It didn’t take long for rookie Norris Cole to make his presence felt in the league. It is surprising to see him do it on a championship-caliber team like the Miami Heat though. In only his second regular season game Cole was key to the Heat beating the Boston Celtics by scoring 14 points in the fourth quarter of Miami’s 115-107 win.
Cole was a late first round draft pick in last June’s draft but the Heat felt that they had found a gem in the Dayton, Ohio native. He had a reputation as a strong defender and solid scorer in college, the latter of which was on display against the Celtics.
Mario Chalmers starts ahead of Cole at the point guard position and has played very well defensively but as has been the case with Chalmers in the past he was not in the lineup late in the fourth quarter. As points become hard to come by late in games Chalmers continues to be a liability with his inability to take advantage of all the attention that LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh receive.
Which opens the door for Cole to take over the starting spot at some point this season. If Cole can continue making teams pay for doubling Wade and James or trying to stagnate Miami’s offense with a zone defense then it’s very likely that Cole will be starting sooner rather than later. Even the crowd got into the act by chanting M-V-P when Cole was icing the game from the free throw line. Hey, it’s his world.
Roosevelt Hall is an NBA Blogger for The Sport Mentalist 2 and also writes for Shatter The Backboard. He can be contacted at RHall@shatterthebackboard.com. Follow him on Twitter @sportmentalist.
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