Exclusive: Why Heat tenure is ‘most pure basketball’ of Norman Powell’s career

MIAMI – Though the Miami Heat are in the midst of a four-game losing streak, the team is using the rare in-season break to give itself a mental and physical reset before Monday’s game against the Toronto Raptors. With the Heat looking to get out of the skid, one player that will no doubt be crucial to the team’s success is Norman Powell, who spoke about his first season with Miami thus far.

Out of the positives this season for the Heat, Powell has been huge, as he was traded from the Los Angeles Clippers in the offseason, having been worth every penny and more as Miami only traded Kevin Love and Kyle Anderson in the multi-team deal.

Besides the losing streak, Powell has been a standout, being one of the main offensive scorers for Miami, averaging a team-high 24.6 points per game while shooting 50 percent from the field and 43.6 percent from deep. Powell would say this season has been “the most pure basketball” he’s played, helped by the team’s new fast-paced, free-flowing offense.

“I feel good,” Powell said. “Playing, going out there, not thinking, not worried about anything, just playing the game in front of me, trying to be the best version of myself for the team, trying to be a great leader, trying to show through my years of experience and the different roles that I’ve been in, talking to the guys, with everybody’s role changing and things like that.”

“I think that’s where I found my niche,” Powell continued. “And where I can be the most impactful with my play and then my leadership style coming in here early, with the young guys, seeing me get my work in, talking to them, keeping them motivated.”

Heat’s Norman Powell on the recent slump

As Powell has said before that he isn’t concerned with the Heat’s slump, there could be some validity in that thinking, especially with how the team’s new offense took the league by surprise to start.

It was always inevitable that other teams would catch on and adapt, with Miami looking to counter, and mixed with crucial players being in-and-out of the lineup like himself, Tyler Herro, and others, it will be a process.

“Anytime guys are out for long periods of time, Davion missed a game, but me, Bam, Tyler, have missed multiple games in a row, you know?” Powell said in a one-on-one interview with ClutchPoints. “And then the team has to figure out how to adjust guys stepping into a bigger role, more minutes, how they want to play, how aggressive they want to be, and then coming back, and you’ve got to adjust again.”

“It’s always going to take a couple games, especially when you have dynamic players that can affect the game in many ways,” Powell continued. “You know, me, Bam, Tyler, Wiggs, D Mitch, when any of us are in and out the lineup, there’s going to be a little funkiness to it to get everybody back in rhythm and in flow. But these are what these days are for having multiple days in between our next game to really figure out the identity and how we want to play on both sides of the ball. But, we’re solid.”

Though losing to the Magic on Tuesday was disappointing, the team would get a “great” in-season break, as Herro called it to ClutchPoints, with two days off and practice sessions on the weekend.

Full comments by Tyler Herro today as he was asked how there are some on social media blaming him for the slump, getting back into rhythm, plus this in-season break Miami is in.

Also, Norman Powell (an integral media member) asks Herro why they’re feuding lol #HeatNation pic.twitter.com/WHYwV1152c

— Zachary Weinberger (@ZachWeinberger) December 12, 2025

Norman Powell on how long it’ll take for the Heat to get out of their funk

While the Heat backcourt duo of Powell and Herro is looking to build chemistry, along with the rest of the team, there’s no denying that the former’s role has slightly changed. Getting a high-usage scorer like Herro back does change aspects, as Powell’s statistics have dipped, as his usage rate was at 27.1 percent in the 17 games to start before, but it will be a “day-by-day” approach for the whole team to get figured out with each other.

“It’s day by day, you know, I’m saying like, like for us, we don’t want to be playing our best basketball in December, you know, we want to keep, like, mountain climbing. You know, if you keep going up, you’re gonna stop a little bit. You might go down and reroute. But keep climbing,” Powell said. “We want to get to our best basketball around March, February, March, after the All-Star break, you know.”

“So everything we’re going through now was great for us to, you know, kind of see it, go through, it, feel what it’s like, you know, to go on a four-game losing streak, and for us to mentally be tough, to dig ourselves out of it and start playing our brand of basketball,” Powell continued. “But each day we’re moving closer to the playoffs. We want to start getting better and seeing the true identity of Miami Heat basketball going into 2026.”

At any rate, Miami looks to snap the four-game losing streak as the team takes on the Toronto Raptors on Monday night.

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