As we approach the unofficial start of NBA trade season (more on that later), the carousel has already begun to spin. Tuesday morning, ESPN’s Shams Charania opened up his notebook to reveal what the thinking around the league was on some of the high-profile names that could be moving. Perhaps the biggest of those would be Miami Heat forward and Big Face Coffee CEO, Jimmy Butler. Per Shams:
“The Heat are open to listening to offers for Butler and making a deal if the proposal is right, league sources told ESPN, and Butler’s agent, Bernie Lee, has indicated in league circles that Butler is open to destinations such as two of the Texas teams (Houston Rockets andDallas Mavericks) and theGolden State Warriors. Butler is a native of Houston, Texas. Above all, though, he is believed to prefer a win-now title contender in any trade. Teams have also been informed that Butler intends to opt out of his deal in the offseason and become a free agent, sources said.”
Due to Butler’s massive salary, it’d be tough for the Mavericks, or any team for that matter, to try and make this transaction work. Jimmy makes $48.8 million this year, and as Shams notes, intends to decline his upcoming player option this summer. While expiring contracts were easy to move around in the past, the new apron restrictions make a deal like this nearly impossible to make in season. Not to mention that Dallas would likely have to give up the majority of the depth that they have worked hard to build and develop over the last year.
The real thing that Mavericks fans should take away from this isn’t that Jimmy Butler is going to be a Maverick. Spoiler alert: he’s not. However, the big thing of this is that Dallas has fully arrived as a premier destination for NBA talent. Four years ago, guys like Jimmy don’t float the idea of coming to Dallas. With an established record of success and great recruiters in Nico Harrison, Michael Finley, Jason Kidd and Kyrie Irving, Dallas finally has a seat at the ‘big kids” table.