The Norm Powell Trade Is STRANGE…

The Norm Powell Trade Is STRANGE…

We have an NBA trade. The Clippers, Jazz, and Heat have agreed to a trade that sends Norman Pallet to Miami, John Collins to LA, and some other random things, including a second round pick to the Utah Jazz. And I know on the surface, this doesn’t seem like a massive deal. It’s obviously not like the Kevin Durant trade or anything, but there is a lot of interesting stuff happening with each of these teams. First, let’s talk about the LA Clippers because one of the big storylines of the offseason at the moment is the Bradley Beal situation in Phoenix. And I think that’s directly connected to what’s happening here with the Clippers. Because in a vacuum, to me at least, I would much rather have Norm Powell on my team than John Collins. Especially if I’m the Clippers and I’m looking at my back court and I’ve got James Harden, Norm Powell who’s now gone. I got Bogdanovich at the trade deadline last offseason. To me, that’s a team that even though they want versatility in the front court, they only have Zubots, Lopez, and Derrick Jones. And adding John Collins gives them that flexibility in the front court. The roster kind of needed each of these guys. And so if I’m flipping one of them for the other, I personally would rather have Norm Powell, which to me means they’re very invested in whatever is going to potentially happen with the Bradley Beal situation. In a vacuum, if they don’t get Bradley Beal, this is like a B minus to a C-grade for me for the Clippers. I don’t really understand it. I would much rather have Norman Powell. He was really good for them and really important for them, especially in games in which James Harden didn’t play last year. Like that’s really, really important to have at this point in Harden’s career. and I’m just not really a huge John Collins guy. So, that part was definitely interesting. The team that I absolutely love the deal for is the Miami Heat. They gave up Kevin Love, Kyle Anderson, and a second round pick to get someone a Norm Powell that is absolutely perfect for their roster. This feels like an offseason in which Miami doesn’t really know what direction to go in exactly. They were in on the Kevin Durant thing and then they were out on the Kevin Durant thing. They’ve got Andrew Wiggins that they’ve apparently been possibly trading to various teams. But to me, the lineup of Hero, Norm Powell, Andrew Wiggins, whoever else, plus Bay Metabio makes a lot of sense to me. That’s a group that I’m not trying to tell you they’re going to be a top four team in the East, but it makes more sense than what they had previously because of Powell’s shooting, his shot creation, and at times his ability to defend because the issue a lot of the times in Miami is who are you going to put next to Tyler Herro in the back court as someone that can actually kind of guard a little bit. Of course, they brought back DaVon Mitchell as well. I really like the move for Miami in terms of overall assets. you’re giving up two guys that basically aren’t going to play for you. Kyle Anderson, Kevin Leven, a second round pick in exchange for Norm Powell, who yes, is on an expiring contract, so you got to deal with that beyond this season. But I like that flexibility, and I love the addition of Norm Powell to this Heat roster. I think he’s really, really going to help them. The Jazz, people are kind of negative on just the offseason in general for the Jazz because they traded out a couple of guys like Colin Sexon and Jordan Clarkson and John Collins and they basically got back two second round picks. They got back not a whole lot. But to me, it was clear that Kyle Saxon didn’t have the kind of market that a lot of other people thought that he would have when they were shopping him around. That’s why they only ended up with Yousef Nerkage. Same thing with Jordan Clarkson. They just bought him out. If you want to criticize the Jazz, I think the criticism there more so is they should have traded those guys a year ago or two years ago rather than waiting until now when their value is a little bit lower. And then Collins is an expiring contract that teams just aren’t really all that excited about. And I think that shows in the value given up in this deal. But to me, this all circles back to, like I said, the big situation happening in the league right now and the thing I was going to make a video on before this trade happened. And that is Bradley Beal. Right now, it seems like Bradley Beal is going to negotiate a buyout in Phoenix to the amount of basically the mid-level exception. He’s going to give up 14 million bucks. He’s going to make that up by signing with a different team to the middle level exception once he gets bought out by Phoenix. There’s plenty of reports that he doesn’t actually want to do this. He doesn’t want to take a buyout. he would like to stay in Phoenix, but the Suns just don’t want him. They are willing to pay him to go away. They cannot get anybody to trade for him because of the no trade clause of it all, because of the giant contract of it all. And the only way that Beal is going to have any kind of market is as a free agent after a buyout. And so, if that happens, all of a sudden, you’re looking at teams like the Clippers and the Heat that would be very involved in possibly adding Bradley Beal. Both those teams prior to this trade made a lot of sense to me as possible options. But this kind of looks like a trade where the Clippers are clearing out a spot potentially for Bradley Beal because him, James Harden, Bogdanovich off the bench. Like that’s a pretty decent back court and you shore up your front court, right? Bringing