Another day means another fresh set of Jimmy Butler rumors surrounding his trade saga with the Heat.
Longtime NBA insider Marc Stein has heard that the Suns “want him bad”.
But the issue for Phoenix is moving Bradley Beal’s ridiculously large contract – which includes a no-trade clause.
The Suns and Heat would need to find a third team to facilitate Beal’s contract and even if they do, he could refuse to go there.
Plus, Beal was recently demoted to the bench due to a dip in production. He’s in the third season of a five-year $251 million contract, so it’s hard to hard to see a third team jumping at the chance to land him.
Outside of the Suns, it’s difficult to imagine there being a massive trade market for the 35-year-old, one NBA anonymous head of basketball operations says.
“It’s more difficult than people think,” the head of basketball operations told Heavy Sports. “First of all, Jimmy’s 35 and doesn’t have much value. And then the team that would like him the most is probably Phoenix, because they’re so bad and they have the worst contract in [Bradley] Beal. Other than that, I don’t know of any teams that would want to take on Jimmy Butler, other than teams that just want to dump contracts — and Miami won’t go for that. I just don’t know how it’s going to work.
“But all this stuff with Jimmy — all the stuff in Miami and Minnesota and Chicago and Philly — all of it is because he wants to get paid. That’s where he’s at right now. He wants to be paid for what he’s done for Miami.”
READ MORE: Jimmy Butler’s Ugly Paternity Battle Revealed Amid Trade Saga