Miami Heat tries to find suitable trade for Jimmy Butler as disgruntled star serves his seven-game suspension for “several instances of conduct detrimental to the team.” Behind the scenes, they are reportedly preparing for this saga to extend beyond the suspension (which is expected to end next Friday) and perhaps even to the trade deadline, given the factors at play.
One factor, in particular, appears to be behind both the rift between Butler and the Heat and what ESPN’s Brian Windhorst called the “poop platter” trade offers coming to Miami: money . Butler will almost certainly decline his player option for next season in pursuit of the longer-term deal Miami refused to give him last offseason.
The problem is that few other teams will want to give him the kind of money, or years, he wants for his next contract as a 35-year-old star who may already be in decline and almost certainly will be. by the end. of this next contract.
On top of that, Butler won’t sign an extension this summer with any team, meaning that even if a team were willing to take on Butler’s business long-term, it might not be a team with which Butler wishes to extend. . This prevents teams from offering large trade packages, as they might only have Butler as a short-term rental. In turn, that sweetens Butler’s deal considerably.
“We have a big problem here,” Windhorst said on First Take. “Jimmy Butler is not going to extend with (just) any team, and so because teams know that, they’re giving the Heat right now the poop board. There’s only one team that’s willing to pay Jimmy Butler exactly what he wants, and that’s the Phoenix Suns And you know why that’s fascinating because of the (28) other teams that could trade for Jimmy Butler, the team that (Butler). wants to go)? the team is the one who has the most difficulty negotiating for himself.
“We are at a real impasse,” Windhorst concluded. “I don’t know how this is going to play out. The Heat are preparing internally for this to last after the suspension. Not because they have some sort of sinister motive, but because they know what kind of deals they received and they stink.”
Keeping with the theme that Butler isn’t going to re-sign with just any team, there’s also a report from Chris Haynes that the Memphis Grizzlies are among the few teams that have “received the news that the Miami Heat star , Jimmy Butler, has no contract.” interest in being traded there”, which is an effective warning not to make a trade for him because he won’t be around long.
So to recap, Butler wants to go to the Suns and the Suns want and will pay Butler, but the Heat don’t want anything the Suns have to offer in a trade (which would almost certainly include Bradley Beal) and Phoenix doesn’t have the money to sign Butler as a free agent this summer.
The Grizzlies, that make a lot of sense on paper both sides were told to stay away. Everyone knows that Butler’s market is soft, and as such, Miami has some “poop platter” deals, which is fun enough to mention twice. Obviously, Miami won’t make a trade for that kind of return. So stay tuned. It could get even uglier.
