Miami Heat sign-and-trade for Jimmy Butler from the 76ers
By Duncan Smith
On the first night of NBA free agency, the Miami Heat have made a huge splash in acquiring Jimmy Butler from the Philadelphia 76ers via sign-and-trade.
It turns out Pat Riley knew something we didn’t know all along. After weeks of rumors that Jimmy Butler wanted to come to the Miami Heat, even though there was no clear path outside of a sign-and-trade (which as recently as Saturday night looked to require at least three teams), it’s official.
The Miami Heat have in fact acquired Jimmy Butler from the Philadelphia 76ers via sign-and-trade, and they’ll sign him to the max allowed when sign-and-trades take place, which is a 4-year deal worth $142 million. While the Sixers could have signed him to a full 5-year max, a sign-and-trade permits a max of only what the acquiring team could offer, so Butler won’t be leaving a dollar on the table of what’s available to him in Miami.
The final details have yet to be released, but the Sixers will be acquiring wing Josh Richardson in the deal. The Heat will need to send back a substantial amount of salary to consummate the deal, possibly including a player like James Johnson, Kelly Olynyk, Dion Waiters, Justise Winslow or a combination of this group.
It’s also reasonable to expect that the Heat will need to include some future draft assets in order to fulfill the Sixers’ requirements for this deal.
Regardless of the haul the Philadelphia 76ers get from the Miami Heat, let it be known: Pat Riley got his man against all odds, doing so with a roster bereft of high-value assets.
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With just the early hours of free agency in the books, the next thing to watch for will be the finality of this deal, what goes back to the Sixers and what it will cost the Heat. Only then can we fully assess what to expect next as the Miami Heat look to use free agency to rebuild and climb back up the ranks of the Eastern Conference.