What does trading Norman Powell mean for the Clippers ⁉️ ‘This is a MAJOR loss’ 😨 | NBA Today

What does trading Norman Powell mean for the Clippers ⁉️ ‘This is a MAJOR loss’ 😨 | NBA Today

Clippers, the Jazz, and the Heat agreed to a trade. It sends Norm Powell to Miami, John Collins to the Clippers, and then Kevin Love, Kyle Anderson in a 2027 Clippers second round pick all to Utah. Powell, remember, he was a borderline all-star. He averaged a career-high just under 22 points a game last season. And this got some reaction from Kevin Love, who’s become the king of social media, by the way. I was waiting for what he was going to. But this is how we weigh in. He said, “I never thought I’d be a math problem. Welcome to the NBA, I guess. Welcome to the NBA indeed, Brian. What’s your biggest takeaway when you’re looking at this three team deal? Well, the reason Kevin said that, just so you know, is cuz he had to be included in this deal for salary purposes. And the Heat are thrilled with what they got in this deal. They had been looking for a way to upgrade the talent on their roster. And to be able to basically get um John Collins from the Clipper, from the Jazz, and then flip him to the Clippers for Norm Powell. That is a big upgrade to their back court. Norm Pal is coming off of a career season. His steady improvement in the mid part of his career has been terrific. This is definitely the type of move that in an Eastern Conference that that frankly is banged up and is is devoid of talent. This kind of talent influx is huge for the Heat. And the Clippers make a big move here. They have added a lot to their front court over the last two weeks. signing Brook Lopez to be a Vitza Zubach’s uh backup and now adding John Collins a frontline power forward in the last year of his contract. You assume he’s going to be motivated to have a big season. Man, Wendy, repost, retweet heavy on the what does this mean for the Miami Heat, y’all? Like when I saw this going down, I’m like, huh? So, I just go through this roster tentatively, right? Like Norman Pal, I am in on that dude. I don’t think last year was a fluke. Certainly it could be rep one of his career years but I think he’s in place to be able to duplicate that sort of productivity the next couple of seasons but if you give me Adabio Pal hero Wiggins and wear Khal where I still think is a little bit of a gem in the league in terms of folks maybe not knowing how dynamic he is at 7 foot but in the east that is sort of open outside of the odds that you just mentioned for the New York Knicks like that’s not a bad starting lineup. You sprinkle in a little bit of heat culture if I may and I don’t know you kind of got to see what can happen down in South Beach. The back court is a little crowded. I’m curious if they’re done making moves here. But since we’re in Los Angeles and Clippers fans are are curious, they desperately needed a power forward. That’s something that last season you’re kind of looking around and saying, “All right, Kawaii cannot be taken on all of these minutes, right, Ramona? Are they done? How are they feeling? If if the East is wide open, the West is crowded.” Well, I I don’t think a team as smart as the Clippers front office would leave themselves bare in the starting shooting guard position if they didn’t have a pretty good feeling that there might be a pretty good shooting guard becoming available via the buyout market fairly soon. And that’s Bradley Beal. So, I think you should regard the Clippers as one of the favorites for Bradley Beal if he is indeed bought out by the Phoenix Suns and that comes to fruition as we’ve all been expecting for a while here. And if if you’re Brad and you look up and you go, “Wow, I can play next to James Harden and and st stand out there and shoot threes and I don’t have to be the point guard anymore, I think that’s a great fit for him.” I know the Warriors have some interest in Bo. There’s a lot of other teams that would have interest in him, but the Clippers have have done a good It hurts them to lose Norman Pal. I know it it it really hurt them to let go of him, but he was eligible for an extension. They have a well chronicled discipline about not extending people beyond next year. They’re going to have all this cap space. I don’t know what they’re going to do with it, but they they are sticking to their plan and so that’s why they were trading Norman Pal and not extending keeping that flexibility as well as being a team that wants to contend now. We saw how well even if even though it was a loss, we saw how well they went up against some of the West’s best last year. All right, we’ve hit on two of the teams of a three-team trade. But if we have Brian Winhorse and we have the Jazz involved, we’ve got to ask Brian what’s going on in Utah. We got to hit the third team here. Well, what’s going on in Utah is they’re basically dumping all of their veterans. They bought out Jordan Clarkson. They traded Collins Ston now moving out John Collins. Kevin Love uh maybe don’t look for housing yet. He probably may be able to get himself free. And that leaves what about Lowry Markin now? Markin signed a massive contract extension before last season. And you know, from what I know in talking to people around him, you know, his expectation was that he knew the Jazz were rebuilding, but he was expecting them to start powering up. What it looks like they’re doing here is powering to be chasing AJ Debansa in the draft next year. Um, this team is very young and so Markin didn’t have his best year last year. I don’t know if his value is as high as it was a year ago when there were teams like the Golden State Warriors knocking on the Jazz’s door. But I got to wonder what the future of marketin he’s got a bunch of money on his contract like around 190 million over the next four years. It would not be a clean and simple trade. But I got to wonder if the Jazz aren’t going to be taking some calls. If not now, certainly into this season because their actions indicate they’re not building towards a team around Lowry Markin. They’re building around their young players and potentially their future draft picks going into next year. Raalo Ben Carro agreed to a 5-year $239 million max rookie contract extension. That number will be even higher if he makes AllNBA next season. So, Brian, what should we know about this deal? Well, this is a the a huge move for the number one overall pick from a couple years ago. Um, a great move for the Magic who lock in their core. If you look at Fran Vagner and