The Jimmy Butler trade
By now, we all know the story. The Miami Heat and Philadelphia 76ers agreed to sign-and-trade Jimmy Butler in exchange for Josh Richardson, with the Dallas Mavericks acquiring Goran Dragic as the third team. Or was it Kelly Olynyk and Derrick Jones Jr.? Maybe they sound alike on the phone, who knows, but the Mavericks found a way to not be on the same wavelength as the Miami Heat.
The deal as it stands now is perhaps not dead, exactly, but it’s in a medically-induced coma as the Heat are on the hook to find a third team to consummate this deal.
The trade of Hassan Whiteside to the Portland Trail Blazers does solve one of the outstanding components of this deal, however. According to cap expert Albert Nahmad:
Heat have two issues with the Jimmy Butler trade: hard cap, and salary-matching (which, if Butler takes the $32.7M max, would require Heat to send out $26.1M, and Josh Richardson makes $10.1M). The Hassan Whiteside trade solves the hard cap issue. Salary-match issue still TBD.
— Albert Nahmad (@AlbertNahmad) July 1, 2019
So according to this, with the $4.8 million the Heat save on the Hassan Whiteside deal, the gap is now under $12 million. With cap space shrinking around the NBA on a minute-by-minute basis, these are amounts that will matter as the Heat try frantically to find one more trade partner to help consummate this deal.
Where might that help come from? It’s speculation time about what comes next.