MIAMI — Norman Powell smiled amid his post-practice sweat when asked about being on-deck when it comes to the Miami Heat doling out extensions.
Nikola Jovic got his last week, when he signed off on a four-year, $62.4 million agreement that kicks in with the 2026-27 season.
Tyler Herro is in the midst of an extension window of his own, with that window open through Oct. 20.
And then there is Powell, who thought he already might have been extended by now, but instead finds himself in a waiting game.
“I’m not honestly thinking about it. I’m not thinking about it at all,” Powell said, with the Heat’s preseason schedule continuing with Monday night’s exhibition against the Milwaukee Bucks at Kaseya Center.
Except he was.
And might be again.
Soon. Or later.
Before he was dealt to the Heat in the July trade that sent out Kevin Love and Kyle Anderson, Powell had been in extension talks with the Los Angeles Clippers.
“To be transparent,” Powell told the Sun Sentinel, “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.
“But they inevitably ended up trading me.”
And that reset the clock for Powell.
With the Clippers, Powell, 32, was eligible in July for a four-year, $128.5 million extension. However, NBA trade rules have that option off the table at the moment.
Within six months of being dealt, extension-eligible players can receive no more than a three-year deal, which, for Powell with the Heat would max out at $77.4 million, with a 2026-27 starting salary of $24.6 million. However, on the six-month anniversary of the trade, in his case Jan. 7, Powell again would be eligible for that four-year, $128.5 million maximum extension, with a 2026-27 starting salary of $28.7 million.
For the Heat, the deal for Powell afforded a degree of future flexibility, including Powell playing out this final, $20.5 million season on the five-year, $90 million contract he signed with the Portland Trail Blazers in 2021. Such a Heat approach, with Powell then moving into 2026 free agency, potentially could have meant a degree of salary-cap space next summer.
However, with Jovic’s extension kicking in next summer, and with the possibility of Andrew Wiggins picking up his $30.2 million player option for 2026-27, the notion of Heat offseason cap space could prove illusory, regardless of the decision with Powell.
Just as Jovic and Herro insisted at the start of the cap that their extension windows would not impact their 2025-26 approach, Powell said playing hard will be the default regardless of his contractual situation.
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“Any year that I’m in a contract year or up for an extension, my job is to focus on the basketball and help bring wins in, and then know that everything is going to take care of itself,” he said. “That stuff is out of my control. I can only focus on what I need to do, and allow what’s out of my control to be handled by my agent and the team.”
Nonetheless, this is the first time in his career that Powell is earning in excess of $20 million. While waiting on a potential four-year extension could position the Heat to get a better read on Powell and also possibly have closure with Herro, there also is something to be said about security.
Powell said pushing for something sooner, even if shorter, would be counter to the approach he takes to the game.
“I know what I commit to this game, what I do, what I sacrifice and having myself in the best position I can, best shape I can, to perform at a high level,” he said. “They wouldn’t have traded for me if they didn’t see that in me, from afar, from a distance all these years.
“So. yeah, 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. 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.”
