Trading Norman Powell for John Collins changes Clippers roster geometry and size

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On the eve of training camp last September, LA Clippers president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank met with the media to discuss the end of the 2024 offseason. Kawhi Leonard, who spent the majority of the 2023-24 season defending larger forwards at the position, was out indefinitely with recurring knee inflammation. Paul George had departed in free agency. James Harden was back after the Clippers traded three power forwards (Marcus Morris Sr., Nicolas Batum and Robert Covington) to acquire him the previous autumn.

Batum returned to the Clippers by September 2024. But with Leonard out, none of the Clippers candidates to start looked like power forwards; that is, a player around 6-foot-8, 230 pounds, who could play significant minutes alongside center Ivica Zubac. I asked Frank what he would do about that position.

“I don’t know if this is a defense mechanism — I never use the number four,” Frank said. “The way I look at roster construction: point, three wings, and a big. We have three wings. In terms of who is going to guard the fours — and there are some big, powerful fours in the league, and then there’s some other fours that are basically threes playing fours.”

The power forward position is arguably the toughest to define given the players teams roll out there in 2024.

Lawrence Frank points out that for every team that has a big body at that spot, a team will have a glorified SF.

LAC satisfied with personnel, but needs rebounds. pic.twitter.com/n1GbFhRcK9

— Law Murray 🎡 (@LawMurrayTheNU) September 25, 2024

Nine months later, the Clippers sent starting shooting guard Norman Powell to the Miami Heat and a 2027 second-round pick to the Utah Jazz. Coming back to the Clippers: John Collins, who spent the last two seasons with the Jazz. Who is Collins?

“John is a power forward in his prime with great athleticism who can also play small-ball 5,” Frank said in a statement announcing the acquisition. “He scores at all three levels, excelling in space and transition, as a runner, roller and vertical threat. He stretches the court with his shooting and helps win the possession battle with his rebounding.”

This trade changes the Clippers’ makeup. While I didn’t think the Clippers needed a starting-caliber power forward going into the draft, Powell was the most likely Clipper to be traded. Ironic, because Powell was the primary beneficiary of George’s departure — “addition by subtraction.”

So, how did the Clippers even get from “a point, three wings, and a big” to trading Powell, one of the most accurate high-volume catch 3-point shooters in the league for athletic size?

The Clippers did fine without a traditional power forward in the starting lineup. Before Leonard made his season debut in January, the Clippers started Harden, Zubac, Powell, Derrick Jones Jr., and Kris Dunn, with Dunn replacing Terance Mann in November. Harden was tasked with guarding big-bodied power forwards while Zubac guarded centers, leaving Dunn and Jones on the point of attack and top perimeter/wing options. Powell was mostly hidden. Once Leonard returned, the Clippers were able to start either Dunn or Jones in every game, while Harden continued to take on the defensive assignment on bigger bodies. That saved Leonard to guard on the perimeter more often than he did in 2023-24.

The result was a defense that went from ranking 16th in 2023-24 to third in 2024-25 under defensive coordinator Jeff Van Gundy. LA was also the best defensive rebounding team in the league in 2025 after ranking 24th in defensive rebounding percentage the year previous.

Powell had a great season, but by Game 7, he was the only Clippers starter who was neither a top-two offensive option nor tasked with defending one of Denver’s top-two scorers. Powell turned in a series-low nine points on 4-of-11 shooting, while Denver outscored the Clippers by 31 points in Powell’s minutes. With Powell, 32, having one year left on his contract and position-locked at shooting guard due to his subpar ball handling and lack of defensive utility, he was expendable, especially with the Clippers prioritizing flexibility for the next two offseasons.

Frank revealed Monday that his front office monitored the 6-foot-9, 226-pound Collins for two years — since the Clippers traded for Harden, and Collins was traded to Utah from Atlanta.

Collins gives the Clippers a player at the same age now that former All-NBA selection Blake Griffin was in his last full season with LA in 2016-17. Collins, who turns 28 in September, isn’t as big as Griffin, but he’s arguably more athletic, and certainly a better shooter. Frank considered that combination of size, skill and physical gift rare, and a big reason why his team’s season was done by the first weekend of May again.

“Sometimes you have to make a decision between getting a great athlete who may struggle shooting the ball from range, versus getting the really skilled player who just maybe is just an average functional athlete,” Frank said. “John has shown the ability to be both, which is huge. And we saw in the Denver series where Aaron Gordon (6-foot-8, 235-pounds) obviously was super, super effective.”

Griffin made 80 of his 268 3-point attempts in his seven full seasons with the Clippers, when his athleticism was most live. That’s only 29.9 percent. Even when Griffin’s shooting picked up as he went from two dunks a game to two games a dunk, he only made 33.4 percent of his 1,371 3-point attempts over his last six seasons. Collins has mangled rims for 823 dunks in 473 games, while making more than 34 percent of his 3s in every season except 2022-23, when he had a right-hand finger injury that caused him to shoot a career-worst 29.2 percent.

So check this

John Collins had not made more than 3 3s in a game all season… until March 8 (4/7 at Washington).

