Before he was traded from the Clippers to the Heat this summer, Norman Powell had begun having conversations with L.A. about a possible contract extension, he tells Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel (subscription required).
“To be transparent, we were talking extension and what it would look like, and they were telling me they didn’t want to trade me, they wanted me there — all that good stuff,” Powell said. “But they inevitably ended up trading me.”
A report last month indicated that the Heat are open to discussing an extension with Powell, who is entering the final year of his current contract. However, that report suggested any deal would likely happen during the season, once the club had more time to assess his fit on the roster. For his part, the 32-year-old guard says he’s thinking about “basketball” rather than his contract situation, as Winderman relays.
“I’m just focused on what I have to do for this team, and I know if I go out there and perform, you’re going to be rewarded,” Powell said. “I feel like I’ve been performing every single year and my trajectory is just focused on getting better and how I can improve, and the payday will come.”
If Powell can carry over performances like Monday’s into the regular season, it would bode well for his future earnings. In just 16 minutes of action in Miami’s preseason matchup with Milwaukee, he racked up 18 points, making 6-of-12 shots from the floor, including 3-of-6 from beyond the arc.
“You can see his ignitability.” Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra said after the game, according to Winderman. “I like what he can do on the drive. He can really get hot from three. Guys were finding him. I think we can definitely build on that.”
Here’s more on the Heat:
- Nikola Jovic‘s four-year rookie scale extension with the Heat starts at $16,200,000 in 2026/27 before dipping to $14,904,000 in ’27/28, Hoops Rumors has confirmed. The third year of the deal is worth $15,096,000 and then it rises back up to $16,200,000 in year four (’29/30). The structure will give the team some added cap flexibility during the 2027 and 2028 offseasons and suggests that creating cap room in 2026 probably isn’t a goal.
- Jovic got a second consecutive start in Monday’s preseason game against the Bucks, while center Kel’el Ware, who finished last season as a starter, has yet to play alongside Bam Adebayo this month, notes Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald.
- Ware put up big numbers off the bench against Milwaukee, scoring 18 points and grabbing 13 rebounds, but he turned the ball over four times and was a -21 on the night. After the game, Spoelstra was more focused on the latter numbers. “I think everybody is looking at the wrong thing,” he said of Ware’s double-double, per Chiang. “It’s got to impact the game. I want him the next game to be a plus-20. That’s what it’s about. … It does not matter if you have 18 and 13 if it’s not impacting the game. … That’s part of being a young player, and that’s why I enjoy coaching him because my responsibility is to help teach him how to connect the dots and become more consistent where it now leads to winning.”
- The Heat raised eyebrows early in the offseason when they picked up Keshad Johnson‘s guaranteed team option for 2025/26 after he logged just 98 total minutes as a rookie. Now, Johnson says he’s determined to reward the club for its faith in him, as Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald writes. “That shows they were [willing to] bet on me,” Johnson said. “If they bet on me, I’ve got to prove them right.” Johnson added that he’s willing to play either on the wing or in the frontcourt, depending on what the coaching staff asks of him. “Whether I’m undersized or not, I can compete with anybody,” the 6’6″ forward said of potentially playing in the frontcourt.