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Heat Acquire Jimmy Butler In Sign-And-Trade

July 6th, 2019 at 3:23pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Heat have officially acquired Jimmy Butler from the Sixers in a sign-and-trade deal that also includes the Trail Blazers and the Clippers, according to press releases from Miami and Philadelphia.

The Heat also acquired big man Meyers Leonard from the Trail Blazers and cash considerations from the Clippers. Miami sent shooting guard Josh Richardson to Philadelphia, center Hassan Whiteside to the Blazers and a conditional first-round pick to the Clippers. The Clippers also received forward Maurice Harkless from Portland and the draft rights to 2017 second-round pick Mathias Lessort from the Sixers.

The Clippers and Blazers have also confirmed the swap.

The 2023 first-rounder that the Heat forwarded to the Clippers, which is lottery-protected through 2025 and unprotected in 2026, was subsequently moved to the Thunder as part of the agreed-upon Paul George blockbuster.

Butler inked a four-year, $141MM contract with the Heat. Miami waived forward Ryan Anderson and stretched his contract in order to stay below the hard cap and complete the sign-and-trade.

“Jimmy’s leadership, tenacity, professionalism, defensive disposition and his ability to create his own shot will improve our roster immediately,” Miami president Pat Riley said in the press release. “Any time you can add a four-time All-Star to your roster, you make that move. Meyers is a versatile big, a great shooter, can play inside and block shots. The addition of both men puts us in a great position to win.”

The disgruntled Butler was dealt by Minnesota to Philadelphia last season. The Sixers wanted to retain Butler but couldn’t convince him to stay and got something for him via the sign-and-trade mechanism. 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. Richardson averaged a career-high 16.6 PPG and 4.1 APG last season.

Blazers president of basketball operations Neil Olshey called the acquisition of Whiteside an “impact move for our roster.” The Blazers were looking for a starting center with Jusuf Nurkic on the mend from a serious leg injury.

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Heat Notes: Hard-Cap Crunch, Dragic, Nunn

July 4th, 2019 at 5:06pm CST by Austin Kent

The Heat may have a logjam for their final roster spots in 2019/20, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald writes. Given that the team is hard-capped due to the Jimmy Butler sign-and-trade, Miami’s best bet of avoiding the $138.9MM hard cap may well be to avoid adding a 15th player.

Removing that 15th slot makes Pat Riley‘s task of rounding out a roster all that much more difficult. According to Jackson, all of Yante Maten, Duncan Robinson, Kendrick Nunn and even Udonis Haslem could be competing for Heats’ 13th and 14th roster spots.

Riley’s no stranger to making difficult decisions but with Butler on board and a higher ceiling now within reach, the Heat may still be inclined to add external support, too. Jackson presents DeMarcus Cousins as a possibility.

Jackson notes that the Heat are still exploring trade options and it’s understandable why. Simply consolidating talent could solve both the team’s problems, freeing up a roster slot while potentially adding an impact rotation player.

There’s more from Miami today:

  • Among the consolation prizes for the Lakers if they do end up missing out on Kawhi Leonard could be Heat veteran Goran Dragic. Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel speculates that the 33-year-old could be a good, short-term fit for the squad as it builds out its roster.
  • There’s a chance that Pat Riley may have drafted differently had he known that Jimmy Butler would be on his roster by the end of the summer, but Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel reminds readers that lottery pick Tyler Herro will still have plenty of value as a shooter.
  • If the Heat want to convert Kendrick Nunn‘s standard contract into a two-way deal, they’ll need to do so before August 1, Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel reports. On that day, an additional $150,000 of his contract becomes guaranteed. The collective bargaining agreement forbids teams from converting players with more than $50,000 protection over to two-way deals. Waiving Nunn would expose him to waivers and he may get claimed.
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Sixers Notes: Horford, Cap Room, Scott, Butler

July 2nd, 2019 at 2:51pm CST by Luke Adams

Al Horford‘s four-year, $109MM deal with the Sixers was originally reported to have a $97MM value with $12MM in additional bonuses tied to potential championships. However, according to Derek Bodner of The Athletic, that’s not quite right.

