MIAMI — In their first major swing of the offseason personnel period, the Miami Heat have added much-needed scoring punch with a trade for Los Angeles Clippers guard Norman Powell.
In return, the Heat are dealing center Kevin Love and forward Kyle Anderson to the Utah Jazz as part of a three-team deal.
An NBA source confirmed the trade to the Sun Sentinel.
In the trade, Love and Anderson go to the Jazz, with veteran power forward John Collins, the former West Palm Beach prep product, going from the Jazz to the Clippers. To round out the deal, the Jazz receive a 2027 second-round pick from the Clippers.
Both Love and Anderson are potential buyout candidates with the Jazz.
Having struggled to generate offense, the Heat in the deal add a player who averaged 21.8 points last season.
The arrival of Powell also helps offset the trade departure of guard Duncan Robinson
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to the Detroit Pistons, with Powell shooting .418 on 3-pointers last season.Powell, part of the Toronto Raptors’ 2019 NBA championship team, placed fourth in voting for NBA Sixth Man Award in both 2024 and ’23, and had been an All-Star candidate after a stellar start to last season.
Beyond absorbing Powell’s salary, the trade comes at little cost to the Heat, with Anderson just a fringe player in the Heat’s rotation at the end of last season and Love having been shuffled out of the rotation amid the emergence of 2024 first-round pick Kel’el Ware.
Powell, 32, is entering the final season of a contract that pays $20.5 million for the coming season, eligible to become a free agent next summer. Powell also now stands eligible for a three-year, $80.6 million extension.
With the move, the Heat moved back above the luxury tax and within roughly $4 million of the first luxury-tax apron, therefore positioned to potentially add another prime roster component, either in a trade or free agency.
The deal, however, did hard cap the Heat at that first luxury-tax apron, due to taking in more in the trade than sending out. The Heat previously had been hard capped at the higher second tax apron, due to the machinations of the Robinson trade.
While the Heat can still move under the tax with a follow-up transaction any time before the end of the coming season, once hard-capped, that status does not change for a team for the balance of the NBA’s July-June calendar.
In addition, by sending out a pair of players and bringing back just Powell, it opens a spot on the Heat’s 15 player standard roster.
As for the players sent out by the Heat, Love is in the final year of a contract that pays $4 million this coming season. Anderson, acquired from the Golden State Warriors in the Feb. 6 trade that sent out Jimmy Butler, is due $9.2 million this season, with a non-guaranteed year at $9.7 million in 2026-27.
In the wake of the trade, Love, 36, in regard to being reduced to a ledger entry, posted on social media, “Never thought I’d be a math problem. Welcome to the NBA.”
At the moment, the deal leaves the Heat with a potential starting unit of Ware, Bam Adebayo, Andrew Wiggins, Tyler Herro and Powell. That, in turn, leaves a potential bench rotation of Davion Mitchell, Nikola Jovic, 2024 first-round pick Kasparas Jakucionis, Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Haywood Highsmith. Also under standard contracts to the Heat at the moment are Terry Rozier, Pelle Larsson, Keshad Johnson and Simon Fontecchio, the forward acquired from the Pistons in the Robinson deal.
In addition, the Heat have signed undrafted Vlad Goldin, the former FAU and Michigan center, to a two-way contract, with Dru Smith with a qualifying offer for a two-way contract.
Teams can carry a maximum of 15 players under standard contract and three under two-way deals during the regular season. The offseason roster limit is 21 total players under contract, not counting those on summer-league tryout deals.
Among those beyond Love, Anderson and Robinson from the Heat’s season-ending roster not under contract to the team at the moment are Smith (who has his two-way qualifying offer in place), Alec Burks (an unrestricted free agent), Josh Christopher (an unrestricted free agent who is ineligible for another Heat two-way contract) and guard Isaiah Stevens (an unrestricted free agent who spent last season on a Heat two-way contract and now is on the summer roster of the Sacramento Kings).