Norman Powell to the Miami Heat: Huge Upgrade?

Norman Powell to the Miami Heat: Huge Upgrade?

I want to start with what I thought yesterday was the appropriate amount of enthusiasm for a local show for the Norman Powell trade where we immediately made fun of the name Norman Pal and how hard it is to be a great athlete when your name’s Norm or specifically Norman. It’s hard. Uh and Chris Cody underestimated this person based on only his name. a Norman can only be so intimidating. And and we we said it was a good trade and I thought showed the proper enthusiasm for the Heat getting better without losing anything of value. Clearly getting somebody on a everybody everybody watching basketball would say that Danny A did what he does and the Heat wins that trade because Norman Pal is a very good player on an expiring contract. That’s what you want. The enthusiasm has now climbed to a place though where Zack Low is already willing to say that he knows that there are only three teams better than Miami in the East and Boston’s not one of them. It’s Cleveland and it’s Orlando and it’s the Knicks. And that’s what he says, the only three he knows, which is now after this trade, what that suggests is the volume is being turned down from flames engulfing Pat Riley to Wait, what? They’re a four seed. You guys are going to try and talk yourself into the enthusiasm of Norman Powell makes them a four seed. And so now this excerpt from Greg Cody’s column today. The Miami Heat won Monday’s three-team NBA trade with the Clippers and Jazz. And it isn’t open to debate. Pat Riley sat at the poker table picturing him in dark shades and never smiled once until he stood up with all of the chips and a needed reminder of that familiar old mojo. The god the godfather is still around still able to pick your pocket. That’s correct. I stand by Yeah, but you made you back. Yeah, but you made it a mafioso who is now just taking nickels out of your pocket. like this isn’t like a pickpocket is not like a pickpocket is the appropriate way to to to appraise this trade. It was a pickpocket uh win uh on the trade because it the trade worked for them both ways. It got them a quality player uh who makes the team appreciably better and they also got rid of dead wood. It would have only been better had had they been able to divest of Terry Rosier as well. I want to hear from Mike and Zazzlo on this because I think Pickpocket is good and and uh the problem is that Mike and Zloow want only a heist. Like in terms in terms of what they want from the Godfather and the Crime family, they don’t want pickpockets. Falsehoods. I I wanted what we saw. Congratulations to Nick Harrison. Brilliant trade. What do you mean congratulations? Well, I mean Dan opened the door. I don’t know who’s in charge anymore. So, let’s uh before we uh give the Godfather all the credit, this could have been a Nick Harrison movie. All five of them. Good job. It was a It was a great job. Heat brain trust. That’s all we wanted. Uh a move to get better. And look look inside this Eastern Conference now. You have Zack Low saying now it’s a rhetorical trick saying look they’re the four seat now when over the last four years I think the difference between the four and 10 seeds have been one and a half games. But that’s just Zack Low though giving that is Zack Low not moving in the last six months off of his position that if you give the Heat a little bit they will ring the very best out of it. It is a it’s a leaguewide fear that he’s expressing based on respect for what it is, especially on that network. No doubt. But that that is precisely why we’ve wanted the Heat to make improvements because, you know, you have the greatest head coach arguably of all time and if you give him more, the results will be better. So, I’m glad that they made this move and they got better as everyone else in the Eastern Conference started to make moving moves and look like they had a plan. So, I’m really happy with it. my favorite part of the trade. And they got they got a borderline all-star. Like if you remember, Norman Pal probably should have been an all-star last year. They got a borderline allstar for nothing. Did I need to see Kyle Anderson in my life any longer? No. So, they got him for really nothing. Okay. But the thing that I liked about that trade yesterday, it’s not that we know the Heat’s MO is to get the whale, to get the really big superstar player. The move that I’ve wanted the Heat to make is I see these other trades over the last couple years like like take Indiana who we just saw in the finals for instance and they trade for Pascal Seakum a couple years ago and it’s like they gave up nothing and I’m like the Heat