Miami Heat Gets MORE Evidence Of A Good NBA Offseason From ESPN

Miami Heat Gets MORE Evidence Of A Good NBA Offseason From ESPN

Welcome into the Heat Report by Chad Sports. On today’s show, we’re going to take a look at what the Heat have done this off season because ESPN put out an article that graded every single team in the NBA’s off season. And well, they were very kind to Miami. And this is something that we have consistently said pretty much all offseason long. how Pat Riley in this front office did way better than anticipated. So, I do agree with ESPN on the notion that there was a good offseason in Miami. Well, let’s take a look back at what Miami did with their roster. They had a max players of 15. They sent out four. They resigned DaVon Mitchell, but then added Casper Yakonis with the 20th overall pick. They added Simone Fonteo in the Duncan Robinson signing trade. They turned Kevin Love and Kyle Anderson into Norman Powell. And if I’m going to be honest, I still don’t understand how they were able to even get that done. Alec Burks has left the roster. He was not ressigned. He technically could be resigned. I don’t think they will do that, but remains to be seen. Just the truth is it’s been a good off season and it started off on a rocky tenure. Like when the Heat missed out on Kevin Durant, I was very disappointed. I think everyone knows if you watched our content this off seasonason, I was a very big advocate for going out and trading for KD because the Eastern Conference is a little bit weakened. I believe they KD, BAM, and Hero trio would be in the top four, top three the Eastern Conference. And I was fine trading Ko Wear. Obviously, we know they weren’t willing to include Wear or Yovic in a deal. They were just trying to trade Wiggins, Rosier, and then Haywood Highmith or Hawkins or something like that. But I think it’s been very good for Miami ever since missing out on Kevin Durant if we’re going to be honest. We’re going to show what ESPN said here in a second, but make sure you do subscribe to the channel because you wouldn’t be able to see what ESPN said about Miami’s offseason if you didn’t subscribe to ESPN Plus. Well, that costs $120 a year. To be subscribed to the Heat Report by Chat Sports, it costs $0. free content every single day. Join the channel for daily coverage. ESPN graded the Heat off season as a B+, which was actually one of the more favorable grades that they handed out. It was top 10 inside the NBA. And I wanted to share what Kevin Pelatin of ESPN said on the Heats off season. He said it was an opportunistic off season for Miami who took advantage of the money saved by swapping Duncan Robinson for Simone Fonteio to convert players on the fringes of their roster into Norman Powell who scored 21.8 points per game for the Clippers last season. Powell helps replace some of the scoring loss with Jimmy Butler’s February departure and keeps Miami’s books clear for now as the team eyes 2027 salary caps base. And I do agree with ESPN. I think a B+ grade is very, very fair. And as I alluded to just a minute ago, I didn’t expect much from this Heat off season after they missed out on KD. It always felt like this heat off season was going to be trying to acquire Kevin Durant at the right price point in their eyes. And if they missed out on KD, they were going to try to maybe trade Andrew Wiggins away, trade Terzier away, save some money, maybe recoup some assets, and then just wait on if a star came available. Well, no star stars came available, and they had to make a move that they felt benefited them and was the right price point. And boy, did they find one with Norman Powell. I mean, I go back to this three team deal and I said it earlier, like I still don’t understand how Miami was able to somehow get this done. Like in all seriousness, sending out Kevin Love and Kyle Anderson who combined to make $13 million in two players that if you power ranked everybody on the Heat’s roster 1 through 15 when they had max roster spots at the time, Kevin Love would have been 15th on the roster and I think Kyle Anderson would have been 12 or 13th. So you’re talking about two of the bottom four players on your roster that weren’t going to play it at all. and you flipped that into a guy who was a borderline all-star last season and you did not have to attach any draft capital. I still don’t understand how it happened, but I’m sure glad it did because Norman Powell on an expiring $20 million contract will be a very welcome addition to this Miami Heat roster in 2025. And before I continue on breaking down what Miami did to this offseason, pin comment on today’s show. I want to know if you agree or disagree with ESPN. Grade the Heats off season A, B, C, D, or F. Include pluses or minus if you feel necessary to do so. Like I said, pin comments. So, go down and comment below. I’ll be honest. ESPN gave it a B+. I think that’s what I would give Miami. I would be a little bit up in the air on potentially giving it an A minus. I could be convinced to upgrade it into that category, but I think B+ is very cool because you just have seen a couple players get added to this roster that I think are going to be really, really helpful for the Miami. You look at the two key additions, Norman Powell and Fonteo. Fontio played 75 games last season, averaged about 11, 12 minutes a night. Norman Powell played about 32 minutes a night and 60 games. And we’ve talked about how Norman Powell was a borderline all-star last season. It was a career year for the veteran shooting guard, who by the way, as it currently stands, Norman Powell is the oldest player on the Heat roster, 32 years old. Talk about a difference. Miami went from a top five team in the NBA last season in terms of average age and oldest to now bottom 10 in the NBA and average age in terms of being the youngest. But I think Norman Powell will absolutely be a differencemaker for the Miami Heat this season. You heard ESPN said it. Miami just did not have a good offense last year. Truth is, they haven’t had a good offense in the last 5 years. They’ve only ranked in the top half of the NBA and offense points per game and offensive rating once in the last five years. And what do you know? It was the year Miami was the one seed in the Eastern Conference. They’ve been in the 20s the entire years outside of that with Jimmy Butler in company. So, an offensively gifted player like Powell is going to be very welcomed in the 305, especially when he was one of the most efficient basketball players in the NBA last year. This tweet from Synergy Basketball just displays that he was the sixth most efficient scorer last year among the 68 players who were used at 18 possessions per game. He obviously shot 42% from three, but shot 45% on the move from beyond the ark and 40% on his spot up attempt. So, this is a guy that can knock down shots in a variety of ways, but he’s also just so versatile on the offensive end. He could put the ball in the deck, which I think we’re going to see him used more in this light this year under Eric Bolstra. And when you look at his advanced metrics from a year ago, Powell scored 1.05 points per possession. It’s his 19th frequency. So, not a lot, but in the pick and roll as the ball handler, 90th percentile in that points per possession. When you compare it to Duncan Robinson, who Powell could be replacing as that movement shooter and scorer, Duncan Robinson was in the 54th percentile in the same amount of frequency. So, he is a massive upgrade in terms of that two guard that could start next to Tyler Herro because he’s better defensively than Duncan Robinson. He’s probably not as better as a pure shooter, but he’s much better as a scorer off the dribble and as a creator for teammates. And I mentioned that versatility. You look at those advanced metrics that I showed about how he can put the ball on the deck better than the player that he is ultimately replacing in that two guard spot as Duncan Robinson. Well, he is just an elite shooter off of the catch as well and he really thrives off the ball. Last season, he had 1.2 21 points per possession on spot-ups. That’s just absolutely terrific. 