by Marcel Mutoni / @ marcel_mutoni
Less than two months after landing in Phoenix, Caron Butler is on the move again.
The Suns have agreed to ship the 33-year old Butler to the Milwaukee Bucks, in exchange for point guard Ish Smith and center Viacheslav Kravtsov.
Per the AZ Republic:
The Suns gain $5.65 million of cap space for any potential in-season trades but also save that money to make an expected costly waiver of Michael Beasley more palatable. Beasley would be owed $9 million of guaranteed salary. Butler, 33, will make $8 million this season on an expriring contract but the Bucks could absorb most of that with $7.5 million of cap space. Smith, who has played 121 games for six teams, will make a guaranteed $985,000 this season with a 2014-15 team option at the same salary. Kravtsov, who logged 25 games in Detroit as a rookie last season, is on an expiring deal for a guaranteed $1.5 million.
The Suns sounded like a team that planned to keep Butler and nothing since then indicated otherwise. Butler smartly wore an orange tie at his introductory press conference and general manager Ryan McDonough talked about his man crush on him and how Butler was part of the team’s future with Eric Bledsoe. They were acquired in that early July three-team deal that sent Jared Dudley to the Clippers officialy on July 10.
Caron Butler, a Racine, Wis., native, is joining a team he grew up rooting for.
Michael Beasley will have to find himself a new mentor in Phoenix, assuming the Suns don’t cut ties with him first.