couldn’t do that. Like I want the Heat to make the trade where they get a good player for nothing and finally yesterday they got the good player for nothing. So I feel good about it. Yeah. And and one of the things I wrote in the column is that and and Mike just alluded to it. To me, they they rise appreciably from play in purgatory to a position where they can compete for home court in the first round of the playoffs and win a first round playoff game. Now, if your standard is, oh, they miss out on Kevin Durant, they’re not they don’t even have a chance for Giannis. They’re not they’re not a championship contender right now, who is that? then that that’s the the the complaining Heat fan. Uh then you’re not impressed with Norman Powell. But if you’re looking uh micro instead of macro, this is an appreciably better team in a very mixed to me. You mentioned Orlando. To me, after Cleveland and the Knicks, it’s wide open for number three. This ignores Detroit. It ignores Atlanta. You can’t ignore it puts you with it puts them with them. I still think they got to do something else, but it does check a lot of the boxes. And I actually do think it helps your pursuit of getting a star player. I think that their trade assets now after this move are better. Powell is a player that you can throw into a deal and not get met with scrutiny and and and the ringers of the world saying your package is garbage. This is a player of repute. I uh I the ringers of the world I don’t think it was necessary to to say it that way. It was super necessary. Um I also think that you will get nowhere in your coverage today. I believe this firmly. I will say it aggressively in any language. No one will say of Norman Powell anywhere in analysis a player of repute. That’s only here. That only happens here. You get a player of repute. That is the highest compliment. Pat Riley critic and Mike Ryan Miami. Let me let me just stop you guys a couple of times though. Um you just said flippantly Eric Spolstra arguably of all time. Best coach. Best coach of all time. You threw the arguably in there. You can’t just skip past that. running past that with with arguably arguably yeah arguably the greatest head coach of all time. Wow. Look, I mean that’s top top five conversation. Yeah, I think it was weird that he said arguably. I thought I thought the the the appropriate level of enthusiasm for this trade is that yes, Norman Powell makes you better. He is a very good player and he was very good last year. He’s a very efficient player. But now you’ve got $65 million in expiring contracts for free agency. And you kept saying they got a 20 point a game scorer. You kept saying for nothing. I really do wonder how Kevin Love feels about the Miami years. The way it the way you guys do that where you just keep shipping him off and calling him nothing again and again. I get it. I I get it. I mean, he or his social media manager said like, “I never thought I’d be a math equation.” Okay. But so they uh I find it interesting that it took Norman Powell to bring the flames down on this conversation to make just winning a trade. That’s what it is. Yeah. That’s it. That’s Yes. That’s what we’ve been pounding something positive. Do something. You did something good to improve the team. Give your head coach a chance. Improve the team instead of standing idally by or actually making moves that make you worse while your competition gets better. Make a move. Make a move to let everybody know that you’re not just going to stay stagnant. All right. The move was trading Duncan Robinson for Norman Pal. Well, that’s that’s a that’s that’s a big time upgrade. It is a Is it It is a big time upgrade. Not as a three-point shooter in it. He’s a damn good three-point shooter. You watch. Wait a minute. No. No. I thought Hold on a second. Hold on. Hold on. Norman Powell is He shot 42% from three last and he’s better than Duncan Robinson. Uh, you guys are just dismissing Duncan Robinson, though, as if he weren’t important to the Heat. Oh, boy. Wait, whoa. You just moved the goal post at a record amount there. You said that this wasn’t a better three-point shooter, and he is a better three-point shooter, and he’s available, and he ain’t scared. He You can’t be scared. Oh, here we go. Norman Powell’s has shot 42% on threes since 2021. Uh, so it’s over a long time. It’s seven threes a game. Yes. I’m I You’re You guys are saying that you have made your team appreciably better. And if I started this off season by simply telling you, “Hey, listen. You know where they’re going to go? It’s going to be run it back again, but they’re just going to trade Duncan for Norman Powell. You good?” Yes, that’s better. I don’t