24th percent frequency. And then also had 1.12 points per possession on off the screen. So when he’s coming off pindowns, when he’s coming off curls, he is able to just easily elevate into a shot or use that threat and leverage it into a drive inside to score, which I think is where I want to show next here with Norman Powell. He’s not just a shooter, guys. He could score the ball. Jeff 45% on floaters. I would like to see that number go up slightly. We know Tyler Herro is one of the best floater guys in the NBA, but he shot 60% on layups, 54% on drives, was in the 82nd percentile in true shooting percentage, and he’s a guy that can get to the free throw line as well, which is something that was severely missed in this Heat offense after the Jimmy Butler trade. We know Jimmy is an absolute engine at the line, getting there eight, nine times a night. Norman Powell got there about five times a night last year, four and a half. He made three and a half free throws a night. That’s in the 91st percentile. So, he gets to the free throw line, he makes his free throws. Norman Powell is going to provide an absolute massive scoring punch for the Miami Heat. More coming here, but I want to let y’all know about this great deal going on at chatsports.com/heat hat sale. This sweet looking hat, all sizes available. It was $38. You can get it now for just 28. $10 off once again when you go to chatsports.com/heat hatsale. Links in the description and comments of today’s video. Grab yours today. Absolutely sweet. But I want to now talk about Simone Fonteio because you just can’t sleep on him being someone that can add a lot to this Miami Heat roster. And I feel very confident about Fontekia. When you look at what he’s done in his career, he’s been here for three years after playing overseas professionally for a while. He signed in the NBA with the Utah Jazz, was traded to the Detroit Pistons in the middle of the 23-2 24 season. He played really well in that year with his time split with Detroit in Utah, having a career year, shooting 40% from three, averaging 10 points a night. He leveraged that into a two-year contract extension where he was then traded because he didn’t have that much of an impact this year for Detroit. But I believe that he would be able to have more of an impact if he just got more playing time. The Pistons just went with Tobias Harris, with Osar Thompson, with Ron Holland, with Malik Beasley, with Jaden Ivy for most of the year. So, there wasn’t just a lot of play time for Fontekio. If he gets it with Miami, I think he will be very effective. This is a player that relies on the three ball heavily. And when you watch him play, he has a very lightning quick release and it’s a high release point, too, as well, which makes it difficult for opponents to give a good contest on it. Last season, his three-point rate was 60.9%. That ranks in the 84th percentile. So, he is someone who absolutely lives and dies from beyond the ark. But when you look at his shooting quality, which is a metric by crafted NBA that grades out every shooter in the NBA, he was given a 69.8 grade, which was ranked in the 83rd percentile. So, he relies a lot on his ability to shoot the three ball, but he does it at a pretty solid rate, ranking in the 83rd percentile. And when you look at how he was used on offense last season in Detroit, most of it was off the ball, whether it be a spot up percentage, 35.5%. In the handoff, 9.6, off a screen, 5.8, offball cutting 4.7. He did get out in transition a little bit as well, 25.9% of the time. But the number I am so excited about is the handoff 9.6%. We know Duncan Robinson was used a lot in the dribble handoffs with Bameabio. Could we see Fonteio kind of take a little bit of that role off of the bench? The one thing you could talk about with this Heat roster is it is probably improved from last season, but the one thing it could be lacking is shooting off of the bench. And I think Fonteio is going to be relied upon to really add a lot of that. It’ll be curious to see where Miami ultimately goes with their starting lineup. Are they going to start DaVon Mitchell next to Hero Wiggins Bam and Wear? Or are they going to go with Norman Powell, Hero Wiggins, Bam, and Wear and then bring DaVon Mitchell off of the bench? If Norman Powell comes off the bench, well then there’s your off thebench shooter and scorer. If he starts, someone’s going to have to take on that role as they shooter off the bench. It could be Nicole Yovic. It could be Fonteo. But I do think Simone could really find a role for this Heat basketball team because Eric Spolstra, the head coach, values grittiness, toughness, the ability to just make any play that helps winning and puts your body on the line for your teammates. Fonteio is absolutely willing to do that. And with how I know Eric Spolster likes to coach basketball teams, I just see Fonteo carving out a role for himself. And I would be shocked if he just is sitting on the bench, not playing for most of next season. So, I believe Fonteo can make a difference for Miami. What say you? Can he make a difference for this Heatball club? Type Y for yes. Type N for no. Today’s pin comment or not pin comment. I don’t know why I said that, but go ahead and let me know down below. Final word on today’s show. I think this has been a very good off season. I really do. B+ I think is a fair grade from ESPN. It’s probably what I would give it. I mentioned that I could be swayed into giving it an A minus. I won’t. I think this off season can become an A minus or even an A or a borderline elite off season for Miami. If they’re able to move Tara Rosier and get underneath the luxury tax, it would be very beneficial for the Heat to get underneath the luxury tax this year. avoid the repeaters tax penalty and then they could just hop right back in it next off season for the 2627 campaign. Now they have the ability to stretch this out and really make that happen before April because they just have to get underneath the luxury tax threshold by the time the regular season ends. But if they’re able to find a trade partner this off season for Rosier and enter the year underneath the luxury tax and find a player to replace Rosier on their roster, yeah, that would be an A minus A. um off seasonason without a question. We only have about two months until we get into real basketball. I mean, it’s crazy to say that we’re approaching August here, two months away from October, and that’s the heart of the preeason in the regular season gets underway in the teens and early 20s of October. It’s just unbelievable how close we are to heat basketball. So, make sure you’re subscribed because we’re going to continue to have you covered over the next two months with videos every single day. And when Heat basketball is back in the fall and in the winter, we’ll be going live and doing watch parties for the games. So, join the channel today. Appreciate everyone. Go Heat.

