Mavericks, Heat trade in Jimmy Butler deal off over disagreement about players
The deal between the Dallas Mavericks and Miami Heat that would have allowed Miami to absorb Jimmy Butler in a sign-and-trade with Philly has fallen apart.
Retracing things, Butler had agreed to sign a four-year, $142 million deal with Philly and get traded to Miami. However, the Heat doing a sign-and-trade would trigger the hard cap for the season and force them to shed salaries to make the trade work.
They were always going to deal Josh Richardson ($10.1 million) to Philly, but they had to unload other money to make the trade go through.
At first, reports out of Miami said Goran Dragic ($19.1 million) was being traded to Dallas. But then conflicting reports out of Dallas said Kelly Olynyk ($12.67 million) and Derrick Jones Jr. ($1.7 million) were included in the trade.
It’s unclear whether Dallas changed their minds on taking back Dragic, but it sounds like Miami did not want to deal Jones.
The Mavericks are huge fans of Goran Dragic but could not take him back in the Miami sign-and-trade with Philadelphia that sends Jimmy Butler to the Heat because Dallas feared losing its flexibility to make additional moves this summer, league sources say
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) July 1, 2019
The Mavericks maintain they agreed to join the Jimmy Butler sign-and-trade under the belief they were getting Kelly Olynyk and Derrick Jones Jr., league sources say. The Heat reportedly do not want to surrender Jones and say they must trade Goran Dragic to make the cap math work
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) July 1, 2019
The Heat will need to make this trade work because they want Butler, but they need to find a way to shed salary. There are not many teams left with salary cap space to take on the Heat’s contracts, so their options are limited. Philly also needs the deal to go through because their plans — signing Al Horford — are contingent upon it.
