It's still a little too early for the Los Angeles Clippers to regret trading Norman Powell to the Heat in a three-team deal, knowing they were going to get Bradley Beal. However, it's not too early to say that replacing Powell with Beal isn't going in LA's favor.
On the latest episode of the "Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective" podcast, Windhorst, Tim Bontemps, and Tim MacMahon discussed Beal and Powell. MacMahon nailed it when he said:
"They [LA] thought they could get 80 to 90 percent of Norman Powell's production from Beal and then get Collins, a really nice piece off the bench. Collins has been a really nice piece off the bench. Beal ain't holding Powell's jock in a wheelbarrow right now."
Beal, who has played in six games, is on a minutes restriction and can't play in back-to-backs yet, is averaging 8.2 points, 0.8 rebounds, 1.7 assists, 0.5 steals per game in 20.2 minutes on 38/37/75 shooting splits. Meanwhile, Powell is averaging a career-high 23.3 points, 4.6 rebounds, 2.4 assists, and 1.4 steals per game on 47/46/94 shooting splits in 29.9 minutes per contest across seven games (he missed three games because of a groin injury).
Los Angeles is 3-6 on the season, and Miami is 6-4.
Norman Powell is making Bradley Beal's struggles look even worse
As excited as Ty Lue and the Clippers were about signing Beal to a two-year, $11 million contract over the offseason, reality has tempered their expectations. The Suns learned the hard way that Beal is no longer the player he was during the 2020-21 season with the Wizards, when he averaged 31.3 points per game and was named an All-Star and made an All-NBA team. LA is already realizing that.
That doesn't mean that Beal can't be a productive player. You can't judge a player who is on a minutes restriction too harshly, especially not when it's still only November.
However, then again, he has dealt with numerous injuries over the past few years, so the Clippers knew what they were signing up for. Beal said that the knee scope was a result of playing through knee inflammation in Phoenix. Hopefully, he doesn't deal with any other setbacks this season, but the odds of that happening based on his past aren't high.
All fans can hope for is that Beal will start to turn a corner as he continues to play more and gets his footing with his new team, showing that he still has more gas in the tank than the doubters think after a few disastrous seasons with the Suns.
Oh, and try not to pay too much attention to what Powell is doing with the Heat, because that will only make things sting worse.