Heat deals for Jimmy Butler, with Richardson to 76ers and rest of trade still pending
As the NBA underwent a major transformation, the Miami Heat transformed its own roster on the first day of free-agent negotiations.
Just hours after Kevin Durant announced he was leaving the Golden State Warriors to team up with Kyrie Irving on the Brooklyn Nets, a source confirmed the Heat acquired free agent forward Jimmy Butler through a sign-and-trade transaction with the Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski first reported the news.
Heat officials met with Butler in Miami on Sunday evening, and the parties were able to strike a deal. The addition of Butler provides the Heat with the leading man it’s been chasing for the past few years.
Butler, a four-time All-Star, will sign a four-year, $142 million maximum contract with the Heat, according to the Athletic’s Shams Charania.
Details surrounding the transaction remain in flux, but here’s what’s known:
1. Philadelphia is sending Butler to the Heat. And according to a league source, wing Josh Richardson has been informed the Heat is trading him to the 76ers in exchange for Butler.
2. To get the salaries in the trade to match up, there were more moves that needed to be made. According to Marc Stein from the New York Times: The Dallas Mavericks insist they agreed to become the third team in the Butler sign-and-trade transaction with the belief that they were getting Heat wing Derrick Jones Jr. and big man Kelly Olynyk as part of the deal. But the Heat doesn’t want to include Jones in the trade, and the salary-cap math would fall just $1.7 million short of working even if Jones was part of the deal.
A source confirmed the Mavericks indeed want Jones, but the Heat doesn’t want to give him up.
Heat point guard Goran Dragic was initially reported to be the player dealt to the Mavericks as part of the trade, but that was later refuted.
The teams involved still have time to makes changes to the deal to make it work, with trades unable to become official until the end of the NBA moratorium on Saturday. There’s optimism a trade will eventually get done.
It was only a matter of time before Butler found his way to Miami after he named the Heat as his preferred destination while trying to push for a trade from the Timberwolves back in September. The Heat tried to trade for Butler then, but team president Pat Riley eventually broke off trade negotiations with the Timberwolves to avoid them from lingering into the season.
Butler’s close relationship with Dwyane Wade helped to make the Heat an attractive destination. They both played at Marquette, and the two played together on the Bulls during the 2016-17 season.
Butler, who turns 30 in September, was dealt to the 76ers in November after the Heat removed itself from trade discussions. He averaged 18.2 points on 46.1 percent shooting from the field and 33.8 percent shooting on threes, 5.3 rebounds and four assists in 55 regular-season games for Philadelphia.
On Saturday, the NBA announced the 2019-20 salary cap is $109.14 million and the 2019-20 luxury tax line is $132.627 million.
The Heat does not have cap space, which is why it needed to add Butler through a sign-and-trade deal. Because Miami had to go the sign-and-trade route, Heat is hard-capped for the rest of the season at the $138.9 million apron.
Richardson, who was drafted in the second round in 2015 out of Tennessee, spent the first four seasons of his NBA career with the Heat. He averaged a team-high and career-high 16.6 points on 41.2 percent shooting from the field and 35.7 percent shooting on threes, 3.6 rebounds and 4.1 assists in 73 games (73 starts) this past season.
The 25-year-old Richardson was one of the Heat’s top trade assets. He’s known as a quality perimeter defender and is a respectable 36.8 percent career-three-point shooter, and is on an relatively affordable contract that will pay him an average of $10.9 million over the next three seasons.
Shortly after the trade news surfaced, Richardson posted onto his Twitter account, “Where da cheesesteaks?”
Jones, 22, is coming off his first full season with the Heat under a standard NBA contract and is due $1.6 million this upcoming season. The athletic wing averaged seven points on 49.4 percent shooting from the field and 30.8 percent shooting on threes and four rebounds in 60 games (14 starts) this past season.
Olynyk, who is owed about $27 million over the remaining two seasons on his contract, averaged 10 points on 46.3 percent shooting from the field and 35.4 percent shooting on threes, 4.7 rebounds and 1.8 assists in 79 games (36 starts) this past season.
Philadelphia was eligible to offer Butler a full five-year, $190 million max contract. But there was no indication the 76ers were interested in offering him a full max contract that included a fifth season, with fellow free agent forward Tobias Harris reportedly agreeing to a five-year, $180 million deal on Sunday to return to Philadelphia.
▪ The Heat opens summer league action Monday against the Lakers at 9 p.m. as part of the California Classic in Sacramento’s Golden 1 Center. The game will be aired on NBA TV.
This story was originally published June 30, 2019 at 9:30 PM.