think you That’s a start. Duncan Robinson to me never lived up to his contract here. He was overpaid. He was inconsistent. uh he he didn’t really rise in in in the biggest moments. He didn’t lift the team. I don’t think that’s fair. We’ve been appropriately called out on this and so have I. Like look, Duncan Robinson, this is a strange thing to talk about because people want to cape up for him as if there weren’t games that he just didn’t like play. He He was out of the rotation for a lot of their runs. He He got his job stolen. There’s a reason why he’s kind of fallen out of favor. But don’t forget the Duncan Robinson game. There was a Duncan Robinson game and that run to the finals against the the Denver Nuggets. He was your boy. I think game two in that the the one in the gentleman sweep that we had. Duncan Robinson showed up. Yeah, he had big moments in very big games. I don’t think we’re being fair. Shot for your life. Okay. Okay. A real quick comment about Norman Powell. Last season in the NBA. He was one of only six players who scored that many points a game, who shot 48% or better from the field, and who shot 40% or better from threes. That’s pretty good. I’m not disputing any of this. I am simply telling you guys to please hear yourselves as a national show that has now changed its entire voice because of a Norman Powell trade. that if we were sitting here the last 10 days and Norman Pal had gone to any other team in the league, you would be mocking whatever it is that that team thinks it’s become by adding merely Norman Pal who you now have going from a playin team that was 10 games under 500 to somewhere in the middle of the conference where they would have to be 10 games over 500. And if I told you would trading Duncan Robinson for Norman Powell be that difference? You would tell me no. I don’t know if it would be 10 games over. I don’t think that’s the golf, especially with all the injuries in the east. No, but if you’re the four seed, you’re 10 to 15 games over 500 if you’re the four seed in that contract. I don’t know what the East is going to look like. I think it’s going to be a bit of a mess like it has been the the last few years. And if another team made uh a move to acquire Norman Powell for essentially what the Heat gave up, I would also be very mad that the Heat once again are standing idly by. Let me give you a stat courtesy of Synergy Basketball. Norman Pal was the sixth most efficient scorer in the NBA among 68 players who used over 18 possessions per game this season. He shot 45% on movement, three-point attempts, and 40% spotting up. This is a really good player. He’s a good shooter and thankfully they gave their great head coach something to work with. Duncan Robinson has been under 40% shooting for the last four seasons and you guys both went to scurd which is the biggest public indictment that you can make because he because during slumps it was clear to everybody watching that he didn’t want to shoot so much. This is not a theory is that he lost his job because Max Shre would not stop shooting where Duncan Robinson would very obviously to the eye not take the shots. Oh, I didn’t call him scared. I’m just saying you can’t be scared. Everybody knows you can’t be scared. But you were No, you were saying you were scared. No, I just said that was it’s ambiguous. It’s not It wasn’t ambiguous. He told you he was scared. No, he told him I’m not I’m not talking to you. I’m talking to Zaz. You accused him of being scared. You did it. Disagree. Do Do you mean to make a ruling here? I mean, I’m just saying rule against You can’t rule for yourself. Nip this right in the bud. Okay. No. Yes, if you want. You want You’re the judge. Yes, you can make a ruling, but this seems unfair. It seems like a conflict of interest. You don’t get to decide what’s fair and not fair in my courtroom. I find you out of order. This is what America is starting to feel like everywhere. You’re going to make the ruling. Yeah. Even though you’ve got a clear conflict of interest. Was I calling Duncan Robinson scurred? Or was it completely ambiguous? It was ambiguous with prejudice. Okay. Okay. Yeah, that’s true. With prejudice. Thanks, Greg. No, once you go, there was Duncan Robinson’s name and then I heard as the undertoe to it, scurred. You volunteered it and Mike was so he was so ready to to notoriize it back there. It sounds like you’re attempting to retry the case and that’s not going to happen. All right, double jeopardy. All we have is a result, both the ruling and the fact that he fell out of the rotation for being fair enough. I lose. I mean I don’t want to risk contempt of

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