Jimmy Butler has appeared in two games for the Heat since his team-imposed seven-game suspension ended last week, but the front office hasn’t slowed its efforts to find a trade involving the disgruntled star. In fact, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst suggested on the latest episode of his Hoop Collective podcast (YouTube link) that Miami has actually gotten more serious within the past few days about trying to get a deal done.
“Since Jimmy had his meeting with (team owner) Micky Arison on Thursday, there is no doubt an uptick in discussions around Jimmy Butler,” Windhorst said. “The Heat shifted into a new gear after that meeting.
“I even had a team on Friday call me and say… ‘Hey, we were just talking to a couple teams. We’re trying to dump a salary. And they all of the sudden had to end our phone calls to do something bigger, they said. What’s going on?’ And I go, ‘Well, I don’t know.’ But I speculate that it has to do with Butler. And not just a direct Butler trade, but three- and four-team trades. The point is, I do think the Heat are actually trying.”
The Heat still have over two weeks until the February 6 trade deadline to try to figure something out, and there’s reportedly no shortage of clubs expressing interest in potentially getting involved as facilitators in a three- or four-team scenario.
However, as has been well chronicled in recent weeks, moving Butler is a challenge due to his salary ($48.8MM), contract situation (he holds a $52.4MM player option for next season and reportedly wants an extension), and age (35). Many of the teams rumored to be most interested in the veteran forward, including the Suns, are most restricted in their ability to offer the sort of pieces Miami would want, including win-now players on short-term contracts.
Any Phoenix deal for Butler would almost certainly have to involve guard Bradley Beal, who has an even pricier cap hit than the Heat star and is under contract for two more seasons beyond this one, which isn’t appealing to Miami. That means the two sides would have to find a third team willing to take Beal, who in turn would have to sign off on the deal due to the no-trade clause in his contract.
According to Fred Katz of The Athletic, the Suns still haven’t asked Beal for his thoughts about any potential trade. A source familiar with Beal’s thinking confirms to Katz that the three-time All-Star would consider waiving the no-trade clause for the right situation, adding that winning would be his top priority in that scenario.
When Beal was traded from the Wizards to the Suns back in 2023, he was also open to the Heat, as well as West Coast teams like the Warriors, Kings, Lakers, and Clippers, says Katz, but none of those clubs appear to be likely suitors at this point.
“that winning would be his top priority”
Where should that be? He can’t even contribute to winning if he is the third Option.
The Suns made a dumb trade for a guy who cant do what they need and is always injured. Now they are Stuck in CBA hell und will stay there.
Yep. I think the right opportunity is going to Toronto with a promise to try and trade him again over the next year while being a veteran locker room leader.
If I were Heat, I’d have talked to Butler and told him it’s not feasible to trade him to Suns.
Heat asking price is too high
Suns are interested. What surprise teams are interested though. Nuggets? Clippers? Lakers?
Guandong Tigers…
Phoenix already knows what Brad Beal will and won’t do. They don’t have to ask him. Like I have pointed out many times. Beal’s agent is Mark Bartelstein. His son, Josh Bartelstein, is President of the Phoenix Suns. Pay attention to Milwaukee. They are highly motivated to make a strong playoff run. Without it, they will then be faced with Giannis asking out looking for a stronger roster. Lillard ain’t working. Also watch Sacramento, who knows that DeAaron Fox is opting opt.
The wrinkle with Sacramento is that they’ve been playing well. 9-2 with Christie with wins over the Mavs, Rockets, Grizzlies, Celtics, Heat, and Warriors (ie, they’re not just beating up on bad teams). Would they be willing to make such a drastic change? Two weeks ago I would have said yes. Now, probably not, especially if they keep this up until the trade deadline.
Kings will run out of steam. Any moves will be a step in the same direction unless they can find someone better than Sabonis. He is a 3rd option, not a 1 or 2.
Because of future huge luxury tax, I don’t like the idea to send Beal contract to small towns – Bucks or Kings
Even before getting to salary cap considerations and movable contracts, I guess the problem is trying to find overlap between a team that might feel that it needs to get better and that Beal would help in that regard, and places/situations that a guy with a no trade clause might agree to be moved to. I suppose Sacramento, Milwaukee, Detroit might fall into the first category. But why would he want to go to any of those places? If he wants to win during this contract then I guess what “win” means to him matters, but I don’t see Detroit being a top 4 seed during his contract. Milwaukee needs perimeter defense, and one could plausibly argue that no true contender has a weakness as glaring as Milwaukee’s perimeter defense so that match makes no sense to me. Sacramento is basketball purgatory.
I could see him fitting in with what is needed in Houston or Orlando and being OK with waiving his no trade clause to go to either of those places, but I don’t think Houston is inclined to trade for him, and I don’t think Orlando could cobble something together (if they even wanted to) that wouldn’t create bigger problems than the shooting problem that Beal ostensibly solves.
We’ll see. Desperation is a frequent match maker, but usually matches arising out of desperation don’t work very well.
This trade saga is dumb, Jimmy isn’t close to a new CBA max player on a winner anymore, no team should want him on their roster so they have to pay him 2 mil for each game he plays next season, Beal isn’t goin to agree to a trade anywhere and nowhere is gonna accept Beals contract without a ton of picks that Phoenix doesn’t have
Kings, Suns, Mavericks and Minnesota should be calling
Heat won’t do anything. They need Butler…
They need Butler to do the cleaning and take the suitcases up to their rooms…
Otherwise he’s already been replaced…
That’s why he is kicking up a stink, he ain’t the focal point of the teams offence because he’s washed and can’t play 50% of the time…
Memphis makes some sense here. Smart, Clark, and Kennard work money wise, but you’d probably have to find a 3rd team to take Clark. They have the depth to replace whatever they loose and it would improve their starting 5 a lot
*whatever they lose
Yeah the article said a 3 or 4 team trade could be in the works, if you rerouted Clark and Kennard to Toronto along with draft capitol then maybe Bruce Brown to the Wizards with a first round pick from Memphis and Kuzma goes to the heat. The money works all around, not sure the Heat can do better than Smart and Kuzma for Butler, but maybe they can.
Ben + a low salary guy to Bulls
LaVine to Heat
Jimmy to Suns
Beal and Suns FRP to Nets
I would guess that since Beal is prioritizing winning the last place he would agree to would be the Nets. Beal’s NTC makes any Suns trade complicated. The trade might work if Beal was rerouted to a 4th team that was competitive.