- Blazers interim general manager Joe Cronin cited cap flexibility for why the team traded Norman Powell and Robert Covington to the Clippers on Friday, Ben Golliver of The Washington Post tweets. Portland acquired Eric Bledsoe, Justise Winslow, Keon Johnson and a 2025 second-round pick in the deal, ducking below the tax this season and clearing some money from the team’s books in future seasons.
- Kevin Pelton of ESPN grades the Blazers-Clippers trade, explaining why he likes the deal more for Los Angeles than Portland. L.A. currently ranks 8th in the Western Conference at 27-27, while Portland sits at 10th with a 21-32 record. Both teams have dealt with injuries to star players this season, as Paul George and Damian Lillard have only played in 26 and 29 games, respectively. Kawhi Leonard has also remained out as he rehabs a torn ACL.
5:37pm: The trade is now official, Portland announced in a press release.
1:29pm: The Trail Blazers and Clippers have agreed to a trade that will send swingman Norman Powell and forward Robert Covington to Los Angeles in exchange for Eric Bledsoe, Justise Winslow, Keon Johnson, and Detroit’s 2025 second-round pick, sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter links).
It’s a fascinating move for a Clippers team that is currently missing Kawhi Leonard (ACL) and Paul George (elbow). As we relayed this morning, there’s a belief that Leonard probably won’t return this season, while George’s recovery timeline remains up in the air.
However, there’s little reason for the Clippers to throw in the towel on this season. Despite its modest 27-27 record, the club is firmly in the play-in picture, holding the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference. Additionally, Los Angeles doesn’t control its own 2022 first-round pick, having sent it to Oklahoma City in the George trade, so there’s no incentive to finish in the lottery.
Powell is a talented scorer and shooter who is averaging a career-high 18.7 PPG in 40 games (33.3 MPG) this season, along with a .406 3PT%. His three-point rate has been at 39.9% or higher in each of the last four seasons. Covington, meanwhile, is more limited on offense and has been inconsistent as a shooter this season (.381 FG%, .343 3PT%), but is a versatile defender with plenty of postseason experience.
Powell, a Southern California native who will reunite with former Toronto teammates Leonard and Serge Ibaka, signed a five-year, $90MM contract with Portland in August, so the Clippers will control him for the long term. Covington will be an unrestricted free agent this summer, but L.A. will have his Bird rights, allowing the team to go over the cap to re-sign him.
The Clips already project to be way over the luxury tax line next season, so the club may be reluctant to commit to Covington beyond 2021/22 without moving off another contract, such as Marcus Morris‘. That decision won’t have to be made for at least a few months though. In the meantime, this deal will increase L.A.’s projected tax bill this season by about $19MM, tweets ESPN’s Bobby Marks.
The move will also open up a spot on the Clippers’ 15-man roster, potentially allowing them to promote Amir Coffey from his two-way contract. That had been a goal for the team as it approached the deadline, tweets Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report.
It looks at first glance like a modest return for the Blazers, but they’ll get a chance to take a flier on a young prospect in Johnson and will benefit financially from the move. According to Marks, the deal takes Portland out of tax territory for this season.
Moving off Powell’s long-term money and taking back Bledsoe’s pseudo-expiring contract (only $3.9MM of his $19.4MM salary next season is guaranteed) will give the Blazers more financial flexibility going forward and will create more room in the backcourt for emerging guard Anfernee Simons, who is in the midst of a breakout year and will be a restricted free agent in the offseason.
I wouldn’t expect Bledsoe to be part of the Blazers’ long-term plans, but Winslow could stick around beyond this season. He’s under contract for about $4.1MM in 2022/23. Johnson’s rookie contract runs through 2024/25.
Having parted ways with one of their leading scorers and one of their top defensive players, the Blazers will see their playoff odds for this season dip a little. The team currently holds a play-in spot, but only has a 1.5-game cushion on the 11th-place Pelicans and has an underwhelming record of 21-31.
Portland would send its 2022 first-rounder to Chicago if the pick lands outside of the lottery. Taking a longer-term view, the front office – led by interim general manager Joe Cronin – may actually prefer to miss the playoffs, since it would allow the team to keep that first-rounder and would give Damian Lillard more time to recover from his abdominal surgery — it’s a safe bet Lillard won’t rush back from that injury to join a lottery-bound squad for the home stretch.
It’s unclear what this deal will mean for CJ McCollum and Jusuf Nurkic, two of Portland’s other top trade candidates. The club still has six more days to continue making trades, but it wouldn’t be shocking if one or both of those longtime Blazers stays put through the February 10 deadline. McCollum is under contract for two more seasons beyond this one, while Nurkic will be an unrestricted free agent in July.
Portland will create a $6.5MM trade exception in the deal, tweets Marks.
