Jimmy Butler Watch

[F Gump]

This is a hard negotiation to puzzle out

There are a lot of mouths to feed here. Butler wants a team who can trade for him AND who will give him more max-like years (is PHX the only one)? MIA wants good players in return without clogging their payroll (hard to do that when you have to send back around 50M in salary). So Butler wants PHX. (Of the teams he has mentioned, they are the only one with an easy salary match for B's 48.8M, with Beals' 50.2M). But MIA won't take Beal. (a) They can't take back ANY extra salary. (b) More importantly, Beal has 2 more years at 54, 57, which is what they won't pay Butler, not wanting to be in the financial noose it would create, and Beal isn't as good.

The question is Beal's league-wide value -- whether someone wants Beal (and his salary) enough to send some usable players and expiring contracts (which will go to MIA). Then again, MIA probably doesn't want a slew of bodies back, where they have to waive half the team to fit the incoming players, so there has to be a fairly large salary or two included.

It's a tough one.