-Star-level scorer, and he's been productive in that role. But he's killing the Bulls on the other end of the floor, and the stats unfortunately back it up.
Head coach Tiago Splitter gave minutes to 12 different players in his team's 126-107 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on Nov. 2. In fact, he played 12 different players in the first half alone. Unsurprisingly, none of those combinations were very successful.
But the five-man groups that included Powell were especially bad defensively, and it's part of a troublesome trend that should put the 33-year-old's future in the Windy City in doubt sooner rather than later.
The numbers suggest Norman Powell is hurting the Bulls defensively
Splitter's starting lineup of Powell, Josh Giddey, Caleb Wilson, Matas Buzezlis and Jalen Smith played 10 total minutes together in the loss to the Sixers. That group's defensive rating of 112.5 wasn't great, but it's hard to pin that all on Powell, right? Giddey struggles to guard anyone, Wilson isn't yet a plus defender and Smith is undersized.
But Powell was part of eight different rotations that played at least two minutes against Philly. Only two of those lineups had a positive net rating, and six of them had defensive ratings of at least that 112.5.
One game is a very small sample size, though. So let's extend it to the other six games of this season.
Six different lineups have played together in at least four of this year's first seven games. Powell is part of two of the three worst groups in terms of defensive rating. One is the starting five (there's a painful theme there); the other is Powell plus Wilson, Giddey, Smith and Isaac Okoro.
(For what it's worth, several of Chicago's best defensive lineups, at least by the metrics, include Okoro and/or Noa Essengue, even when poor defenders like Buddy Hield, Powell and Tre Jones are on the floor. That's a positive development.)
Even a seven-game sample size is relatively tiny. The further we get into the season, the more data we'll have to see how much Powell does indeed hurt the Bulls defensively. But right now, it's not hard to connect the dots between his time on the floor and when Chicago struggles the most to get stops.
This team won't be good defensively at any point this season. Splitter's squad is last in the league in points allowed per game (128.9), and it probably won't get much better. Powell isn't the only problem, but so far, the numbers suggest he's been a big problem.
With a team-friendly contract and trade eligibility beginning Dec. 15, it makes you wonder how long he'll be in the Windy City.
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