Winners and Losers from Blazers and Clippers' Norman Powell Trade
Every year, you can count on a couple of teams to jump the NBA trade deadline gun. And this season, they were the Portland Trail Blazers and Los Angeles Clippers.
As reported by ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski, the Blazers are sending a pair of rotation players (who could potentially start) to the injury-plagued Clippers.
At first glance, this feels like a winning deal for L.A., which remains firmly in the playoff hunt despite extended absences for Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.
Portland, meanwhile, may be signaling that it's finally ready to rebuild. Depending on how you feel about reboots, the verdict on that could go either way.
As always, though, every trade has more winners and losers than the teams involved. We'll dive into the time-honored tradition of determining who falls on either side of that line.
Winner: Los Angeles Clippers
Kawhi hasn't played a second for the Clippers this season. After Thursday's victory over the Los Angeles Lakers, coach Tyronn Lue said Leonard is "probably not gonna come back." George has missed over half the team's games.
And yet, L.A. is in eighth place and just 2.5 games back of sixth (the magic spot for escaping the play-in tournament). Pushing some chips in to solidify that position makes sense (and is admirable).
That's especially true when, with all due respect to those headed to Portland, those chips aren't particularly valuable.
Justise Winslow is a fringe rotation player who's 5-of-29 from three on the season. Eric Bledsoe has started over half his appearances this season, but the Clippers have been better when he's off the floor. A second-round pick is a second-round pick. Plenty of players beat the odds, but most selected there don't last long.
The best part of the package for Portland could be 19-year-old rookie Keon Johnson, a 6'5" wing who may be one of the league's most explosive athletes. His efficiency has been disastrous this season, but the sample is way too small for sweeping judgments on a teenager.
To turn that into Norman Powell and Robert Covington feels like a no-brainer for L.A.
Covington is 31 and may not be as rangy as he was in his younger years, but he's another switchy, three-and-D forward in the mold of Marcus Morris Sr. When (or if) George returns to action, Lue will have more versatile lineup options. With Morris, Covington, George and Nicolas Batum all in the game, the Clippers would be able to switch 2 through 5.
Heck, trust PG to handle the ball in those lineups and make Powell the fifth guy, and L.A. might even be able to switch 1 through 5.
At 6'3", Powell isn't as big as the rest of that group, but a 6'11" wingspan helps him hold up against taller matchups.
Perhaps most importantly, both Powell and Covington are reliable, high-volume three-point shooters. Since the start of the 2018-19 season, Powell has averaged 15.3 points and 2.0 threes per game while shooting 40.5 percent from deep. In the same stretch, Covington is at 10.3 points and 2.1 threes with a 35.6 three-point percentage.
Loser: Damian Lillard (Maybe? For Now?)
If this is the start of a full-fledged rebuild, it's hard to imagine Damian Lillard, who'll turn 32 in July, is thrilled.
Title windows don't stay open long. In fact, they don't open for most players. It's been three years since Lillard made it to the Western Conference Finals. And if it takes a few more to build another contender around him, he'll be in his mid-30s.
At that point, who knows if he'll be "best player on a championship contender"-caliber?
Still, with the group that surrounds Lillard, another deep run in the playoffs may not have been in the cards. An optimistic view from a Blazers fan would be that Lillard signed off on this.
Portland has an outgoing first-round pick headed to the Chicago Bulls this summer, but that's only if it lands outside the lottery. Right now, the Blazers are slated to keep it and pick ninth.
Moving two key players for Winslow (who's struggled to stay in any of his teams' rotations for years), Johnson (a project) and Bledsoe (a buyout candidate?) will help the Blazers hang on to that selection.
If CJ McCollum and/or Jusuf Nurkic can yield more talent in separate deals, and the Blazers can land a building block in the draft (or add that pick to another deal), maybe Lillard can lead a reloaded Portland squad back to contention.
A lot has to break right for that to happen, though. And the top of the West figures to remain loaded for the foreseeable.
Of course, the elephant in this room is what Sean Highkin alluded to above. That Dame Trade Industrial Complex exists for a reason. The idea that the Blazers jump-start a rebuild with a massive Jrue Holiday or James Harden-style haul shouldn't be dismissed.
Winner: Anfernee Simons
Blazers fans: Welcome to the Anfernee Simons experience.
As noted by Wojnarowski, he'd been lighting it up (22.8 points and 4.4 threes over his last 16 games) ahead of this deal, but the move ensures he'll keep firing away until Lillard returns (assuming that happens).
Over the course of the season, Simons has played more than 400 minutes without both McCollum and Lillard. In those situations, he's putting up 23.9 points, 6.6 assists and 4.4 threes per 75 possessions with a well-above-average 58.9 true shooting percentage.
That's excellent production for a 22-year-old. Whether Portland steers into a rebuild or not, Simons' performance bodes well for the future.
He's either a solid foundational piece to go along with whatever comes back in various trades or part of a dynamic one-two backcourt punch with Lillard (though that story may be growing stale in Portland).
Loser: Eric Bledsoe
Bledsoe hasn't been bad bad this season. He's seventh on a .500 team in value over replacement player, and he's topped 20 points five times.
But Bledsoe is 32 years old. At his peak, his contributions on both ends of the floor were heavily reliant on explosive athleticism. As that has started to fade, so has his efficiency. For the second year in a row, he's posting a below-average true shooting percentage.
Involved in his fourth trade since November 2020, it feels like he's officially in the journeyman phase of his career. Given the decline we've seen since he was a Milwaukee Buck in 2019-20, this might even be the twilight.
As is the case with so many others, it happened quickly.
Winners: Other Buyers at the Trade Deadline
Even if Friday's trade doesn't mean the end of the Lillard era in Portland, vultures have to be circling the Blazers' phone lines.
Trade rumors have swirled around McCollum for years. Will that duo finally be broken up?
According to the Action Network's Matt Moore, there may be a robust market for centers this year. Does that mean Nurkic could go for a decent return?
In individual vacuums, these players are good. Their talent may not have led to championships with the Blazers, but in different roles for contenders around the league, they just might.
Some teams in the NBA could convince themselves they're one piece away from bona fide contention. Assuming they're available, McCollum and Nurkic are good enough to be those kinds of pieces.
