The Heat are finalizing a deal to acquire free agent swingman Jimmy Butler via a sign-and-trade deal with the Sixers, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (via Twitter). Philadelphia is receiving Josh Richardson as part of the agreement, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic.
Butler will sign a four-year, maximum-salary contract with the Heat, reports Charania (via Twitter). The new deal will pay him just shy of $141MM.
Meanwhile, the 76ers will receive no additional salary back from Miami in the sign-and-trade agreement, tweets Derek Bodner of The Athletic. Philadelphia will use its remaining cap room to sign Al Horford to a lucrative four-year deal.
While Richardson is apparently the only player going to Philadelphia, the Heat will need to trade away more players to make the deal work from their end. As ESPN’s Bobby Marks notes (via Twitter), acquiring a player via sign-and-trade will trigger a hard cap at the tax apron ($138.9MM) for Miami, and team salary would be way over that hard cap after swapping Richardson for Butler.
[UPDATE: Mavs to acquire Goran Dragic as part of Butler sign-and-trade]
Once the dust settles and the details are sorted out, the Heat will be adding the sort of impact player to their lineup that they’ve long sought. In fact, as Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer points out (via Twitter), Miami made a player for Butler last fall using Richardson as bait before the Timberwolves decided to send him to Philadelphia instead.
In 65 total games for the Wolves and Sixers last season, Butler averaged 18.7 PPG, 5.3 RPG, 4.0 APG, and 1.9 SPG with a .462/.347/.855 shooting line. While his numbers dipped a little in Philadelphia, Butler averaged at least 20 points per game in each of the previous four seasons before 2018/19, making the All-Star Game in all four of those years.
With Butler headed to Miami, it will be worth watching the Clippers and Rockets to see what their next moves are. Houston had long projected confidence that it could land Butler via a sign-and-trade of its own, while the Clips had reportedly hoped to pair Butler and Kawhi Leonard in Los Angeles.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Heat get a star and sixers get a nice player in return. It a win win for both
Interesting but Richardson is more than a nice player.
Not really. He’s a 4/5 option on a playoff team.
I don’t think this makes the Heat that much better, though it WILL be fun to watch Butler do the inevitable of going ballistic on Hassan Whiteside.
Pat Reilly’s prayers are answered
So much for these Kawhi plus one of KD and Butler team up on the Clippers rumours.
Dlo? Could be the last idea
Horford gone too lmao
This is huge for the Heat and for me, a Lakers fan, the Clippers bragging how they got all these star players in the bag are not getting one of the big free agents lol unless Kawhi goes there which I really don’t think will happen.
Kind of curious as to what Philly is doing at this point. Richardson is good, but not Butler good, Reddick is gone. Sure, they signed Harris , but this can’t be their A plan.
Sign horford
Who might the other player be? Dragic? Olynyk? Johnson?
Ahh and just signed Horford. Makes a bit more sense now.
Richardson is a good get for a team that could’ve lost Butler for nothing
Sixers: Embiid, Horford, Harris, Richardson, Simmons. Weird but really really talented. Not a ton of shooting.
Outside of Ben Simmons (aka BS), you just named 4 outstanding shooters for their respective positions.
Yeah they should’ve targeted someone other than Horford.
Great deal for the 76ers
Heat got the better player.
So I imagine Miami’s starting lineup will be
Dragic-Waiters-Butler-Winslow-Whiteside?
That is pretty decent along with Herro as a shooter off the bench. Winslow and Butler could wreck on defense.
They’re trying to acquire Beal, in exchange for Winslow and more, but starting lineup would be: Winslow – Waiters – Butler – Olynyk – Adebayo
Bench of Whiteside – Derrick Jones – James Johnson and Tyler Herro. Maybe they’ll add a veteran point guard too.
Dragic was traded
We lost some offense but got much better defensively with getting Horford and letting the liability in Redick go.
I’m not really sure how to think.
Tobias Harris disappeared a lot after he came here. Maybe he got lost in the shuffle with all the depth. Hopefully this helps clear up some opportunities for him.
I’ll take Richardson over Redick all day every day.
Reports are the 76ers didn’t think Butler fit long term with this team. I hope they’re right. We’ll see if Horford fits better and maybe Harris steps up more.
Bradley Beal to the Heat too, I’m seeing on Twitter??? We’re back Heat Nation!
Butler just saved Morey from making a big mistake.
Dion Waiters, Hassan Whiteside and Jimmy Butler? That’s 3 egos that’s should mesh seamlessly.
Waiters and Butler will be just fine. Whiteside is irrelevant at this point for our franchise moving forward.
22 million dollars of irrelevance.
27 million actually.
Oh yeah, 22 million was last year’s salary in which you are correct that he was irrelevant.
Not sure why any of them would want Cryree or Butler. Just team cancers. Then to pass on Russell for Cryree. Wow
No wonder no one wants to go to Boston, Kyrie had the best season of his career, selected to the 2nd All-NBA team & gets run out of town by foolish fans, that is the way to attract star players, way to go bud!