Jimmy Butler to meet with Rockets, Heat in free agency
Jimmy Butler is an unrestricted free agent, and he somewhat oddly plans to meet with teams that do not have salary cap space.
Butler is planning to meet with the Miami Heat and Houston Rockets once free agency begins, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reports. Woj says Butler’s first meeting would be Sunday with the Heat.
Sources: Jimmy Butler expected to meet the Miami Heat in South Fla. Sunday. Butler/Rockets meeting likely early week in LA. Sixers haven’t ruled out working with Butler on sign-and-trades, which Miami and Houston need to acquire the All-Star guard.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 29, 2019
Butler has long been enamored with Miami and wanted to be traded there by Minnesota last year. The Heat hotly pursued a trade and came close until Minnesota seemingly backed out.
The Rockets also have been trying to work a sign-and-trade for Butler, though that would come at a cost to them as they would have to lose some key players, like Clint Capela and Eric Gordon, potentially.
Because neither Houston nor Miami have salary cap space, any deal where they acquire Butler would have to be arranged through a sign-and-trade requiring cooperation from the Philadelphia 76ers, Butler’s current team. Philly reportedly has not ruled out the possibility of a sign-and-trade for Butler, whom they acquired in a trade last season.
