MIAMI (AP) \u2014 Norman Powell remembers what the perceptions were when he entered the NBA a decade ago. Can\u2019t shoot, not a scorer, only a defender.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s proven them all wrong \u2014 and the Miami Heat hope he continues doing so.<\/p>\n
Powell donned his new Heat uniform in an official capacity for the first time Monday, appearing at the team\u2019s media day in advance of Tuesday\u2019s opening training camp practice. He\u2019s coming off the best year of his career, averaging nearly 22 points per game, and the Heat are desperately hoping that scoring punch helps them this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re excited to have Norm with us for a lot of different reasons,\u201d said Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, entering his 18th season in that job for Miami \u2014 making him the longest-tenured coach currently in the NBA. \u201cThat\u2019s a big part of it, his ability to put the ball in the basket, and he can do it in a variety of ways that make sense for our team and our roster. He can do it on the ball. He can do it off the ball. He\u2019s played a lot of different roles with the teams that he\u2019s played on, and he\u2019s been able to be efficient in all the different roles.\u201d<\/p>\n
Powell \u2014 acquired by Miami in a three-team trade that saw the Heat send Kevin Love to Utah back in July \u2014 averaged 21.8 points last season for the Los Angeles Clippers and is a career 40% shooter from 3-point range.<\/p>\n
The Heat were 24th out of 30 teams in points per game last season, plus lost Duncan Robinson \u2014 the team\u2019s career 3-point leader \u2014 to Detroit this summer. And earlier this month, news came that All-Star guard Tyler Herro will miss at least the first few weeks of the season following surgery to address an issue that was bothering his foot and ankle.<\/p>\n
In short, the Heat need Powell right now \u2014 especially with Herro out.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always been a huge fan of Norman\u2019s game,\u201d Herro said. \u201cHe\u2019s another guy that can create for himself but also take the attention away from me a little bit. … I know he\u2019ll hold it down until I get back, and then we\u2019ll hit the ground running together.\u201d<\/p>\n
The numbers that Powell had last season, more often than not, lead to an All-Star Game selection. It didn\u2019t happen for him a year ago, and that \u2014 like many things have over his career \u2014 only spurs him on.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always been kind of politically pushed aside or not really at the forefront of things,\u201d Powell said. \u201cIt just continues to add motivation and fuel to the fire. For me, it was more personal of a showing, that I\u2019m capable of this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Powell fits what the Heat want in a lot of ways. He has championship pedigree, having been part of the Toronto team that won an NBA title in 2019. He understands Spoelstra\u2019s defensive plans already and \u2014 even after spending just one offseason around the team \u2014 is fast becoming a voice in the locker room.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest thing as a vet is passing on the knowledge of what I\u2019ve been able to accumulate over the years from the other veteran guys that I looked up to when I was a young player coming into this league,\u201d Powell said. \u201cI\u2019m an open book. Whatever they\u2019re going through, whatever role situation they\u2019re in, whatever struggles, I\u2019ve probably seen it and been through it and experienced it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Spoelstra said Powell was someone the Heat had watched with interest for some time, and that nobody in the organization hesitated when the chance came this summer to make the trade.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s won a championship before. He\u2019s been part of a lot of winning teams,\u201d Spoelstra said. \u201dHe takes it very seriously. He\u2019s a competitive dude. We like that. He\u2019s got an edge to him and his work ethic is tremendous. So, there\u2019s a lot of things that we think fit how we approach the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/NBA<\/p>\n
Tim Reynolds, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI (AP) \u2014 Norman Powell remembers what the perceptions were when he entered the NBA a decade ago.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":178065,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-178064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}