Of course, he went 0/8 on 3s after March 8.

Then tonight vs Warriors, he made 4/7 3s again.

Sneaky good development for John Collins and his mangled finger? https://t.co/hX6rfsnzpO

— Law Murray 🎡 (@LawMurrayTheNU) March 18, 2023

Collins’ shooting recovered in Utah, allowing him to hit 38.2 percent over the last two seasons. Last season, Collins made a career-best 1.5 3s per game. Overall, Collins had strong percentages last season: 67.8 percent in the restricted area, 51.2 percent in the non-restricted area paint, 42.6 percent in the non-paint midrange, 84.8 percent on free throws, 43.1 percent on corner 3s, and 37.8 percent on above-the-break 3s. Collins made 40 percent of his 3s off the catch. And that 3-point threat allows Collins to do things like abuse top-locking defenses from the corner to utilize his vertical spacing, something the Clippers saw in February when Collins beat Kobe Brown:

Collins gets his dunks off of anything. He can cut. He can screen and roll. He can attack a closeout. And he can run the floor. Here he was in November beating Zubac down the floor:

If there is a weakness in Collins’ game offensively, it’s his lack of ball handling and playmaking ability. He’s never averaged more than two assists, and he compiled a career-worst 2.6 turnovers per game last season. It is a notable flaw considering LA was a dreadful ball-handling team last season (23rd in both turnover percentage and assist-turnover ratio), and they need improved ball handling in general. That’s where things get interesting with the new Clippers depth chart:

This is probably a Captain Obvious statement, but … the Clippers are not done maneuvering.

13 standard contract spots.

The Clippers still want more ballhandling help. But that does not necessarily mean that they need a point guard to do it. We’ll see how it goes… pic.twitter.com/Fw87OiFw5t

— Law Murray 🎡 (@LawMurrayTheNU) July 7, 2025

“We also wanted to add to our playmaking,” Frank said. “I think if you look at boxes to check, I think we can continue to add to both our shooting and secondary and primary playmaking, I think there’s still work for us to do.”

The Clippers could lineup with Dunn next to Harden again, with Leonard, Collins and Zubac to start. That would improve the Clippers’ interior offense, but Collins would not have the same gravity as Powell had as a shooter, and the ball handling would be worse. Defensively, Dunn remaining as a point-of-attack defender would be critical, allowing Leonard to take on primary scoring wings with All-Defensive team selection Zubac inside. Collins could take on the bigger forwards Harden dealt with last season, though Harden would have to be hidden on perimeter threats more.

“If you look at the bigger guys around the league, many times, James would guard those guys,” Frank said. “James, because he’s super strong, allows you to guard up. I think John gives us… another big body and yet a different dynamic.”

Collins has averaged 8.1 rebounds over his career, a good number for any starting big man, and he blocked 40 shots in 40 games last season. Secondary rim protection was non-existent when Zubac was not in the paint, though Collins is better at blocking shots than he is at being a reliable presence at the basket defensively.

And that’s where the challenge with Collins exists for the Clippers. He has never been sturdy defensively, and the more he is away from the paint, the more vulnerable the team defenses have been throughout his career. Having Harden on the perimeter more often is not ideal either. Collins was teammates with Dunn in Utah for a year, and with a strong young defender in center Walker Kessler, the Jazz still struggled to get stops.

And the Clippers started all 89 of their games last season with at least one of Dunn or Jones Jr.; if someone like Bradley Beal comes in and starts in place of Dunn or Jones Jr., that would leave the Clippers with three shaky defenders in their primary lineup. LA is comfortable with Dunn being a backup point guard if the Clippers acquire someone who is more of a shooting guard. Frank trusts that Collins, along with head coach Tyronn Lue and Van Gundy, will figure it out.

“I think they’re going to challenge him,” Frank said. “They’re going to push him to do things at the highest level. Everything about John indicates he’s an extremely hard worker. … He’ll have to control in terms of playing aggressive defense without fouling. I think the more playmaking he can do — John, he’s super athletic, but he averages one block a game. Is there a way to tap into it? I think what Jeff does with the defensive system, he eliminates a lot of the gray and he eliminates the overthinking. And he really, really encourages our guys if they see a play, to make a play.”

Even with another potential trade, the Clippers have changed the geometry of their team. LA is not concerned with Collins missing 42 games last season, most of them from listed hip and back injuries. Utah also went a tank-worthy 5-37 in games Collins missed last season.

The challenges for LA? Replacing Powell’s dynamic shooting threat, fitting Collins into a defense that rarely had a big on the floor next to Zubac, and continuing to maintain flexibility for Collins, who will be a 2026 free agent.

“I think there will be different challenges,” Frank said. “And with that, also some different opportunities. And that’s why I think over time, I trust 1,000 percent in T. Lue to kind of figure it out, but with all these things, they’ll take some time. I think it’s great to have that optionality to be able to do different things… we’re not done.

“There are other needs we have to address, and we’ll continue to work through it.”

(Photo: Harry How/Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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