With the NBA trade deadline less than a week away, coming on Thursday, Feb. 10, two teams have gotten a head start on striking a deal including five players swapping teams. It’s not a blockbuster, but the Los Angeles Clippers have landed Norman Powell and Robert Covington from the Portland Trail Blazers in a trade centered around Eric Bledsoe, Justise Winslow, and more according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
Here are the full details of the reported trade:
- Portland Trail Blazers get: Eric Bledsoe, Justise Winslow, Keon Johnson, 2025 second-round pick (via Detroit Pistons)
- Los Angeles Clippers get: Norman Powell, Robert Covington
Los Angeles Clippers get a trade deadline win with Norman Powell
This trade gives the Clippers some additional scoring punch by adding Powell, who’s averaging 18.7 points per game across 39 starts this season in Portland. The Clips are 27-27 this season despite star Kawhi Leonard having missed the entire season thus far and not being in any shape to return before the year is through.
With Powell under contract through the 2025-26 season, he can form a potent trio with Leonard and Paul George for the foreseeable future once they return to health. For now, he’ll help coach Tyronn Lue make a playoff push for the rest of the year.
For the Blazers, they get a few players they can evaluate in their system in exchange for Powell, freeing up some cap space for them to add assets that better fit the team long-term. Thanks to the emergence of Anfernee Simons, Powell became expendable.
In a bigger sense, this could signal the first of many moves to come for the Blazers, as trading their team’s second-leading scorer doesn’t necessarily suggest a move to win-now is on the horizon.
With this being the first notable trade shortly before the deadline, expect the trade rumors to only continue heating up before the 3 PM ET deadline on Thursday.