Jaylen Suggs, the interesting thing about this Malikica is that he got a player option in the fifth year that had become almost extinct over the last three or four seasons. After last decade, we saw a number of players who got that player option. Guys like Donovan Mitchell, Paul George, um Kyrie Irving didn’t stay with their team. That’s certainly something to keep an eye on. Let’s head to Indiana. Tyresese Hallebertton recovering from the Achilles tear he suffered in the NBA finals, but this is good to see. He made it to a fever game on Saturday. Now, Pacers president Kevin Pritchard, he confirmed Tyrese will not play next season. So, how is this team positioned, Monica, come his return in 2026? Well, I know we’re talking 2026, but I’m still not counting them completely out for 2025. But in 2026, I think you look at this roster, you look at a guy like Jarus Walker, you look at a guy like Thomas Bryant, obviously, if Tyrese Hallebertton can come back and duplicate the success this past season. But here’s the thing, this team is going to play with speed with or without him, they will only be better at playing with if he is not available by 2026. But they’ll be great once he returns. Chris Paul is a free agent. He told Jamal Hill how much longer he intends to play? Uh, at the most a year. You know, I just finished my 20th season, which is a blessing in itself. All right. So, at the most a year, that means do you believe this is it? Is that what you say? I think this is it. And I think he will find a home. It’s going to come, you know, later than other free agents here. But last week on this show, I talked about I thought the Phoenix Suns would be the most likely landing place for him. I’m gonna expand that or maybe amend it and say I think the Los Angeles Clippers make a lot of sense for him now now that they’ve traded Norman Pal. They need an extra reinforcement in the back court. And Bradley Beal’s out there, but why not have both? Bradley Beal and Chris Paul. All right, we’ll definitely be keeping an eye on the Clippers. Elsewhere in Los Angeles, the Lakers added a muchneeded big. DeAndre Aton, he cleared waiverss, signed a two-year deal. Eightton is expected to speak to reporters for the first time as a member of the Lakers this afternoon. But in a statement released by Lakers PR, Rob Pelinka, he said, quote, “Deandre size, his mobility, athleticism will both allow paint scoring and paint protection. DeAndre’s playoff experience as a starter on an NBA Finals team will also align with our ultimate Lakers championship aspirations. So again, we’re going to be hearing from DeAndre Aton a little bit later this afternoon. But Brian, how do you feel about his fit just looking at this current Lakers roster?” Well, the Lakers needed a center. They had $8 million to play with. That was their limitation. And they get a guy in his prime who has put up terrific numbers um who is going to be highly motivated. The contract he signed has an out after this year, which means that we’re going to see potentially a DA Andre Aiden that we haven’t seen in a while. He signed that contract with the Suns. He was salty from the moment that he signed it because he had to go get an offer sheet from the from the Pacers and he just wasn’t the same player over the last few years. All you can ask for from the Lakers that they when the situation they were in was to get a motivated high production player at that price they did. Is he a perfect player? Of course not. He wouldn’t have been bought out if he was a perfect player. But the Lakers are in a situation of need. DeAndre Eaton is in a situation of need. We’ll have to see how they work together. It feels like Luca Dodic’s opinion here, Ramona, may be the most important, particularly because we have seen Luca thrive when he has a a rim running big. I’m not sure I necessarily describe DeAndre Aton that way. However, he was a part of maybe the most famous alleyoop of the last couple of years. The Valoop, right? And so Luca is looking for a partner, a tandem. Can DeAndre Aton be that? I guess he has to be. He’s He’s right now he is. I don’t know if this is the long-term partnership, but he has the opportunity. And I obviously Luca was consulted on this. They have the same representation in Bill Duffy’s agency and Neiman Namakia and and there’s a there’s a a synergy there, right? There’s a they they checked in with Luca. Obviously, he was for this move. And so, that’s all you need to know here. Like, if Luca’s on board, then that’s what they got. And I don’t know if this is going to be the long-term fit for the Lakers, but this is a make good contract. And DeAndre Aiden had a lot of success. He was a starting center on that Phoenix Suns team that made the finals. And this was that was when he had Chris Paul in his ear, when he had Deon Booker in his other ear, and he was in a very structured environment with Monty Williams as the head coach. Well, Luca is on one ear, LeBron’s on the other ear. JJ Reic will be in his ear. I think this is a good environment for him to succeed and I’ll not make a kind of contract. I think you’re right in all the things. You don’t sound as convinced. Well, I just I I we have talked at Nauseium and I often have disagreed with the way that Luca has been discussed in terms of needing to turn over the leaf as far as his conditioning and taking it to the next level. I DeAndre Aiden’s got to be able to respond here. But here’s what I think is beautiful about this for him. He doesn’t even necessarily have to be the same version of himself that he was in Phoenix, right? Luca threw 50 lobs last year. That’s seventh in the league in terms of total. That’s easy. DeAndre Aton is a bonafide NBA player. He can catch the ball. You can finish at the rim, right? He doesn’t even necessarily have to go back or turn the hands of time back in the other way. Now, to your point, it is a tremendous opportunity, Ramona, because if he does, and this is a short-term contract, he’s going to look like a prize to the rest of the league. He’s got to see it as an opportunity, though. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause]

On NBA Today, Brian Windhorst, Ramona Shelburne and Monica McNutt join Malika Andrews to discuss:

0:00 Norman Powell being traded to the Miami Heat
1:52 The Heat’s roster with Norman Powell
5:11 Paolo Banchero’s new contract
5:50 The Pacers without Tyrese Haliburton
5:55 Where will Chris Paul land?
7:44 How will Deandre Ayton fit in with the Lakers?

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