Norman Powell of the Los Angeles Clippers is having a big year late in his career. Who are the other players who have made the biggest age-30 or older improvements in recent memory?
It’s been said that a player’s developmental arc isn’t always linear. But either is the downturn of a career.
And our DELTA metric is a useful tool for ascertaining which players have improved the most in a given season because it tracks a player’s DRIP (our in-house one-number metric) from the beginning of the season until the present day.
Normally, the top of the leaderboards in this category is occupied by young players in their early/mid-20s. However, this year, the league leader in DELTA (plus-2.4) is Norman Powell – a 31-year-old guard for the Los Angeles Clippers.
In fact, Powell owns (as of Friday) the fourth-highest DELTA of any player in his age-30 season or later in our DRIP database’s history (which goes back to 2012).
So, in honor of Powell’s atypical spike in production, we’re taking a look back at some of the best age-30 or older improvements in recent memory.
Norman Powell, Los Angeles Clippers (2024-25)
DELTA: 2.4 (Fourth-highest age-30 or older since 2012)
After almost exclusively coming off the bench last season (just three starts in 76 games), Powell now starts every game he’s available to for the Clippers. When a player sees an increase in minutes, it is normal to see an increase in points.
But what Powell is doing is something special.
Despite only playing 6.6 more minutes per game (going from 26.2 to 32.8), Powell has increased his points per game by 9.8 (13.9 to 23.7) while also increasing his efficiency by 1.0% (62.6% true shooting to 63.5%).
It’s almost always the case that when a player increases his/her scoring volume (10.1 FGA to 16.7 FGA), efficiency takes a dip. But Powell has been one of the rare players to have the opposite happen to them, which has helped the Clippers remain competitive despite Kawhi Leonard missing 35 of the team’s first 39 games.
Joe Ingles, Utah Jazz (2017-18)
DELTA: 2.3 (Fifth)
Unlike Powell (who went to UCLA), Ingles did not start his NBA career straight out of college. Instead, he spent nearly half a decade playing professional basketball overseas before making his NBA debut at the age of 27.
However, despite entering the NBA at an advanced age, it took Ingles some time to find his footing in the top basketball league on the planet. After three uneventful years with the Utah Jazz, Ingles emerged as a high-level starting caliber player in his age-30 season (2017-18).
In that season, Ingles did the same thing Powell is doing this year. He upped his minutes, scoring volume, playmaking volume and scoring efficiency. Ingles went on to be an integral part of the most successful era in recent Jazz history, one that saw the team win 62.3% of its regular season games from 2017-22.
Alec Burks, New York Knicks (2021-22)
DELTA: 2.1 (Seventh)
As the old adage goes, “the best ability is availability.” In 2021-22, Alec Burks was finally able to accomplish that feat, playing in 81 of 82 games for the New York Knicks and posting the seventh-highest DELTA of any player in their age-30 season or older since 2012 (he was 30 that season).
Burks was drafted with the 12th overall pick in the 2011 NBA Draft by the Jazz. At the time, he was heralded for his speed and athleticism. Unfortunately, he failed to stay healthy for most of 20s, and the various injuries he suffered zapped him of those gifts.
Kudos to Burks for not giving up, though. The combo guard managed to lean into his craftiness and shooting to maintain his status as a bucket-getting machine. In 2021-22, Burks averaged 11.7 points on 40.4% 3-point shooting.
To this day, when given the chance, Burks can still get buckets with the best of them. Here is the rest of the top 10.
Brook Lopez, Milwaukee Bucks (2018-19)
DELTA: 1.7 (14th)
Some would say that this is the most well-known post-30 player transformation in NBA history. After spending the first nine seasons of his career as a classical back-to-the-basket big man, Lopez sensed the direction the game was going and decided that he needed to adapt or die.
He started this new resolution in his lone season with the Los Angeles Lakers (2017-18), but his evolution didn’t reach its final form until he joined Mike Budenholzer and the Bucks during his age-30 season (2018-19).
Lopez went from being a guy who messed with his team’s spacing to someone who helped open up the floor for a future Hall of Famer (Giannis Antetokounmpo) while also mucking up the interior for opponents.
After making just 249 total 3-pointers in his first 10 years in the league (24.9 per year), Lopez hit 187 3s in his first year in Milwaukee (on 36.5% 3-point shooting) – the highest mark among centers in the NBA that year.
Lopez also upped his rim protecting chops – boosting his block rate from 4.6% to 6.5%. The Bucks had the best defense in the league that season (and the year after that) thanks to their new and improved watchful guardian.
Russell Westbrook, Denver Nuggets (2024-25)
DELTA: 1.6 (15th)
Powell isn’t the only old dude to reinvent himself this season. At the age of 36, Westbrook isn’t playing the best basketball of his career, but he is impacting winning for the first time in a while.
In the 19 games Westbrook has started this season, the Nuggets are 14-5. When he comes off the bench, they’re just 10-11. The last time he was consistently starting for a winning team was his age-31 season with the Houston Rockets in 2019-20.
A big reason for this is the synergistic bond he has formed with the immaculate Nikola Jokic. When Westbrook shares the floor with Jokic, the Nuggets have a net rating of +12.9 (a 71-win pace, per PBP Stats).
It seems that the three-time MVP is capable of all sorts of magical feats, even reviving the career of a once-washed star guard.
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