The Jimmy Butler trade rumors are buzzing.
With the Feb. 6 trade deadline fast approaching, it could only be a matter of time until a Butler trade goes down.
Butler has made it clear that he no longer wants to play for the Miami Heat and that he strongly prefers to land with the Phoenix Suns.
The Suns got busy on Tuesday night and traded their lone tradable first-round pick in 2031 to the Utah Jazz and received three likely late first-round picks in 2025, 2027, and 2029. This move gives the Suns more assets and first-round picks to include in any potential trade.
A Suns trade for Butler remains difficult because the only way the Suns can acquire Butler is by trading Kevin Durant, Devin Booker or Bradley Beal. The Suns wouldn’t trade Durant or Booker, so it would have to be Beal. However, Beal holds a no-trade clause which gives him full control over a deal. It’s been rumored that Beal is open to waiving his no-trade clause to join the Milwaukee Bucks.
Things seem very complicated with all of the moving parts. Enter the Toronto Raptors. They are one team reportedly interested in helping facilitate a Butler deal, per Doug Smith of the Toronto Star. The Raptors have $42 million in expiring salaries this year, including Bruce Brown’s $23 million expiring contract.
As outlined by ClutchPoints’ Brett Siegel a four-team deal involving the Raptors could look like this:
- Suns: Jimmy Butler
- Heat: Bruce Brown, Khris Middleton
- Bucks: Bradley Beal, Kevin Love
- Raptors: Bobby Portis, Pat Connaughton
This deal doesn’t account for any draft compensation, which would likely be headed to the Raptors and Heat.
In this four-team trade the math still wouldn’t work, so the deal might require a fifth team to smooth out the salary-matching all across.
However, with the Suns’ recent trade it seems like there are gearing up for a big move over the next few weeks. It will be interesting to see how things pan out and if the Raptors ultimately get involved.
Bruce Brown weighs in on trade deadline rumors
Bruce Brown is well aware of the trade deadline noise.
After the Toronto Raptors’ win over the Orlando Magic, Brown talked about all of the trade deadline chatter that surrounds him, via TSN’s Josh Lewenberg.
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