In a series of tweets, Bodner explains that the non-guaranteed $12MM in Horford’s contract all comes in the fourth and final year of the deal, which is partially guaranteed. There are team-related benchmarks, such as winning a championship, that could trigger that money to become guaranteed, per Bodner.

That means that Horford’s starting salary will be higher than originally anticipated — a deal with unlikely bonuses in every season might have started in the neighborhood of $22.5MM, but the actual contract is expected to start much higher than that.

Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter links) hears that Horford’s pact will have a first-year salary around $28MM, which means it won’t have increasing cap hits every year. That could help the Sixers in future seasons if they have to deal with tax penalties, which seems likely, given their lucrative long-term commitments to Horford, Joel Embiid, and Tobias Harris, along with Ben Simmons‘ probable max deal.

Here’s more on the 76ers:

  • Based on the structure of Horford’s deal, the Sixers will have a little over $2MM in cap room left, rather than the $7-8MM figures that have been reported, tweets Bodner. Based on my math, a $28MM starting salary for Horford would leave about $2.27MM in space.
  • As a result of their cap situation, the 76ers will use the room exception to complete Mike Scott‘s two-year, $9.8MM contract, Bodner clarifies (via Twitter). The team could technically have completed Scott’s deal using his Non-Bird rights, but will need to renounce his cap hold to create room for Horford and Josh Richardson.
  • There are conflicting reports on just how aggressively the Sixers attempted to re-sign Jimmy Butler in free agency. As relayed by RealGM, a report from Tom Haberstroh of NBC Sports says Philadelphia offered Butler a full five-year max, while ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Shams Charania of The Athletic have suggested otherwise. Haberstroh’s report acknowledges that the 76ers may have put their alleged offer on the table with the understanding that Butler wouldn’t accept, since he had already decided to move on.
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Heat’s Jimmy Butler Sign-And-Trade Deal To Include Clippers, Blazers

July 1st, 2019 at 7:58pm CST by Luke Adams

7:58pm: The 2023 first-round pick being sent from the Heat to Clippers will be lottery-protected through 2025, then unprotected in 2026, tweets Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald.

5:00pm: The Clippers will receive a protected 2023 first-round pick from the Heat in the deal, according to ESPN’s full report.

4:17pm: The sign-and-trade deal that will send Jimmy Butler to the Heat and Josh Richardson to the Sixers has been agreed upon, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Zach Lowe (Twitter link).

As Wojnarowski explains (via Twitter), the trade between the Trail Blazers and Heat that will send Hassan Whiteside to Portland is becoming part of the transaction, with Maurice Harkless being re-routed to the Clippers to make it a four-team deal.

The Clippers will also receive a future first-round pick from Miami, according to Wojnarowski. Since the Heat have already traded their 2021 first-round selection to the Clippers and can’t give away consecutive future first-rounders, the next one that is trade-eligible would be the 2023 selection, tweets ESPN’s Bobby Marks.

As part of the four-team swap, the Sixers will send the draft rights to 2017 second-rounder Mathias Lessort to the Clippers, reports Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer (Twitter link).

As of now then, this is what the deal would look like:

After acquiring Harkless, the Clippers will still have a maximum-salary slot available in the event that Kawhi Leonard decides to join them, tweets Marks. It would be a tight fit though, notes ESPN’s Zach Lowe, who tweets that the club might have to renounce a couple of small cap holds. Obviously, if Leonard decides to go elsewhere, that wouldn’t be necessary.

As for the Heat, they had let Goran Dragic‘s camp know that they’d likely to need to move the point guard in order to complete the Butler acquisition, but that shouldn’t be necessary after all, tweets Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald.

Still, as Marks points out (via Twitter), Miami will have to make an additional move to make sure it gets below the hard cap $138.9MM that applies to teams that acquire a player via sign-and-trade. Waiving and stretching Ryan Anderson‘s contract looks like the most logical path for the Heat.

