Everyone wanted the Miami Heat to significantly boost their offense over the offseason. Well, they have done just that. And yet, almost no one is talking about it, largely because superstar acquisitions make the NBA go \u2018round, but also because it\u2019s pretty clear that Norman Powell remains wildly underrated.<\/p>\n
Conventional offseason critiques gravitate toward the biggest names. Understandably so. The Heat, in particular, are among the Association\u2019s foremost star-chasers<\/a>. Their success or failure is so often boiled down to whether they land the next big fish.\u00a0<\/p>\n But Miami\u2019s summer is concrete proof that it doesn\u2019t need another star<\/a> to win the offseason\u2014even if landing that star is the ultimate goal.<\/p>\n Norman Powell is going to noticeably boost the Heat\u2019s offense<\/p>\n The Heat finished last season inside the bottom 10<\/a> of points scored per possession, and were No. 18 in overall effective field-goal percentage, which is a combined measure of two-point and three-point efficiency. Believe it or not, though, this actually understates the degree to which they struggled.<\/p>\n Many of their offensive vitals were much worse with Jimmy Butler off the floor<\/a>. Moving him provided needed clarity on their future, but it also leaned into a depth chart that couldn\u2019t consistently generate rim pressure or trips to the foul line without him.<\/p>\n Powell is going to help fill those gaps. He averaged just over six shot attempts at the rim per 100 possessions last season, according to PBP Stats<\/a>. Kel\u2019el Ware and Jaime Jaquez Jr. are the only players from the Heat\u2019s regular rotation who averaged more.<\/p>\n Throughout his career, Powell has also demonstrated an underappreciated ability to draw fouls. Just last year, he generated free-throws on around 16 percent of his two-point attempts. Andrew Wiggins was the only Miami player to match that mark while logging at least 1,200 minutes.<\/p>\n Miami\u2019s other issues will be helped by Norman Powell, too<\/p>\n Skeptics will point out that the Heat have done little to fix the point guard position<\/a> with established upgrades. Powell is not going to make plays for others the way that adding another version of Tyler Herro or an actual floor general would.<\/p>\n Still, the off-ball shooting and movement he delivers will help paper over that void.<\/p>\n