Jimmy Butler may now be trying to steer the trade bus in one particular direction.
Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated reported on Tuesday that executives involved say that the disgruntled Miami Heat star Butler has been making it “pretty obvious” that he has one desired trade destination. That destination is the Phoenix Suns.
The six-time NBA All-Star Butler, who is currently serving a seven-game suspension from the Heat for detrimental conduct, has been linked to the Suns in trade rumors for several weeks now. At 16-18 (which is 12th in the West), Phoenix badly needs a shake-up. But they can also offer Butler a win-now opportunity with Kevin Durant and Devin Booker as well as a warm-weather West Coast setting and a new owner in Mat Ishbia who is very willing to spend.
Of course, that would also require the Heat to play ball, likely by taking on the contract of Suns guard Bradley Beal (deemed to be one of the absolute worst in the NBA). Miami has shown no interest in doing so to this point, which means that Phoenix would probably have to find a third team to take Beal … and for Beal, who has a full no-trade clause, to approve of that team.
The Heat have most of the leverage here since Butler can’t land a big new payday AND get to a preferred contending team without their help (either via trade in the coming weeks or via sign-and-trade in the summer). Even if Butler leaves Miami for nothing in the offseason, that would open up a glut of cap space for them to spend on free agents as they are a top destination.
But the 35-year-old Butler has some leverage as well in that he holds a $52.4 million player option for next season and can use the threat of walking in the summer to scare off trade suitors that he does not want to be join. In fact, we already heard earlier in the day that Butler has been telling certain clubs not to trade for him as it looks like he is laser-focused on the Suns right now.
