With the Miami Heat trading for Norman Powell from the Los Angeles Clippers, there is no doubt excitement from fans after adding another scoring threat to the team. While fans grade the trade for the Heat getting Powell, the guard would get high praise from new teammate Davion Mitchell on Tuesday.
Mitchell was asked about the trade made for Powell, who is coming off a breakout season, averaging over 21.8 points per game, shooting 48.4 percent from the field. Giving his thoughts on the deal, Mitchell would talk about the importance of Powell winning a title, as he did with the Toronto Raptors in 2021, according to The Miami Herald.
“First of all, he’s won a championship before,” Mitchell said. “So he’s been there, he’s been through the thick and the thin and he’s been around really good teammates. He played with a really good team. He’s a winning player, he plays both sides of the ball, he can score with the best of them. He kind of does it all. Even if he’s not shooting the ball well, he can disrupt defensively. So you want guys like that on the floor that can help you win like that.”
He would imply that the sky is the limit for the team, as despite not having total chemistry with new pieces, they would make the playoffs.
“It’s going to be good for me and the team, just the chemistry that we can build,” Mitchell said. “We won a couple games, we even made it to the playoffs with very little chemistry, especially with injuries and just getting traded here. So we didn’t really know how to jell with one another. I feel like we kind of figured it out a little bit.”
Norman Powell joins Heat backcourt with Davion Mitchell, Tyler Herro
Los Angeles Clippers guard Norman Powell (24) shoots against Miami Heat guard Tyler Herro (14) during the second quarter at Crypto.com Arena.
Jonathan Hui-Imagn Images
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As Mitchell spoke of the reasons for returning to the Heat, he was a standout for the team last season after he was traded from the Toronto Raptors in the multi-team deal, including Jimmy Butler. Because there were a lot of moving pieces with the trade after the deadline, Mitchell believes that the experience, plus the offseason, will do wonders for the chemistry.
“But to have a training camp with one another, just to go at each other, just to learn from one another, spend time outside of basketball with each other, I think is going to build a lot of team chemistry,” Mitchell said.
Now with adding Powell, the talent in the backcourt along with star Tyler Herro and Mitchell is one to monitor as re-signing the latter seemed to be a priority heading into the summer.
“I just wanted to do what was best for me and my family, obviously,” Mitchell said. “But I wanted to be here, I wanted to keep playing here, especially because I didn’t have that many months here. I got traded in February, so I wanted to see what I could do for this team and what we can do as an organization.”
At any rate, Miami is looking to improve after finishing with a 37-45 record, which put them 10th in the East, but made it through the play-in tournament. Though their playoff journey was a forgettable one, as the team was swept by the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round.