ESPN’s Kevin Pelton graded each NBA team’s offseason and he was complimentary of what Miami Heat president Pat Riley did during NBA Free Agency and the 2025 NBA Draft. He gave the Heat a B+. Miami Heat Report and Chat Sports host Nic Rohloff reacts to the grade following an offseason that saw Duncan Robinson leave during free agency, and the Miami Heat trade for Norman Powell and Simone Fontecchio. This Heat offseason feels like one of the better ones in years for the Miami Heat.

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Miami Heat offseason:
Out:
Duncan Robinson
Alec Burks
Kevin Love
Kyle Anderson
In:
Norman Powell
Simone Fontecchio
Kasparas Jakucionis
Davion Mitchell (re-signed)

ESPN on the Miami Heat offseason:
“It was an opportunistic offseason for the Heat, who took advantage of the money saved by swapping Duncan Robinson for Simone Fontecchio to convert players on the fringes of their rotation into Norman Powell, who scored 21.8 points per game for the Clippers last season. Powell helps replace some of the scoring lost with Jimmy Butler’s February departure and keeps Miami’s books clear — for now — as the team eyes 2027 cap space.”

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Norman Powell 2024-25 stats (60 GP): 21.8 PPG, 3.2 RPG, 2.1 APG, 48.4 FG%, 41.8 3P%

Simone Fontecchio 2024-25 stats (75 GP): 5.9 PPG, 2.9 RPG, .9 APG, 40.2 FG%, 33.5 3P%

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Norman Powell’s shooting splits:
Floaters: 62/138 (44.9 FG%)
Layups: 160/264 (60.6 FG%)
Drives: 181/335 (54.0 FG%)
TS%: 61.5 (82nd percentile)
FTM: 3.5 (91st percentile)

Want more Heat rumors YouTube videos? Check out some of the ones posted this week:
– Miami Heat Trade Rumors: Trade Terry Rozier For Devin Carter?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpxf48eYJX0
– 5 Miami Heat BURNING Questions During Offseason Ft. Tyler Herro, Kasparas Jakucionis & Terry Rozier: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKmuVgmecNU
– Kasparas Jakucionis Could Change EVERYTHING For The Miami Heat…: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxOAiMq_WJA

Simone Fontecchio usage rate:
Spotup: 35.5%
Transition: 25.9%
Handoff: 9.6%
Off Screen: 5.8%
Cut: 4.7%

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Share your thoughts on the Miami Heat below:
– Grade the Heat’s offseason! A, B, C, D or F
– Can Simone Fontecchio make a difference for this Heat roster? Type ‘Y’ for Yes or ‘N’ for No

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