Clippers star Kawhi Leonard is “probably not gonna come back” this season, head coach Tyronn Lue told reporters, including Mirjam Swanson of the Southern California News Group, on Thursday night.
Lue made that statement on Leonard in passing when he was asked, following a thrilling win over the Lakers, about the challenge of coaching a team missing its top two players (Kawhi and Paul George).
“The enjoyment I get from this team, we know Kawhi’s probably not gonna come back, we don’t know the status of PG, but these guys continue to keep fighting,” Lue said. “Every single night. And so that’s kind of how I had to play, that’s how I had to make it, so just seeing how these guys scrap and compete every single night, just makes me feel good – that’s the enjoyment I get from coaching this team.”
Asked to clarify whether he was counting on not having Leonard for the rest of the regular season – and possibly the postseason too – Lue said he’s not ruling anything out.
“Yeah, I don’t know,” Lue said, per Swanson. “I mean, I’m not a doctor. But hope is stronger than fear. So I’m hoping that these two guys (Leonard and George) can come back. But, you know, you never know. So that’s all I got to say, man.”
Leonard has spent the entire season so far recovering from surgery on a partially torn ACL. Despite one report stating he’s ahead of schedule in his rehab and could return earlier than expected, other reports have conveyed pessimism about the likelihood of the two-time Finals MVP returning this season.
George, meanwhile, is dealing with a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow. During Thursday’s broadcast, TNT’s Allie LaForce reported that George will undergo an MRI on that elbow on February 24 to assess how it’s healing. Lue confirmed that report after the game, as Swanson relays.
The Clippers have been optimistic that George will be able to make it back this season without requiring surgery on his elbow. If the MRI shows later this month that the injury isn’t healing like team doctors have hoped, surgical intervention may be necessary. Such a procedure would almost certainly end George’s season, but for now it sounds like that’s a last resort.
Even without their two star forwards, the Clippers have remained firmly in the play-in mix in a Western Conference that has been less competitive than usual beyond the top few seeds. L.A. is only at .500 (27-27), but currently controls the No. 8 spot in the West, 1.5 games up on the ninth-place Lakers and a full five games ahead of the No. 10 Trail Blazers.
- Amir Coffey, in his third season as a two-way player, was an unlikely candidate to save the Clippers‘ season, writes Mirjam Swanson of The Orange County Register. But since he joined the starting lineup following an injury to Paul George, Coffey is playing a team-high 31.4 minutes per night and averaging 14.7 PPG.
The Raptors have phoned rival teams to gauge what sort of return they could get in exchange for Goran Dragic‘s expiring contract and a first-round pick, according to Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report.
Toronto is known to be in the market for an upgrade at center, but likely won’t want to part with any of its core players in an in-season deal. That makes Dragic’s expiring deal and a draft pick the most logical package for the Raptors to offer.
That framework of Dragic and draft assets was brought up in negotiations for Pacers center Myles Turner before he sustained a stress fracture in his foot, says Fischer.
Here are a few more trade-related rumors from around the NBA:
- In addition to confirming that Evan Fournier, Kemba Walker, and Alec Burks are available on the trade market, as previously reported, Fischer says the Knicks are also open to moving center Nerlens Noel. Like the other three veterans, Noel is in the first season of a multiyear contract.
- David Aldridge and Josh Robbins of The Athletic add Ivica Zubac and Nicolas Batum to the list of players the Clippers may be willing to move in a deal for a play-making point guard. A previous report stated that Marcus Morris, Serge Ibaka, and Eric Bledsoe are available. Batum has the ability to veto a trade that involves him.
- Nets big man Paul Millsap, who is training in Atlanta while he waits to be traded or released, says his body feels great and he feels like he still has a lot to contribute, as he told Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports (video link). According to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype, the Bulls – who pursued Millsap in the offseason – are a team worth keeping a close eye on if the 36-year-old is waived.
The Clippers are shopping for a play-making point guard and are willing to move several veterans in order to achieve that goal, Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer reports.
The Clippers believe a starting point guard is the missing piece to become a championship contender when Kawhi Leonard and Paul George return to action, even though it’s uncertain whether they’ll be back this season or next year.
The front office has made Eric Bledsoe, Serge Ibaka, and Marcus Morris available to acquire another floor leader, O’Connor says. The team views current starter Reggie Jackson as more of a scorer than a pure point guard.
Bledsoe is signed through next season but his $19.38MM salary next season is only guaranteed for $3.9MM. Ibaka is making $9.7MM this season and will be an unrestricted free agent this summer. The Clippers would prefer to hold onto Morris, who is in the second year of a four-year, $64MM contract, but the forward may be their most attractive trade piece.
