Can Phoenix Suns trade for Jimmy Butler with Bradley Beal as their centerpiece? Building a mock trade
How does a Jimmy Butler trade to the Phoenix Suns work with Bradley Beal in the mix?
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With the Jimmy Butler trade saga taking up most of the NBA’s airwaves these days, the Phoenix Suns have emerged as a dark horse candidate to land the wantaway Miami Heat star. To do so, however, they would need the Heat to accept their former All-Star Bradley Beal to balance salaries.
The Bradley Beal trade in the summer of 2023 has proved to be an unmitigated disaster for Phoenix. Beal spent most of 2023-24 on the sidelines with injury troubles. While his acclimatization led to a late-season run, they got swept in the first round of the playoffs. Beal’s level of play has since dropped off considerably, with him getting benched for Ryan Dunn this week.
Jimmy Butler, meanwhile, has made it amply clear that he wants to leave South Beach. He’s also carefully shooting down teams like the Memphis Grizzlies and the Milwaukee Bucks, who made inquiries about him. This suggests that there’s a shortlist of playoff/play-in teams where he wants to be headed.
Even if the Phoenix Suns are on that shortlist, they would definitely have to do some creative accounting to get a trade deal done. Assuming that Jimmy waives his trade kicker of 15%, he is still worth $48.8 million of the cap. The Suns would undoubtedly have to send Bradley Beal the other way, in addition to some picks, to get this done.
Brian Windhorst believes the Phoenix Suns will give Jimmy Butler a supermax deal
Given Butler’s age (34), a lot of teams are betting against him staying an All Star-caliber performer. Committing to him with a supermax deal going into his late 30s would probably cripple most teams’ cap situation. However, the Phoenix Suns are one of those rare teams which are going all-or-nothing in spending for a chip.
ESPN’s resident LeBron James reporter Brian Windhorst seemed to be quite confident with some Butler rumors he’s heard. The First Take panelist went on the show on Tuesday morning to break this news.
““Jimmy Butler isn’t going to extend with any team. And so, because teams know that, they’re offering the Heat right now the poo-poo platter. There’s only one team that is ready to pay Jimmy Butler exactly what he wants, and that’s the Phoenix Suns.”
Bradley Beal is understandably the key to all of this scheming coming to motion. The former Wizards All-Star is one of 2 NBA players with a no-trade clause. Given that he’s still only 31 years old, he probably backs himself to get out of his current slump to a semblance of form. And given that he holds the trump card in this situation, it’ll be hard for the Suns to get a deal done.
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Amulya Shekhar
(14 Articles Published)