in John Collins. Whereas on the other hand, the Heat are trading for a guy basically into Bradley Beiel’s potential spot in Miami. Now, the Miami situation was a little bit more complicated when it came to be because the assumption is teams are going to offer him, you know, 10, 11, 12, 13 million bucks, something close to that middle level exception. And the Heat were kind of in a weird in between spot here where they couldn’t really offer Bradley Beal that much money without going over the tax and then they’re hardcapped and then all of a sudden you’re paying the tax for a team that might be the ninth best team in the Eastern Conference. Pat Riley has said they probably don’t want to pay the tax this year. So, the Heat were always kind of a complicated be andor Damen Lillard destination as well. another guy that possibly could be uh on the move for them pretty soon as well. So maybe that’s all this is is the Heat looked at this and said, “We’re not going to get Bradley Beal. We need backourt help.” They talked to the Clippers and say, “Hey, seems like you guys are maybe going to be the Beal team. You want to give up Norm Powell. Here’s what we can do.” And then they work the Jazz in as a third team. A super interesting deal that I think on the surface everybody is just going to assume it means almost nothing. But it’s really intriguing to me the values for each of these players and how it relates directly to the Beal situation. The only other thing I could see here with Miami is this does technically open up a roster spot for them. So maybe this is their avenue towards like being pretty good this year or at least a little bit better because you’re bringing in Norm Powell again for basically nothing. And then you open up that roster spot and maybe you just want to stash Damen Lillard for a year. Like you can pay him enough to where you’re not going into the tax. He just really wants to be in Miami. It was clear that that was his preferred destination when he requested a trade from the Trailblazers in the first place. and you just kind of stash him now that you have this extra roster spot while also being a better team this year. I know that generally speaking, Miami Heat fans are are down on their team. Yak Jonas had a really really rough first two games of summer league. It’s just summer league, but a guy they were excited about has just not been very good. And they’re kind of in this weird middle ground where they’ve got Bam and hero and not a whole lot else. And I know Norm Powell isn’t someone that’s necessarily going to be making all NBA teams, but he’s really good and I think actually has been undervalued by the Clippers in this deal, potentially by their fans based off the reaction of a lot of people I’m seeing react to this favorably for the Clippers. And I really think that it’s just one of those things where they saw an opportunity to improve their team. Not everything has to be a oh my gosh, we’re going to be a contender now. We added Kevin Durant. We did this or that. This improves their team. It doesn’t limit their flexibility at all into the future. And they can sign Norm Powell to an extension if they want to, if he’s willing. And then you have that guy for the next couple years. A guy that, like I said, was really, really good for the Clippers last year. I’m intrigued to see how this works out for the Clippers, by the way, because like I said in the beginning, I’m just not a huge John Collins guy. And given that they have Derrick Jones, Lopez, Zubots, like there’s a real situation here where you get into the playoffs potentially, and John Collins just isn’t really playing all that much for you. I know Derrick Jones can play the three. I like him better at the four. I know that Lopez isn’t necessarily the most durable guy of all time, so you need more front court depth. And I know that sometimes Zubots gets into foul trouble. And I understand having that versatility, but I know with this Clippers roster, Norm Powell is playing 25 minutes at least for me in the postseason if he’s healthy. I’m not sure that’s the case with John Collins. And there’s no other benefit here. They’re both expiring. There’s really not that much of a difference between their salaries. And so ultimately, there isn’t an immediate benefit for this to the Clippers. And so I would give them, like I said, like a B minus C grade. For the Heat, I would give it an A+. And for the Jazz, it’s kind of an NA. Like you don’t really grade these kind of deals. getting a second round pick out of John Collins, which I think is a win, but they probably could have done that with a bunch of teams around the league if any of them were interested in adding John Collins. So, a super interesting deal in my opinion, one I’m really intrigued to see how it affects potentially the rest of the offseason, but I do think there’s a lot of really tangible oncourt stuff happening with this deal for at least two of the teams, not the Jazz. This could also just be a sign of more moves to come around the league as well. It’s been a pretty light off season in terms of big-time moves, but the new league year just went through on Sunday. So now there’s a little bit more flexibility for these teams. Teams actually kind of know what their rosters look like. So maybe it’s a little bit easier to make moves. So maybe this is just the start of maybe the floodgates opening potentially in what has been a pretty disappointing off season so far overall just in terms of the volume of moves.

We have an NBA trade! The Miami Heat traded for Normal Powell while the LA Clippers got John Collins… but the deal means much more than that!

#normpowell #nba #nbatrade