O’Connor suggests the Clippers would also be willing to part with Luke Kennard, Terance Mann, Ivica Zubac, Jason Preston, Brandon Boston Jr., or Keon Johnson if the right deal came along.
As O’Connor notes, the Clippers have been linked in some fashion to Jalen Brunson, Dennis Schröder, Kemba Walker, Goran Dragic, Spencer Dinwiddie and John Wall in recent weeks. Brunson would seemingly be the best fit, though the Mavericks aren’t inclined to deal him, despite the fact that he’ll be an unrestricted free agent after the season.
Dragic, currently in limbo, might be a good short-term fit. Wall, who hasn’t played this season while the Rockets seek a new home for him, could also be an intriguing possibility. The salaries of Bledsoe, Ibaka and Morris could be matched up to obtain Wall. The Clippers could also simply wait to see if Wall winds up on the buyout market and make a play for him at that point.
The 24-26 Lakers are struggling to develop consistent chemistry due to injuries across the board, but most importantly to All-Stars LeBron James (currently out with a swollen knee) and Anthony Davis (recently back in the lineup after missing much of the season with knee and wrist injuries), as Kyle Goon of the Orange County Register writes.
Though starting point guard Russell Westbrook has begun to improve his scoring (if not his late-game decision-making), the absences of Davis and the 37-year-old James have made for choppy waters. The team has also not seen its fifth highest-paid player, Kendrick Nunn, since the preseason.
“It’s a long season; I wouldn’t count this team out,” head coach Frank Vogel said on the West’s current ninth seed.. “[We] have a belief in what we can be when all of the pieces finally come together and have a chance to jell. We’ve seen it in different bursts.”
There’s more out of the City of Angels:
- Lakers rookie shooting guard Austin Reaves has been one of the few bright spots during what has been an otherwise largely underwhelming season for L.A., opines Dan Woike of the Los Angeles Times. “He’s doing a great job of learning and adjusting,” future Hall-of-Famer teammate Carmelo Anthony raved. “And figuring out, ‘OK, if I don’t have the ball in my hands, back cut, offensive rebound, loose balls.’ He’s been doing a great job with doing that, and crashing from the weak side, getting tip-outs, diving on the floor for loose balls, taking charges, getting hit in his face. It seems like he gets hit every play down the court.” The undrafted rookie out of Oklahoma is averaging a fairly modest 5.9 PPG and 2.7 RPG, with .467/.316/.850 shooting splits, but the numbers belie his impact as a defender and as an occasional scoring option off the bench.
- A depleted Clippers team missing perennial All-Star forwards Paul George and Kawhi Leonard has managed to find a way to recover from disadvantages of 20 or more points in three January games. Mirjam Swanson of the Orange County Register notes that the exhausted 25-26 club is in the midst of an epic eight-game road trip.
- Clippers reserve long-range marksman Luke Kennard is interested in being considered for NBA All-Star Weekend’s three-point contest, writes Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times. He has the support of his head coach. “I think he would do great,” head coach Tyronn Lue said. The 6’5″ vet is currently the third-best three-point shooter in the NBA by percentage, making 43.9% of his 2.8 triples a night.
Xavier Moon, who recently completed three 10-day hardship contracts with the Clippers, is determined to make it back to the NBA, according to Andrew Greif of The Los Angeles Times. Moon’s last game was in New York City against the Knicks, and he said it was a surreal experience.
“Watching these games on TV, Madison Square Garden, everybody doing what they do and getting a chance to take the court?” Moon said. “Man, surreal.”
The 27-year-old NBA rookie has plenty of international experience, having made stops in France, England, Israel and Canada. Upon hearing that some G League teams were interested in his services late last summer, Moon decided to buy out his contract with an Italian club and give things a shot closer to home, Greif writes.
“I was like, I think I’ll hold off from going overseas this year,” Moon said. “And I think that was probably one of the better decisions that I made.”
Moon appeared in six games with the Clippers, averaging 5.5 PPG, 1.7 APG, and 1.5 RPG in 13.8 MPG. In 17 games with Agua Caliente, the team’s G League affiliate, he has averaged 13.3 PPG, 4.7 RPG, 6.6 APG, and 1.4 SPG on .489/.386/.864 shooting.
Here’s more from the Pacific Division:
- The Kings are in a tailspin, losing 12 of their last 14 games to fall to 18-32 on the season, 13th in the West, and Harrison Barnes is understandably frustrated with the team’s performance, per Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. “It’s a range of emotions: frustration, anger, embarrassment, disappointment. You can go down the list,” Barnes said after posting 28 points and nine rebounds in the loss to the Hawks on Wednesday. “No one prepares and wants to lose, wants to go through losing the way we’ve been going about it. There’s a lot of frustration, but it’s on us to get out of this.”
