The Miami Heat are back at full strength with a trio of players who either have been or soon should be All-Stars. Norman Powell is well on his way to his first career selection, Bam Adebayo has recovered well from a six-game absence, and Tyler Herro made his 2025-26 debut after missing 17 games.
For as enticing as that may be, the Heat must ensure that Herro returning to the rotation doesn't derail Powell's progress and subsequently erase the work Miami has done to approach contender status.
Miami has been one of the most compelling stories of the 2025-26 season, with Powell taking center stage in Herro's absence. The 32-year-old is averaging 25.0 points, 3.7 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 1.2 steals, and 3.2 three-point field goals made on .509/.458/.883 shooting.
While no individual's success is more important than the team's, Powell's goes hand-in-hand with what the Heat have thus far accomplished as a team.
It's not simply that Powell is scoring with volume and turning in a season that should see him comfortably secure a first career All-Star Game selection. Instead, it's the manner in which he's playing and how it's directly impacting team success.
Miami has been pushing the pace in a remarkably different manner than it did a season ago and Powell's quick and decisive approach to scoring has been instrumental to positive results.
Heat's winning plan is more Norman Powell than Tyler Herro
The Heat rank No. 1 in the NBA in pace at 106.09 possessions per 48 minutes. Individually, Powell is averaging just 2.32 seconds per touch. That's the second-fastest figure among players who are averaging at least 25.0 points per game, with only big man Lauri Markkanen ahead of him.
Powell's success and mentality in that regard have been essential to Miami ranking No. 1 in the NBA as a team in seconds per touch in 2025-26—a drastic change from ranking No. 18 in 2024-25.
Herro, meanwhile, averaged 4.09 seconds per touch during the 2024-25 season. He's trimmed that number considerably to 2.76 early in 2025-26, but a four-game sample size only offers so much to go on. Furthermore, 2024-25 wasn't the first time he slowed things down on offense.
Herro averaged 3.78 seconds per touch in 2023-24 and 3.91 in 2022-23, thus revealing his tendency to operate in a manner that doesn't easily jell with the Heat's current approach.
Perhaps Herro will sustain his 2025-26 average of 2.76 and seamlessly reenter the rotation without detracting from a winning strategy. It's equally as plausible that Powell will continue to excel in his role as Miami's leading scorer, thus providing the balance it needs alongside Herro.
Powell's quick decision-making and elite catch-and-shoot proficiency—he shot 45.2 percent on catch-and-shoot threes in 2024-25—could even aid Herro's isolation tendencies.
The reality facing the Heat, however, is that they're at their best when they push the pace, move the ball, and don't allow any one player to hold it for too long. It's why they're not only No. 1 in pace, but No. 2 in assist-to-turnover ratio, No. 4 in points per isolation possession, No. 6 in net rating, and No. 11 in offensive rating.
The Heat can easily make progress toward contending with Herro in the fold, but they'll need to continue playing the way Powell has enabled them to.