On the morning of July 7, the Miami Heat, Los Angeles Clippers, and Utah Jazz agreed to a three-team trade that includes several notable players switching teams.
Let’s analyze the deal, complete with a grade for each team involved in the blockbuster deal.
Breaking Down the Norman Powell-John Collins Trade
The news was first reported by ESPN’s Shams Charania, who wrote in a post on X “BREAKING: The Clippers, Jazz and Heat have agreed to a trade that sends Norman Powell to Miami, John Collins to Los Angeles, and Kevin Love, Kyle Anderson and a 2027 Clippers second-round pick to the Jazz, sources tell ESPN.”
BREAKING: The Clippers, Jazz and Heat have agreed to a trade that sends Norman Powell to Miami, John Collins to Los Angeles, and Kevin Love, Kyle Anderson and a 2027 Clippers second-round pick to the Jazz, sources tell ESPN. pic.twitter.com/o0FkV0o2l8
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 7, 2025
Let’s grade the deal from all three sides, beginning with the Miami Heat, who are sending out a backup veteran big man for an explosive three-level scorer.
Miami Heat Analysis
For the Heat, this is essentially a trade in which they sent out two backups in Kevin Love and Kyle Anderson to acquire Norman Powell, who will presumably figure into their starting lineup in the backcourt next to 2025 All-Star Tyler Herro.
Despite Love and Anderson’s maturity and positive impact in the locker room and on the team’s culture, Miami had to take this swing after being swept in the first round and without much ability to improve the roster.
Powell, coming off a career year in which he averaged 21.8 points per game on 48.4% shooting from the field and 41.8% from three-point range (on 7.1 attempts), immediately raises the ceiling of the Heat. Herro, who also had a career year by averaging 23.9 points and 5.5 assists per game and making his first All-Star game, faced a huge burden as the team’s primary (and, realistically, only) viable ball-handler and creator outside of center Bam Adebayo.
Now, with Powell in the fold, the Heat add another guard who can create his own shot and operate in the pick-and-roll, lifting some pressure from Herro.
The issue with a backcourt of Powell and Herro is that it will be defensively challenged. Herro can’t be considered anything close to a good defender, and while Powell is passable, he may have to defend the opposition’s top perimeter player.
But perhaps that doesn’t necessarily have to be the case, as head coach Erik Spoelstra can play around with small-ball lineups featuring Davion Mitchell alongside Powell (6’4″) and Herro (6’5″).
Spoelstra also could experiment with Powell coming off the bench, a role he’d become familiar with in Los Angeles, placing fourth in the Sixth Man of the Year voting in 2022-23 and 2023-24 before firmly establishing himself as a starter last season. That would give Miami a defense-focused starting lineup of Mitchell, Herro, forward Andrew Wiggins, Adebayo, and center Kel’el Ware to start the game, with Powell quickly coming in as a scoring threat off the bench.
Regardless of how Powell is utilized, this trade didn’t require Miami to give up much at all for a player who fills an immediate need as a secondary scorer.
Contract-wise, Powell is in the final year of a five-year, $90 million deal with a cap hit of roughly $20 million next season. Eligible for an extension, the Heat could decide to lock him in as soon as possible or ride it out and wait until next offseason. That would give them a full year of evaluating the fit, giving them the option to re-sign him or have an extra $20 million in cap space if they are to let him walk.
From all sides of the equation, this is a major win for the Heat for an extremely manageable price.
Heat Grade: A
Los Angeles Clippers Analysis
The Clippers had a surprisingly good season last year, claiming the Western Conference’s fifth seed after being projected as either a play-in team or out of the postseason picture altogether. But with their season ending in blowout fashion in the first round versus the Denver Nuggets in Game 7, it was clear that the current roster needed improvements.
They signed center Brook Lopez to a team-friendly two-year, $18 million deal to be an overqualified backup to starter Ivica Zubac. They also re-signed both James Harden and Nicolas Batum to two-year deals. Harden made the All-Star team for the first time in three seasons, and Batum provided his usual veteran leadership and 3-and-D capabilities.
But a huge part of their success last season was because of Powell’s scoring punch and ability to shoulder much of the scoring load in the injury absence of star forward Kawhi Leonard, who played in just 37 games. In the first half of the season, with Leonard out, Powell made a realistic push for the first All-Star nod of his career.
Although he wasn’t named to the prestigious game, he established himself as more than just a bench scorer. At 32 years old, he had the best season of his career and revealed himself to have potential for even more upward mobility with his increased shooting percentages and savvy scoring ability.
Now, he’s been shipped out for John Collins, a player who hasn’t played meaningful basketball in two full seasons. However, as some have pointed out, Collins has the potential to be a nice fit at the power forward position.
John Collins is set up to thrive alongside James Harden and Kawhi Leonard on the Clippers.
Collins excels as a pick-and-roll lob threat, and he shot 40% on catch-and-shoot threes this season.
Collins averaged 19 points on an elite 62.8 TS% for the Jazz.pic.twitter.com/ttUPJu2bLf
— Evan Sidery (@esidery) July 7, 2025
The Clippers will have to determine if that was because of a plethora of opportunities with the rebuilding Jazz, or if he can contribute to winning basketball.
The answer to that question will determine how this deal ends up for Los Angeles, but for now, it’s somewhat a sideways move while giving away some perimeter-scoring insurance in the case of Leonard’s injuries.
Clippers: C
Utah Jazz Analysis
There are rumors that Love will be bought out, and they also acquired Anderson in the deal (who may be bought out himself), so this is clearly a move to get off Collins’ massively overpaid five-year, $125 million deal that he signed with the Atlanta Hawks in 2021. As soon as pen hit paper, it seemed like the Hawks regretted the deal, constantly shopping him and trying to get his contract off their books.
The Jazz became takers in the summer of 2023 in a trade involving Rudy Gay and a future second-round pick. Two summers later, they found another partner to dump him on as he enters the final year of his contract.
From Utah’s perspective, this clears playing time for their myriad of young, highly-drafted forwards that include Ace Bailey (No. 5 pick in 2025), Taylor Hendricks (No. 9 in 2023), Cody Williams (No. 10 in 2024), Brice Sensabaugh (No. 28 in 2023), and Kyle Filipowski (No. 32 in 2024) who showed flashes of becoming a solid rotation piece during his rookie campaign.
Recouping a Clippers second-round pick is also a small victory, giving them a somewhat surprising asset in return for dealing Collins.
Jazz Grade: B
