Quick Study: What Miles Norris Brings to the Celtics

Miles Norris is the type of sharpshooter who can slot into the Celtics bench rotation

Every time I’ve sat down to write this, something has come up to pull me away from my desk. So, unlike most articles I write, this one is a product of multiple attempts, which makes me feel like its disjointed and lacking in areas — but i’m my own biggest critic.

Still, here’s a brief overview of Miles Norris’ shooting ability and where he provides upside.

The Boston Celtics recently waived Anton Watson. Shortly after, Miles Norris was announced as his replacement. Norris, 24, is a sharpshooting forward who has impressed during his time with the Memphis Hustle.

According to Bobby Manning of CLNS Media, the Celtics have signed Morris to a two-year two-way contract.

I’m going to be honest, I wasn’t too familiar with Norris’ game. I’ve spent the past day working through some of his game footage. So, I thought that little study session could work as a short-form scouting report.

As an aside, I’ve made it a rule not to dive too deep into obscure additions. A few years back I produced like 4 or 5 thousand words on Moses Brown, only for him to be traded a few hours after the article went live. So, now, I keep things shorter and a little more surface level.

Anyway, Norris value is primarily on the perimeter. His offense almost exclusively comes from deep.

Let’s start with his shooting off the catch.

The first thing that stood out to me was that Norris didn’t need the ball delivered directly to his shooting pocket to be a threat. He can catch errant passes and quickly find his pocket before flowing into his shooting motion.

Take a look at the below clip as an example.

Norris receives the pass somewhere near his knee. Despite having to reach down on the catch, he’s still able to adjust his motion and get a shot off before the defense closes out.

With such quick adjustments, defenses could find it hard to run him off the line, especially if they’re step late on the close-out, and even more so if he’s playing with the confidence that consistent minutes provide.

He’s also more than capable of draining a shot with a hand in his face.

Allow me to geek out for a moment. I really liked this action. It’s set up like a basic ram, but quickly changes direction. A down screen from Norris allows the screen receiver to ‘turn’ and set a pin-down for the corner shooter. Norris then fills the corner to provide baseline spacing.

Keep an eye on Norris in the corner. Notice how he’s got zero space.

None.

Nada.

A lack of space doesn’t stop him from getting his shot off, though. He keeps his mechanics the same, and lets the ball come off at a high arc — cash.

I’m not pretending he’s a Steph Curry-level shooter, though. He isn’t immune to rushing his release when pressured by close-outs, especially when they’re coming from his shooting side. In the above video, you can see the impact that type of closeout has on his release.

Nevertheless, Norris runs the lane well, is confident when taking his shot, and, most importantly, understands when to let it fly, when to fake and when to put it on the floor—even if it’s just to reset the seams and get a better shot.

Overall, Norris took 210 spot-up shots for the Memphis Hustle this season, knocking down 77 of them — a 36.7% conversion rate. Of those 210 spot-ups, 184 came from deep, with 69 of them being cash.

Maine has been using him the same way, with 11 of his first 21 shots for the franchise coming off the catch — all of them on the perimeter.

Every clip we’ve seen so far has been of Norris’ ability to knock down shots off the catch — either when stationary, when attacking close-outs, or when operating as part of a set action.

So, how does he handle scoring on the move? Let’s take a look…

With the Hustle, Norris had 34 plays where he took a shot while coming off a screen — he went 17-for-17 on them.

In both of the above clips, you can see Norris navigate his way around the court, come off a screen and then cook on the catch. The additional movement on these actions adds a layer of difficulty, however, he seems adept at aligning his hips to the basket and getting straight into his shooting motion.

In the second clip — which is a form of Ricky action, Norris repositions his body on a dime, adjusts his release to match his defender's proximity and hits a high-arc shot after sprinting into his position.

I have noticed that most of his work comes from the corners, wings and the slot. He rarely takes above-the-break threes, but that is likely due to position, role, comfortability. Unless he’s ghost screening or shallow cutting, I can’t see a reason for him to be operating above the break, to be honest.

As a perimeter-based shooter who can score off the catch and on the move, there’s a clear translatable role from the G-League to the Celtics bench. Of course, buckets don’t come quite as easy at the NBA level, but when you have the floor spacing and gravity that Boston does, you can create gaps from time-to-time.

I also wanted to share the below clip, showing that Norris has some potential upside off-the-bounce, although, I don’t feel too confident with his dribbling/ball control, it just looks a little loose in my opinion.

I like Norris as a potential flyer — especially in a Svi Mykhailiuk role, where he’s seen as a single-skill sniper who can come off the bench and knock down some jumpers when other dudes haven’t got it going. In truth, though, I haven’t worked through is defensive footage, so I might be wrong there, perhaps he could become a three-and-d bench guy — I just question that due to the role he’s played in Memphis, his age, and what appears to be a slight lack of high-level burst.

Still, anything is possible. However, with Jordan Walsh, Baylor Scheierman and Hauser all ahead of him in the rotation, Norris faces an uphill battle to have a shot at making the rotation, but that’s the nature of the G-League and two-way contracts — not everyone can make it.

Have you seen Norris play? If so, I’m curious, what did you notice about his game? Let me know in the comments!