We have more details in other stories on the Butler/Richardson aspect of this deal, as well as the Blazers’ Whiteside acquisition.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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Sixers, Heat Search For New Team To Join Jimmy Butler Sign-And-Trade

July 1st, 2019 at 12:53am CST by ChrisCrouse

The Heat are still working on options to complete the Jimmy Butler sign-and-trade with the Sixers, according to Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.com (Twitter link). The two sides will search for a third team to take on additional salary from Miami, as Marc Stein of the New York Times tweets.

[RELATED: Heat Finalizing Sign-And-Trade For Jimmy Butler]

The Mavericks appeared to be the team willing to take on salary in order to help both teams complete the trade. It was reported that Goran Dragic would be sent to Dallas as part of a three-team deal, but the Mavs then felt that Dragic’s salary would eat into their cap space and hinder their other plans.

Kelly Olynyk and Derrick Jones were believed to be taking Dragic’s place in the trade, but then it was revealed that the Heat did not want to part with Jones in the deal. The Olynyk/Jones combo wouldn’t have been quite enough from a salary-matching perspective anyway.

The Heat will look for a trade partner for Dragic out of respect for the veteran. The team and his representatives are working to find a deal by July 6. per Shelburne. However, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald (Twitter link) hears from Dragic’s camp that there is no joint effort yet to find him a suitor.

Dragic will make approximately $19.2MM next season. After a day of contract agreements, The Mavericks, Clippers, and Lakers are the only teams with the clear ability to absorb Dragic’s deal without sending salary back, though other teams could potentially create the necessary space.

It’s possible the Mavericks will change its stance again on Dragic once they have a clearer picture of who they can sign with their cap space, though that’s simply my speculation.

Assuming the two sides find a third team to make the sign-and-trade work, Josh Richardson will go to Philadelphia and Butler will begin the Miami chapter of his career on a four-year max deal.

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Potential Mavs, Heat Trade Hits Snag

June 30th, 2019 at 11:59pm CST by ChrisCrouse

11:59pm: Tim Cato of The Athletic confirms (via Twitter) that the deal is off from the Mavs’ perspective. It’s up to the Heat to salvage the deal, possibly with another team, Cato adds.

As detailed below, Miami’s acquisition of Butler is dependent on the team being able to send salary to a third team, so it’s hard to imagine the Heat not figuring it out with some team, but they’re losing leverage and don’t have a ton of assets left to sweeten the deal.

10:21pm: There’s a “glitch” in the agreement between the Mavericks and Heat, according to Jared Weiss of The Athletic, who tweets that Miami is reluctant to part with Jones and Dallas is telling people that the deal is off.

The Mavericks maintain that they thought they were getting Olynyk and Jones in the deal, but the Heat don’t want to give up Jones and say they must part with Dragic to make the math work, tweets Stein. As noted below, the Heat would have to send out at least one more player to an Olynyk/Jones package to make the trade work financially.

There’s an expectation that the deal is far enough down the road that things will get ironed out, says Weiss. The Heat’s acquisition of Butler hinges on sending out other salaries, so Miami will be very motivated to get it done. However, as Nahmad points out (via Twitter), it will be tricky for the Heat to stay under the tax apron without moving bigger salaries.

10:01pm: The Mavericks and Heat have changed the framework on their part of the sign-and-trade deal that will send Butler to Miami, according to Marc Stein of The New York Times (Twitter links). Rather than acquiring Dragic, Dallas will land Kelly Olynyk and Derrick Jones, Stein reports.

According to Stein, the Mavs are “huge fans” of Dragic, but didn’t want to surrender flexibility to make additional moves by acquiring his contract.

“In analyzing it, his salary was too high based on other things they’re trying to do,” Dragic’s agent Bill Duffy tells Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.com (Twitter link).

Due to the change, the Heat aren’t quite sending out enough salary to make the deal work, so another outgoing piece will be required, tweets cap expert Albert Nahmad.

8:42pm: Goran Dragic will become part of the Jimmy Butler sign-and-trade deal with the Heat sending the point guard to the Mavericks, Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel tweets. No major compensation will head from Dallas to Miami, as Brad Townsend of the Dallas Morning News tweets. The Mavs will technically have to send something out and it will likely be cash or a heavily-protected first-round pick.

