Grading NBA 3-team trade between Clippers, Heat, Jazz

NBA free agency has died down since the initial flood of signings last week, but teams will still be jockeying to improve themselves for the present and future throughout the rest of the summer. The Los Angeles Clippers, Miami Heat, and Utah Jazz found enough common ground to agree to a three-team trade on Monday morning that gives Utah and LA more future flexibility while Miami adds one of last season’s breakout veterans at a cheap cost. The end result is one of the more interesting deals of the offseason so far.

The Heat landed Norman Powell, and the Clippers finally got a power forward as John Collins arrives from Utah. Here’s the full scope of the trade, as reported by ESPN insider Shams Charania.

Clippers get: John Collins

Heat get: Norman Powell

Jazz get: Kevin Love, Kyle Anderson, Clippers’ 2027 second-round pick

It feels like there’s another shoe soon to drop that will help make sense of this deal. Let’s grade it from all three sides.

Clippers grade for landing John Collins in 3-team trade

This felt like a confusing move for the Clippers at first blush. Powell had a breakout year at age-32 when he averaged 21.8 points per game on excellent scoring efficiency with 61.5 percent true shooting. A team with James Harden and Kawhi Leonard as their two stars doesn’t feel like it’s in a position to take a step back regardless of future considerations.

Powell was going to be a free agent after the 2025-26 season, and he wasn’t in the Clippers’ long-term plans. They moved off him for a player in Collins they believe fills a bigger positional need on the team for next season. The Clippers’ backcourt sure feels like it lacks scoring punch now, but don’t be surprised if they make another move to address that shortly.

LA has needed a power forward for years, and Collins is a decent short-term option for that. Collins, who turns 28 before next season, was limited to only 40 games with a knee sprain last season, but he played really well for a tanking Jazz team when he was on the court. The book is out on Collins at this point: he’s an athletic play-finisher at the four who can throw down some spectacular dunks at his best, but he struggles with his ball handling and defense. Collins shot the ball really well from deep last year, making 40 percent of his threes on 3.7 attempts per game. If the Clippers can coax a little more volume out of him while maintaining the same accuracy, he could be a nice piece for them.

Collins feels custom-made to be paired with Harden in the two-man game. Harden is still an elite pick-and-roll playmaker, and Collins can explode off the ground to finish dunks with ease. He also gives LA another bigger player in the front court to save Leonard from some extra physicality in the regular season. Collins is expiring after this season, and it will be easier to cut bait from him than it would be for Powell.

The guess here is the Clippers are going to sign Bradley Beal to a cheaper deal after he’s bought out from the Suns to replace Powell’s backcourt scoring. LA is trying preserve its 2027 cap space for a big summer, and this is the type of market that can actually pull off that plan. While this feels like a small step back in the short-term even if a Beal signing happens, the Clippers are still thinking big picture. I really don’t like this for LA if they don’t get Beal, but I’ll factor the likely Beal signing into this grade.

Clippers grade: B

Heat grade for Norman Powell addition

The Heat got a really good player for nothing but spare parts. It takes a perfect storm of circumstances to pull off a transaction like that, but Miami found it and capitalized.

Powell is wired to get buckets, and he did it really efficiently last season. He can create his own offense with ease off the bounce, combining quickness and power as a driver with a decent finishing package and dangerous pull-up shooting ability. Powell has made 42 percent of his threes since the start of the 2021 season, and set a career-high with 10.8 three-point attempts per 100 possessions last year. It’s so hard to find players who can get off threes as frequently as Powell can and still hit them at a 40 percent clip. He also did a nice job avoiding turnovers last year. To get a guy like that for someone who is basically retired (Love) and an end-of-bench player like Anderson is a terrific move for the Heat.

Powell is a bit of a strange fit on the Heat roster as currently constructed. There’s some skill overlap with Tyler Herro, another talented scoring guard who doesn’t pass much or play much defense. Miami’s lineups with both players would struggle to rebound and guard stronger, more athletic scoring guards. Bam Adebayo is going to have his work cut out for him as a paint protector.

I still really like this for Miami just because they needed to do something in a year where the East will be extremely wide open. Powell joining Herro, Adebayo, Andrew Wiggins, and Kel’el Ware is a solid collection of talent on paper even if I’m not quite sure where it’s going. Regardless, you take a player like Powell at a cost like this every time.

Heat grade: A

Jazz grade for 3-team trade

The Jazz aren’t tanking anymore! They’re just losing organically. This trade continues to push Utah further into its rebuild, with a focus on the 2026 NBA Draft.

The Jazz did get some flexibility out of this deal with a huge trade exception coming their way in return for Collins. They can use it to take on bad salary from another team in exchange for picks. That’s how you run a rebuild.

The Clippers’ 2027 second-round pick is a solid asset, but the flexibility here is the real key. Utah has done well to dump veterans Collin Sexton and Jordan Clarkson earlier this offseason, and now Collins joins the list of departed Jazz players. Utah is in position to be the worst team in the NBA this upcoming season. They just better hope for some lottery luck when they get done with all that losing.

Grade: A