- Anthony Davis said X-rays on his right wrist came back negative after injuring it on a dunk over Joel Embiid in the Lakers‘ loss to Philadelphia on Thursday, ESPN’s Dave McMenamin tweets. Davis will miss Friday’s game against Charlotte with wrist soreness, McMenamin relays in a separate tweet.
- LeBron James is also inactive Friday night for the Lakers and is considered day-to-day with left knee soreness, as Kyle Goon of the Southern California News Group details. In a follow-up tweet, Goon notes that James’ knee is swollen on top of being sore, so the team is being cautious with the 37-year-old star.
- Within the same article from Goon, Stanley Johnson says he’s thrilled he was able to turn his 10-day deals with the Lakers into a standard contract that will cover the remainder of the season, with a team option for next year. “I couldn’t have dreamed of something like this in wildest my dreams,” Johnson said. “Obviously, I wanted it. … Seeing a 10-day guy with a fit like this, it’s happened before. And it will happen again. But it doesn’t happen a lot.”
The Rockets have received multiple trade offers for veteran shooting guard Eric Gordon, but have turned them down, according to Kelly Iko of The Athletic. Iko suggests that unless they get an offer that “simply can’t get ignored,” it’s becoming more plausible that the Rockets will simply hang onto Gordon through the trade deadline.
Houston is in the early stages of a rebuild and Gordon is having his best shooting season as a pro, with career highs in FG% (.506) and 3PT% (.452) — the time seems right to make a deal. However, Iko says the team admires how Gordon carries himself on and off the court and believes he’s a positive influence on Houston’s young players, so there’s no rush to ship him out.
It still seems possible that Gordon will be on the move by February 10 if a potential trade partner meets the Rockets’ reported asking price of a first-round pick. But if Gordon remains in Houston, the club will have more opportunities to trade him before his contract expires — he’s owed a $19.6MM guaranteed salary in 2022/23 and a $20.9MM non-guaranteed salary in ’23/24.
Here’s more on the Rockets:
- Unless they’re blown away by an offer, the Rockets will likely hang onto Christian Wood through the trade deadline, says Iko. Sources tell The Athletic that the Heat have been one of the most “persistent” teams that has engaged with Houston in conversations about Wood.
- Although the Rockets have received some inquiries about John Wall, his contract makes a trade unlikely, and most teams that have registered interest continue to simply monitor the situation rather than actively pursuing the point guard, Iko writes. The Clippers expressed genuine interest earlier in the season, sources tell The Athletic, but their goals as the deadline approaches are unclear. I’d be pretty shocked if the Clippers sought a trade for Wall.
- With no guarantees that the Rockets will make a trade involving Gordon, Wood, or Wall, Iko indicates smaller deals around the edges are more likely. Daniel Theis, David Nwaba, and – to a lesser degree – D.J. Augustin – have all drawn some interest, Iko reports.
Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue told reporters, including Andrew Greif of The Los Angeles Times (Twitter link), that forward Nicolas Batum will be available Friday night at Philadelphia. Batum had been placed in the health and safety protocols as a result of an inconclusive test, missing Wednesday’s 130-128 overtime loss at Denver, but obviously has been cleared by testing negative twice since.
Here are more COVID-19 and injury-related updates from around the NBA:
- Hawks head coach Nate McMillan told reporters, including Sarah K. Spencer of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (via Twitter), that starting center Clint Capela will return to action Friday night against Miami, but will be on a minutes restriction. Capela had missed Atlanta’s last six games with an ankle injury and the team went 2-4 in his absence. Spencer also tweets that the Hawks will be without Bogdan Bogdanovic (knee) and Danilo Gallinari (sore Achilles), while Gorgui Dieng will be available (non-COVID illness).
- Nuggets guard Jamal Murray, who’s still rehabbing from a torn ACL suffered last April, has entered the health and safety protocols, Harrison Wind of DNVR Sports tweets.
- Celtics head coach Ime Udoka told reporters that Marcus Smart and Aaron Nesmith will miss Friday’s game vs. Portland, per ESPN’s Tim Bontemps (Twitter link). Smart is still ramping up his conditioning after battling COVID-19, while Nesmith is dealing with a sprained ankle.
- Wizards forward Kyle Kuzma is out Friday vs. Toronto with a sprained neck, per Marc J. Spears of the Undefeated (via Twitter). Kuzma is having a solid first season with Washington, averaging 15.7 points, 8.8 rebounds and 2.9 assists in 43 games, all starts.
- Magic head coach Jamahl Mosley and top assistant coach Nate Tibbetts have both cleared the protocols and will be coaching Friday’s game against the Lakers, Orlando’s PR department tweets.
- Grizzlies forward Killian Tillie has been upgraded from questionable to available for Friday’s game at Denver, so he has cleared the health and safety protocols, Memphis’ PR department tweets.