Heat completes trade to acquire Jimmy Butler. Here are details on the four-team deal
It took almost 24 hours to complete, but the sign-and-trade transaction to acquire Jimmy Butler was completed Monday, a league source confirmed to the Miami Herald.
What started as a sign-and-trade deal Sunday, ended up as a complex four-team trade between the Heat, Blazers, Clippers and 76ers.
When it was done, the Heat had traded away wing Josh Richardson to the 76ers, Hassan Whiteside to the Trail Blazers and a protected 2023 first-round pick to the Clippers to acquire Butler from 76ers and center Meyers Leonard from the Trail Blazers.
In addition to swapping Leonard for Whiteside, Portland also shipped forward Maurice Harkless, through the Heat, to the Clippers.
The Clippers ended up absorbing Harkless into available cap space and picked up a future first-round pick from the Heat. According to a league source, Miami’s 2023 first-round pick dealt to Los Angeles is lottery protected in 2023, lottery protected in 2024 if it doesn’t convey in 2023, lottery protected in 2025 if it doesn’t convey in 2024, and unprotected in 2026 if it’s not already conveyed to the Clippers by then.
And the 76ers ended up with the 25-year-old Richardson in exchange for Butler.
The trade cannot become official until the end of the NBA moratorium on Saturday. The Heat remains open to additional moves, including ones that would reduce salary, according to a source.
Although point guard Goran Dragic was involved in discussions to complete the sign-and-trade transaction, he was not part of the deal. The Heat ultimately did not need to include Dragic as part of its trade package after the Clippers agreed to take Harkless and a future first-round pick.
The Heat also was able to keep athletic wing Derrick Jones Jr. and big man Kelly Olynyk after a misunderstanding between the Mavericks and Heat had the two players as part of the deal Sunday night.
According to Marc Stein from the New York Times, the Mavericks insisted they agreed to become the third team in the Butler sign-and-trade transaction with the belief that they were getting Jones and Olynyk as part of the deal.
But the Heat didn’t want to include Jones in the trade and the salary-cap math fell $1.7 million short of working even if Jones was part of the deal. The Mavericks pulled out of the trade once Miami made it clear it did not want to part ways with Jones and Olynyk.
The centerpiece of the completed deal is Butler, a four-time All-Star. 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, is expected to sign a four-year, $142 million maximum contract with the Heat. Butler was offered the full five-year, $190 million max contract by the 76ers, but turned it down to join the Heat, according to NBC Sports NBA Insider Tom Haberstroh.
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.
The Heat also acquired the 7-foot-1 Leonard in the trade. He’s due $11.3 million in the final year of his contract this coming season, and averaged 5.9 points and 3.8 rebounds in 61 games, in 14.4 minutes per game, for Portland last season. He shot 54.5 percent from the field. He shot 45 percent on threes (50 for 111) last season, a skill the Heat values in its power rotation players. He’s a career 38.5 percent three-point shooter.
Leonard, 27, has averaged 5.6 points and 3.7 rebounds in seven seasons, all with Portland, who selected him 11th overall out of Illinois in 2012. Leonard had a career-high 30 points and 12 rebounds in a 119–117 season-ending overtime loss to the Golden State Warriors in May. He started two games each of the past two seasons and 42 in his seven seasons with the Blazers.
The Heat comes out of the trade with 14 players on its roster: Butler (a 2019-20 salary of $32.7 million), Ryan Anderson ($21.3 million), Dragic ($19.2 million), James Johnson ($15.3 million), Kelly Olynyk ($13.1 million), Justise Winslow ($13 million), Dion Waiters ($12.1 million), Leonard ($11.3 million), Tyler Herro ($3.6 million, but has not signed contract yet), Bam Adebayo ($3.5 million), Derrick Jones Jr. ($1.6 million), Yante Maten ($1.4 million), Duncan Robinson ($1.4 million) and Kendrick Nunn ($1.4 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, the Heat is hard-capped for the rest of the season at the $138.9 million apron.
The Heat’s team salary stands at a little over $150 million committed to 14 players because Waiters’ unlikely bonus is included when calculating payroll for hard-cap purposes.
In order to get under the $138.9 million hard-cap apron, which is a figure $6 million above the NBA’s luxury tax threshold, the Heat could be forced to use the “stretch provision” when waiving Anderson unless it is able to shed additional salary in coming days.
Only $15.6 million of Anderson’s $21.3 million salary is guaranteed if he’s released by July 10. But waiving and stretching Anderson would reduce his cap hit to an annual $5.2 million over the next three seasons to create an extra $16.1 million in room from his full $21.3 million salary and move the Heat just below the hard-cap threshold.
This story was originally published July 1, 2019 at 5:44 PM.
