Peachtree Hoops: 2023-24 Atlanta Hawks player preview: Miles Norris

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Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports

Miles Norris has a good claim being the least known Hawk going into next season among the 18 guaranteed contracts. He was far from the draftnik radar leading up to the 2023 NBA Draft and wound up going undrafted as expected. But soon after the draft, the Hawks made it a priority to sign him to their first two-way contract of the offseason.

With Atlanta trying to install Quinball in an attempt to modernize the offense, Norris could be an asset in many regards. After a four-year college career — with his freshman year spent at Oregon and the final three years farther down the Pacific coast at UC Santa Barbara — Norris has a very clearly defined role at the professional level. As a 6’10” forward with a nice shooting stroke, he’ll be called upon as a stationary shooter to provide length and spacing for Atlanta’s offensive engines to better orchestrate efficient offense.

Per 40 minutes of play across both college stops, Norris averaged 15.3 points and 7.3 points, but those figures obscure his projected role as a floor-stretching forward. His positioning on the perimeter makes it harder for him to secure rebounds, but it can also pull opposing rebounders away from the rim as well. For his college career, he hit 36.7% of his three-point attempts with 42% of all of his field goal attempts coming from behind the arc.

He saw few minutes as a member of the 2023 Atlanta Hawks Las Vegas Summer League team. In just 57 minutes of play there, he went 5-for-11 (56%) from three, but Norris also chipped in with some ball moving on offense and try-hard effort on defense as well, even if the results weren’t quite there on that end.

Miles Norris is still a raw prospect, but his narrow fit within the new scheme means he may get a path to real playing time in short order. Still, he’ll make the biggest immediate impact by working hard in practice sessions and showcasing his growing grasp of the professional game with the College Park Skyhawks for the vast majority of the 2023-24 season at minimum.

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