Miami is sending Josh Richardson to the Sixers in exchange for Butler, who will ink a four-year max deal with a starting salary of approximately $32.7MM. The Heat needed to send out additional salary as part of the agreement to make up for the gap between Richardson’s salary ($10.1MM) and Butler’s new starting salary.

The move to send Dragic to the Mavs had been speculated throughout the day with salary cap guru Albert Nahmad (Twitter link) among those reading the tea leaves. Dragic will join Rookie-of-the-Year award winner Luka Doncic in Dallas’ backcourt.

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Heat Finalizing Sign-And-Trade For Jimmy Butler

June 30th, 2019 at 8:07pm CST by Luke Adams

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.

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Free Agent Notes: Harris, Leonard, Portis

June 30th, 2019 at 5:10pm CST by ChrisCrouse

Tobias Harris is meeting with the Sixers to begin free agency, The Athletic’s David Aldridge tweets. Harris is seeking a full, five-year max deal.

Jimmy Butler is in Miami to begin his free agency tour and is expected to tell the Heat that he wants to sign with them. The Sixers will likely get a chance to speak with Butler before he signs elsewhere, as Miami doesn’t have the cap space necessary to offer Butler a max contract.

Here’s more from the start of free agency:

  • Magic Johnson said he has spoken to Kawhi Leonard and Dennis Robertson (Leonard’s uncle) after Leonard’s camp contacted him, Brad Turner of the Los Angeles Times relays (Twitter link). No meeting between the parties has been set up yet.
  • Bobby Portis and Jabari Parker are both operating as if they will not be back with the Wizards, Chase Hughes of NBC Sports reports on Twitter. Both players were brought to Washington in the mid-season deal that sent Otto Porter Jr. to Chicago.
  • Julius Randle is on the Knicks‘ radar, a source tells Marc Berman of the New York Post (Twitter link). New York missed out on Kevin Durant, watching him sign with the Nets.
  • The Knicks are meeting with Reggie Bullock tonight, Aldridge tweets. Bullock is ready to commit to a “strong offer,” Aldridge adds. The Lakers would like to keep him, though New York will be among the teams which will have a chance to steal him away from Los Angeles.
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Free Agent Rumors: Middleton, Butler, Kanter, Temple

June 30th, 2019 at 3:27pm CST by clarkcrum

According to Marc Stein of The New York Times, the quietness surrounding the free agency destination of Bucks’ All-Star forward Khris Middleton is because interested front offices are universally presuming that Middleton is going back to Milwaukee on a “monster” five-year deal.

Middleton, 27, is eligible to sign a five-year, $189.904MM maximum-salary contract with the Bucks, while rival suitors can only (relatively speaking, of course) offer up to $140.791MM over four years.

Echoing Stein’s sentiment from rival front offices, Gery Woelfel of Woelfel’s Press Box reports that Middleton is expected to re-sign with Milwaukee, adding that Brook Lopez and George Hill are also considered good bets to return.

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Jimmy Butler To Meet With Heat, Rockets

June 29th, 2019 at 5:25pm CST by Arthur Hill

Jimmy Butler will meet with the Heat and Rockets as he ponders his free agent options, tweets ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

Butler will sit down with Miami officials Sunday in South Florida, then will hear Houston’s presentation early next week in Los Angeles, Woj adds. He states that the Sixers haven’t ruled out sign-and-trade deals, which Butler would need to join either team.

Philadelphia still has the advantage of being able to offer Butler a five-year, $190MM deal if it decides to try to keep him, while other teams are limited to four years and about $141MM. However, the Sixers have other concerns with Tobias Harris and J.J. Redick both on the free agent market and Ben Simmons eligible for an extension this summer.

The Rockets have been the most visible organization trying to land Butler, leaking their intentions to pursue a sign-and-trade and reportedly lining up a contingent deal involving Clint Capela. Both Houston and Miami made strong efforts to acquire Butler in November when he demanded a trade out of Minnesota.

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