The Portland Trail Blazers dealt Norman Powell and Robert Covington to the LA Clippers ahead of the NBA trade deadline in exchange for Eric Bledsoe, Justise Winslow, Keon Johnson and a future second-round pick, first reported by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski on Friday.
The second-round pick that is being traded to the Blazers is the Pistons 2025 second-round pick, which was acquired by the Clippers as part of a three-team deal that landed them Luke Kennard in 2020.
At the trade deadline last season, the Trail Blazers acquired Norman Powell from the Toronto Raptors for Gary Trent Jr. and they agreed to terms on a five-year, $90 million deal with Powell in free agency this past offseason.
Robert Covington is in the midst of his 9th NBA season and has proven over the years to be one of the better two-way forwards in the league. Set to become an unrestricted free agent in the offseason, Portland had been searching for ways to possibly trade Covington ahead of next week’s trade deadline.
LATEST NBA NEWS & TRADE RUMORS: Clippers Pull Off Big Trade With Blazers For Powell, Covington
The Clippers have been without Kawhi Leonard all season due to him rehabbing an ACL injury suffered in the Western Conference Semifinals last season and Paul George has not played since Dec. 22 due to an elbow injury.
With their two All-Stars out, Los Angeles has still proven to be a formidable foe across the league, as they currently find themselves 27-27 and as the 8-seed in the Western Conference. Just five full games behind the Jazz for the 4-seed, the Clippers fully believe that they can still be one of the better teams in the West this season.
A rebuild has been on the horizon in Portland for quite some time now and it seems like everything piled up for the Blazers. Not only did the organization have to deal with the fallout of former GM Neil Olshey and the investigation into workplace misconduct at the beginning of the year, but CJ McCollum missed about a month of action with a collapsed lung and Damian Lillard is still out indefinitely after undergoing abdominal surgery.
LATEST NBA NEWS & TRADE RUMORS: Clippers Pull Off Big Trade With Blazers For Powell, Covington
It was widely expected around the league that the Portland Trail Blazers were going to be “sellers” ahead of the trade deadline and this trade on Friday further proves this.
The LA Clippers were also expected to be “sellers”, but continuing to find ways to win right now without their two All-Star talents seems to be the plan set in motion in Los Angeles.
