With the Miami Heat trading for Norman Powell from the Los Angeles Clippers in the offseason, it’s a move that has given the team a new level of excitement. As people around the Heat have praised the move to trade for Powell, the player himself speaks on getting used to his new surroundings.

Powell has been recently practicing with the Jamaican national basketball team for the FIBA World Cup 2027 Americas pre-qualifiers, which have been taking place in Boca Raton, Florida. Specifically at Florida Atlantic University, where Miami has held training camp before, Powell would express how being in South Florida under this situation has been getting him “acclimated,” according to The Miami Herald.

“It’s getting me acclimated,” Powell said. “It has been amazing to be welcomed here. Not only with the Jamaican national team, and that side of my culture that I’m embracing and learning about. But being here in South Florida, checking into the hotel, people already know who I am and welcome me and are excited about me being on the Heat.”

“It’s been amazing,” Powell continued. “I’ve always looked at my life as full-circle moments. Things that have been talked about and signs, and things that you don’t really notice. But then it comes full circle. I was expecting training camp to be in Jamaica, but then I learned that it was in Boca. And then being traded to the Heat, being so close to where I’ll be playing, and being able to go down there and go to the facility, look for a place to stay. … It’s definitely cool.”

Norman Powell on starting a new chapter with the Heat

As Powell will now join the Heat’s featured duo of Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro, the former Los Angeles Clipper gives the team a much-needed gutpunch on offense, as they ranked towards the bottom of the league in offensive rating. Speaking after a recent practice with the Jamaican national team, he would also express how eager he is to start a new era in his basketball career.

“Honestly, I’m super excited about it,” Powell said. “It’s always a shock when you get traded, especially coming off the year that I had, and talking to the front office, and it’s all about extensions and things like that. And then you get a little rumbling that it’s a possibility, but not really. And then you get traded. So the shock is always there.”

“But the Heat, they’ve welcomed me with open arms,” Powell continued. “They’ve talked about how much they’ve wanted me and liked my game throughout the year, and they’ve tried to get me. So to come to a place that values you and wants you here and understands what you bring to the table and wants you to be you, you can’t be upset or mad about that at all.”

Last season, Powell averaged 21.8 points per game on shooting 48.4 percent from the field and 41.8 percent from deep.

Powell is hoping to help Miami improve this upcoming season, as they were 37-45, which put them 10th in the Eastern Conference. While they would make it through the play-in tournament as the first 10th seed to do so, the Heat would get swept by the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round of the NBA playoffs.