Norman Powell and the second unit: a preview of lineups to come

In life without Tyler Herro in the Miami Heat's world currently, it causes a couple adjustments that weren't originally planned when they first acquired Norman Powell earlier this off-season.

For starters, the Heat were planning on using four players to hold down certain lineups in staggering fashion: Powell, Herro, Andrew Wiggins, and Bam Adebayo. What that essentially means is that two of those players can hold down units at a time together, instead of the weight of the offense on one player's shoulders.

But simply, this is a new day. Erik Spoelstra is game-planning around the best ways to keep the offense afloat once the starters exit, even as the depth of this team appears to be a real strength.

The one player Coach Spoelstra is eyeing to save many of the Heat's offensive second units is one Norman Powell. We got a preview of it in the Heat's third preseason game on Wednesday night against the Spurs, as Spo went away from the hockey shifts, and showcased a unit of Powell next to Kasparas Jakucionis, Pelle Larsson, Keshad Johnson, and Kel'el Ware.

Within the next minute of play, Powell scored five points, a floater off glass down the left slot following an empty corner PnR with Ware and an early clock catch and shoot three above the break. The main takeaway from this quick stint: Powell is going to be looked at to be that scoring spark in those stretches even more-so.

After asking Erik Spoelstra about this unit, he saw the differences right away when taking him out for a five man unit of all young guys: "He's a scorer. I would've liked to have him there in the last 6 minutes, because all those other guys were doing everything else...They could've used somebody where you could just throw the ball to."

Talked to Spo about Norman Powell with the second unit tonight, and how important that’s going to be this season: pic.twitter.com/Ll3lT01jkb
— Brady Hawk (@BradyHawk305) October 9, 2025

"Norm has played in so many different roles over the course of his career," Spoelstra continued. "He's been in second units, he's been in first units where they put him in the second unit. You can see where that will work, particularly while we have Tyler getting back."

Spo also made sure to add that he wanted to start getting back to a "normal rotation" in that last game, which means we will see a lot of Powell with the bench role players.

But as staggering is so key when formulating lineups, the trio of Powell, Nikola Jovic, and Kel'el Ware are going to be leaned on a ton this season. We saw the natural chemistry of Powell and Jovic on display all pre-season and we've already seen the effectiveness of Jovic and Ware together as two young, versatile bigs offensively.

There's definitely more options for Spo this year than past seasons, but Powell is going to remain a sticking point to keeping specific lineups above water.