As the Miami Heat gear up for the 2025-26 season, the one splash move they made all offseason was the acquisition of Norman Powell from the Los Angeles Clippers. Powell has always been an effective shooter from deep, but he was able to put it all together in 2024-25 and reach a career high of 21.8 points per game.
Miami is hoping Powell can provide a spark on offense, but it's the other side of the court that might also offer huge value to the Heat in 2025-26.
Normal Powell hopes to spark the Heat in 2025-26
Part of Powell's emergence last year was that, on top of a career high in points per game, he also had a career high in +/-, averaging +5.9 points per game while on the floor.
Now +/- doesn't tell a complete story, as Powell had a better +/- than guys like Giannis Antetokounmpo (and we are guessing most Heat fans would take Giannis over Powell in a heartbeat), but it's the defensive side of the ball that seems to have sparked Powell's +/-.
Powell had a defensive rating of 107.4 last year (107.4 points per 100 possessions), which was good for 26th in the NBA among players who played at least 40 games AND at least 15 minutes a game.
The caveat is that Powell was 4th on the team in defensive rating, behind Nicolas Batum, Kris Dunn, and Ivica Zubac.
Batum, in particular, was the engine for the Clippers' defense. While Powell was a part of three of the top four three-person pairings for Los Angeles when it came to defensive efficiency, all of those pairings included Batum.
And Batum by himself was a part of the top eight three-person parings on defense, so while 2024-25 was the best defensive rating year Powell had since joining the Clippers, it's fair to ask how much of that was aided by Powell.
But, if Powell can even just provide a hint of being a plus side defender on top of hitting 40%+ from three, Miami might be able to sneak up on more teams than one expects this season.