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TSN Raptors Reporter

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TORONTO – If you thought your expectations of Norman Powell were high entering this, his third NBA season, try getting inside the 24-year-old’s head.

Already a known gym rat, Powell took his workout regimen to another level this past summer. Admittedly, he had never pushed himself harder, mentally or physically.

Living in Los Angeles, his days would begin at 4 a.m. By 5 a.m. he was in the gym. By noon he had already gotten in three workouts.

“I pushed myself to exhaustion,” he told reporters on the eve of training camp.

“I've worked, I've pushed myself in a totally different way this offseason. I'm preparing myself for a full 82-game season, for increased minutes, taking care of my body, just training and trying to improve. So I'm ready for it.”

Indeed, Powell seemed primed for a breakout campaign. He had impressed as both a rookie and a sophomore, albeit in a situational role. He had endeared himself to the fan base with his work ethic, hard play and postseason heroics. Now, with the starting gig and a new four-year, $42 million extension to his name, the biggest opportunity of his life was right in front of him.

Just about everybody expected big things from Powell this season, the Raptors included, but nobody put more pressure on Norm than Norm himself. Perhaps that’s part of the problem.

To say things haven’t gone according to plan would be an understatement.

“I mean, expectations-wise and just the way I thought things were gonna go, from that standpoint [this season has been] a little different,” said a candid Powell, opening up to reporters after Toronto’s practice on Monday. “You just put so much into it, the way we were going in the summer, you have high expectations for the way you're gonna come out in your third year [and] it doesn't go the way you expected, different things happen.”

Just 13 games into the season, a struggling Powell lost his starting job – first to an injury and then to rookie OG Anunoby. By January he was out of the regular rotation altogether, essentially reprising his old role as an in-case-of-emergency 11th man. He was a healthy scratch in five games that month and played fewer than 12 minutes in six more.

On Wednesday he got his first start since November, filling in for the injured Anunoby, but after underwhelming in 17 minutes he was replaced by G-Leaguer Malcolm Miller to open Sunday’s contest against Charlotte. In four late first-half minutes, Powell missed two open threes, botched a layup and fouled a jump shooter.

He’s gone three games and over 32 minutes without scoring. Worst of all, this recent version of Powell is almost unrecognizable. He’s passing up good looks, over-helping on defence, and can’t quite seem to find the balance between doing too much and doing too little. His confidence has taken a hit and you can see it in the way he hangs his head or looks over to the bench after a missed shot.

We can get technical in trying to diagnose Powell’s woes. Maybe the initial sample size, while encouraging, was too small. Maybe other teams are better prepared for his aggressive, attack-first style and he has yet to adjust. Most likely, there are numerous factors at play, but the primary culprit is probably mental.

For as long as Powell has played basketball, he has been able to connect the work he’s put into the game with the result that’s come out of it. They have always gone hand in hand. He was overlooked in his first couple seasons at UCLA, so he worked harder than everybody else and climbed up the depth chart. He fell to the second round in the NBA Draft, so he grinded away and proved to be a steal.

His work ethic is the one thing that has never wavered; if anything it’s gotten more meticulous as his play has faltered. He’s routinely the first player at BioSteel Centre, the team’s practice facility, and one of the last to leave. However, bashing your head against a brick wall over and over isn’t going to bring it down.

Thanks in large part to his maturity and postseason experience, it’s easy to forget that Powell is just 24. Like any other young player, he’s still learning to overcome failure. Even the most talented, hardest working veteran players experience failure - that’s part of the NBA - but the difference is they have been through it. Whether it’s a bad game or a shooting slump, those guys know how to brush it off before it gets in their head and becomes something bigger.

“It’s tough, but sometimes it’s okay when it’s tough,” said nine-year vet DeMar DeRozan. “Sometimes when you’re going through those tough moments, shooting-wise or something’s not going your way, it can’t do nothing but get better from there. It can’t get [any] worse, especially when you got your teammates behind you and pushing you no matter how bad something may go. If you miss 10 shots in a row, we’re still with you. It don’t even matter.”

That’s where Powell’s situation gets complicated: his leash isn’t long enough to miss that many shots in a row. Powell remains an important part of the Raptors' future – either as a player or an asset (he’s trade-eligible again in July) – but Dwane Casey’s primary goal is to win. With arguably the league’s deepest bench at his disposal, he’s got several other options he can turn to if Powell is hurting that cause. And for most of the season, he has been – Toronto is outscored by 0.4 points per 100 possessions with him on the floor, by far the worst mark on the team.

“You’re trying to go out there and make an impact in the short time that you do have,” Powell said. “If you go out and nothing happens or you get some good looks and it doesn't fall through, it's a little frustrating. Those things keep you in the game and if it doesn't happen, you're stuck in the same spot. So it's a little frustrating.”

“I told him: he has to go into the game and make it impossible for me to take him out,” said Casey. “Don’t play even, go in and run the floor, [get] 50-50 balls, make tough plays. And I’m not measuring it on making shots or missing shots. It’s the other things. Running the floor, playing smart defensively, executing what we’re trying to do defensively and not making mistakes there. Those are the things we’re looking at that position.”

Although Anunoby’s sprained ankle isn’t expected to keep him out long-term, it sounds like he could miss another game or two and Casey intends to continue experimenting at small forward until he returns. The rookie Miller didn’t exactly stand out in 14 scoreless minutes on Sunday, but he didn’t look out of place with the first unit either. Alfonzo McKinnie may also get a look this week, as could Nigel Hayes, a standout for the Westchester Knicks (New York’s G-League affiliate) who was signed to a 10-day contract on Monday.

Casey insists that this fluidity isn’t an indictment of Powell but rather an opportunity to see what they’ve got in some of these other wing players at this stage of the season. While there is probably some truth to that, it’s hard to imagine them tinkering to this degree if they had complete confidence in Powell, or even Anunoby for that matter.

The unfortunate reality is something that nobody saw coming: it’s hard to know what you’re going to get from the once-reliable Powell on a night-to-night basis. That said, hope is not lost. He’s still a young player, he has obvious talent and remains a tireless worker. None of that has changed. The Raptors believe in him but, most importantly, he believes in himself. More often than not, those are the guys you want to bet on.

“That's the journey,” Powell said. “You're gonna come along bumps and little barriers in your way, so [it’s] how you handle them, how you come across them and how you view 'em, to keep going and move past the obstacles that are in front of you. For me, it's always been about hard work and continuing to fight through anything. It's gonna turn around. I don't care what anybody thinks of me or [how] anybody views of me. I know who I am as a person, I know what I put into this game. My teammates know, the coaches know, the organization knows, and I'mma stick with that and just keep working."