The Miami Heat made a handful of notable moves this offseason, but none was seen as good as them acquiring Norman Powell in early July.
Powell, 32, is coming off the best season of his career and adds an unquestioned punch to a Heat offense that’s been a bottom-10 unit each of the last three seasons. Miami only had to give up Kyle Anderson and Kevin Love, two fringe rotation players, to complete the deal.
But was it one of the lopsided moves of the offseason? According to Bleacher Report’s Dan Favale, it was.
“Acquiring this kind of offensive punch typically costs draft picks and/or prospects. That’s true even if the inbound player is over 30, and even if he’s on an expiring contract,” Favale wrote. “All Miami gave up as part of this deal was two players who didn’t factor into its immediate or long-term plans. This isn’t just good, opportunistic business. It’s a heist.”
Favale only had one move ahead of Miami’s: The Atlanta Hawks acquiring New Orleans’ unprotected 2026 first-rounder to move back 10 spots in the draft.
Powell has played in roughly 80 percent of his team’s the last three seasons after appearing in just 45 contests in 2021-22. In 60 games last season, he averaged 21.8 points on 41.8 percent shooting from 3-point range, adding 3.2 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.2 steals per game.
He won’t immediately fix the Heat offense; they still need more. But there’s no question that he helps — posting 17.5 points on 48.0/41.5/82.8 shooting splits over the last six seasons.
After Duncan Robinson’s departure, Miami needed more floor spacers alongside Tyler Herro and Bam Adebayo. The 10-year veteran helps fill that void. If the Heat can play with more pace, get to the free-throw line and finish in the top-half in 3-point shooting, then I think they’re primed to be a top-15 offense in 2025-26.
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hope this story ends well. or simply flourish in the hardcourt. its september. one month to go. here we go play-in experts! lol
Finland beat Serbia at Euro.
Man, that will hurt them for years.
If I would be a player of Serbian team, I would avoid Serbia for some time.
Years ago, after Slovenia beat Serbia in Euros finals, I was in Serbia for business. Of course, I told the locals I met the obvious, Slovenia is better in basketball.
That wasn’t taken well, they informed me, that half of the Slovenian team are Serbs anyway, so Serbia won that Euro in any case.
I m considering travel to Serbia to ask locals, if Markkanen, Muurinen, Jantonen, Valtonen are Serbs too.
And Georgia send France home. Amazing.
And the best one, Slovenia beat Italy.
All three Heat players on the way to Miami.
Congratulations! Luka Magic
Thank you. He is a real monster. NBA should be scared of him this season.
Yeah, what a terrible trade by Dallas, it’s crazy. They had one of the best players in the world and now they only have two old injured stars. Or should I say former stars? Both AD and Kyrie are past their prime and their performance is going to go steeply down and injury problems won’t get better.
We will see. But to be honest, there were a lot of rumors of Lukas life off the court., his love to beer and food.
He needed kick in the ass, which Dallas provided. They got Flagg, which will be a good player, so that could be a good outcome for them too.
I understand there were concerns regarding his physical fitness and commitment off court, but he took them to the NBA finals in 2024. AD is a great player, but players of his height who have problems with knees usually have sharp decline in their performance at his age. It was a very risky bet at best. Getting Flagg was a pure luck. Anyway, he doesn’t fit their win now approach,but I guess it’s good to have a #1 drafted player.
Ha Ha Ha!
I noticed that other than Jokic, Jovic was the only other Serb in double figures @ 20pts on 7/13 shooting and 4/9 3 pointers. I think he and Larsson are both going to be solid rotational players and will be elevating their games another notch or two this year.
The Heat should try to sign him now to a team-friendly, long-term contract, rather than risk overpaying or him or losing him in free agency a year from now. If he decides to play hardball and wait until next summer, Heat may opt to trade him, Herro (and ?) for a difference maker like Ja Morant, Markkanen or best available player.
Note: Fontecchio had 23 points in Italy’s loss to Slovenia. He’s another possible rotational player/sharpshooter off the bench, when needed.
All three left very good impressions on Euro.
Pelle was arguably the best player for Sweden, Niko was clearly the second best player for Serbia behind only Jokic, and Simone almost burried us yesterday.
All three are in great shape weeks before training camp.
All three are really good players.
Unfortunately I haven’t seen many games, but I am glad that all 3 Heat players played mostly well and we can say they exceeded the expectations.
There is a group of Luka, Yannis, Jokic, Markannen, which are the best players on the tournament. After them, there is another group, consists of players Avdija, Sengelia, Fonteccio, Jovic and Larsson ,which played really well.
Having three Heat players in the top 10 in EURO tournament is a very good sign.
Yeah and let’s not forget Sengun, he belongs into the first group. But our guys certainly didn’t disappoint, hope it will be a breakout year for them.
Yes, I forgot Sengun. First group, no doubt.
Nice story, I can imagine that 🙂 Anyway, I believe the injury of Bogdanovic was the game changer for Serbia. He is too important for them. Before his injury they were dominant. After his injury they played close games. Bogdanovic is underrated, at least in the NBA. Other players didn’t step up and Jokic along with Jovic couldn’t win it by themselves. Also they were physically outplayed and outrebounded by both Turkey and Finland.
Fun for me, not for them. A lot of Serbs are taking those things far too seriously.
About Bogdanovic, he is important, but there are other good guards in Serbia team.
And Finland is not a bad team. Its not just Markannen.
Yes, Serbs have this kind of mentality🙂 Regarding Finland – they have a pretty good team and they played hard, hats off, they deserved the win. But still I had Germany, Turkey, Serbia, even France ranked a level higher than Finland in my projections.
all true
It was an excellent move. But, not much else has been done since, besides acquiring Simone and signing Dru. In my opinion, the Powell trade brought us from being a lower tier team to a middling team. The clock is ticking. Perhaps the front office is waiting to see how this version of the Heat fares, but most experts don’t see us as being much more than a play-in team. We wait and hope as the season is nigh upon us.
I think what none of us can do is predict how much our younger players will have developed since last season. If Ware, Larsson, Jovic, Jaquez and Johnson have each improved 10-20%, that can make a huge difference. Furthermore, if Wiggins, Mitchell, Powell and Fontecchio comfortably settle in to their roles, that will make additional differences. Finally, if Bam is able to start and play as a PF all season and Herro is serious about elevating his value in order to improve his value, this year’s team could be significantly better than last year’s dysfunctional team created by the whole “Quitter” fiasco.
One last thing, if Rozier suddenly finds his lost “Mojo” that will also potentially improve the team’s productivity and trade scenarios.