Update #2, July, 12:43 pm: The Heat have alleviated the cap clearing concerns that were preventing them from completing the Jimmy Butler sign-and-trade Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel reports. Miami sent Hassan Whiteside’s $27 million deal to the Portland Trail Blazers.
Update #1, July 1, 1:04 am: I’ve kept it there for posterity but Dallas’ involvement in this deal seems to be off the table. Tim Cato of The Athletic details the miscommunication between the parties. We will now wait for Miami to salvage this, either with Dallas or another third team.
The Miami Heat are finalizing a deal to acquire Jimmy Butler in a sign-and-trade, Shams Charnia of The Athletic reports. Headed to the Philadelphia 76ers in the swap is swingman Josh Richardson.
Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel reports that Goran Dragic will be sent to the Dallas Mavericks in order to make the numbers work. Brad Townsend of the Dallas Morning News confirms the Dragic inclusion.
Contrary to previous reports, the Heat will not be sending Goran Dragic to Dallas. According the Times’ Marc Stein, the Mavs fear jeopardizing their flexibility later in the summer.
Heading to Dallas in the three-team swap will be Kelly Olynyk and Derrick Jones, Marc Stein of the New York Times writes.
We wrote in our free agency briefing that Butler was eager and ready to tell the Heat that he wished to play for their franchise earlier today, the only thing the Heat needed to do was work out a scenario with Philadelphia that would meet salary cap rules.
While Sixers fans will be sad to see the ultracompetitive swing take his talents to South Beach, they’ll add an underrated wing that averaged 15.6 points per game last season. The 25-year-old Richardson will earn $10.1 million.
The deal that Butler will take with him to his new squad is a four-year pact worth $142 million. That’s the max that a player signing with a new team is eligible to make. Even though Butler inked the deal with his incumbent team, sign-and-trade deals prohibit a player on the move from getting that extra year.
