Per Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports, one of the more plugged-in news-breakers in the NBA media (in the tier right behind Woj and Shams), has said that “Norman Powell is considered available for trade across the league” at the end of his free agent roundup this morning.
This is not surprising on its face. While Norm has been productive as a Clipper, he’s 30 years old, owed $57.8M on his three remaining years of his deal, and has not been very durable in his 1.5 years as a Clipper. The Clippers also have a ton of guards, with Paul George, Eric Gordon, Terance Mann, and Bones Hyland on the roster, Russell Westbrook presumed on the way back, and young guys like Brandon Boston, Jason Preston, and Jordan Miller all vaguely in the mix.
The question is what the Clippers could get for Norm. While he’s a highly capable scorer, Norm’s age, lack of playmaking, and declining defense make him much more of a bench player than starter – and 3 years at $57M is a lot for that kind of player. This summer has all been about cap savings moves, and unless Norm is traded for someone making more money than him over a long period, it seems that the Clippers would probably have to attach assets (albeit minor ones) to get off his salary.
What’s more interesting is whose name has not been mentioned: Eric Gordon. Marcus Morris and Amir Coffey were of course in the aborted Brogdon deal, Norman Powell has been mentioned here and on the Lowe post pod, and Robert Covington’s name has come up as well. But no whispers about Gordon, which is odd considering his contract for $20.97M becomes fully guaranteed tomorrow, and seems like a highly useful trade chip.
It’s quite possible that the Clippers would prefer to keep Gordon over Powell. Even though Gordon is older (he’ll turn 35 in December) and a worse scorer, he’s a better defender and passer than the score-first Powell. His contract also ends after this year compared to Powell’s two additional years of significant money.
However, if the Clippers can’t move Powell, they will once again have a massive backlog at guard which they will assuredly fix by going small – again. Trading (or just cutting to save a lot of money) Gordon seemed like an obvious play, yet 24 hours out from his money being guaranteed, there are no whispers of anything.
We will continue to keep an eye on Clippers’ trade rumors, but outside of this mention, all is quiet right now.
