After a wild lead-up to the 2025 NBA Draft and a flurry of action to open the new league year, things slowed down a bit for the holiday weekend in the world of NBA transactions. However, on Monday we got our first significant move in a few days in the form of a fascinating three-team trade involving the Miami Heat, Los Angeles Clippers and Utah Jazz.
According to ESPN, the Heat are acquiring Norman Powell, the Clippers are adding John Collins and the Jazz will get a 2027 second-round pick, Kyle Anderson and Kevin Love. Miami has been trying to find some additional scoring punch this offseason, and after striking out on Kevin Durant and appearing to move on from a potential Jonathan Kuminga pursuit, it goes out and lands Powell coming off a career year.
Powell averaged 21.8 points per game last year for the Clippers on 48.4/41.8/80.4 shooting splits, as he moved into the starting role after Paul George’s departure and thrived. He will now join Tyler Herro in the Miami backcourt to provide an upgrade in shooting and shot creation. While those two can put up buckets in bunches, there will be a question of whether they can create for others to the degree Miami will need.
The Clippers, meanwhile, move on from Powell before he becomes an unrestricted free agent next summer and likely commands a much higher annual salary than the $20 million he makes this year. They add John Collins at the four as they continue to bolster their frontcourt rotation this summer, having already added Brook Lopez to back up Ivica Zubac.
Collins had a strong 2024-25 campaign for the tanking Jazz last season, averaging 19.0 points and 8.2 rebounds per game on 52.7/39.9/84.8 shooting splits. Los Angeles will hope he can maintain the shooting form from the last two years in Utah to provide some spacing alongside Zubac and Lopez. It’s sacrificing backcourt depth for more in the frontcourt, and hoping Bogdan Bogdanovic can step up to fill some of the scoring void left by Powell — and, perhaps, the Clippers could be a potential suitor for Bradley Beal when he completes his expected buyout with the Suns.
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The Jazz, meanwhile, finally find a trade for Collins and his $26.5 million expiring salary and add a second-round pick while not taking on any long-term money. Anderson figures to be another tradable contract for Utah with a non-guaranteed $9.7 million on the books for next season, while one would expect the 36-year-old Love to be bought out and allowed to find a new team.
