Jimmy Butler Trade: 4 Realistic Offers for Timberwolves Guard

Miami Heat

Here's the thing with the Miami Heat – they may want Butler and currently sit as his preferred destination, but that means very little. As Sean Deveney of Sporting News revealed, the Timberwolves won't stick to just Butler's preferred list of teams when looking at trades. Realistically, they shouldn't either, so it's hard to argue with Minnesota's handling of this.

On the positive side, there are benefits to the Timberwolves if they opt to move the All-Star to Miami. The most obvious is the fact that it would send him out of the Western Conference and lessens the chance of the team having to face Butler in the playoffs down the road.

And as Anthony Chiang and Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald revealed, both Heat president Pat Riley and coach Erik Spoelstra are incredibly fond of Butler.

"The Heat was aggressively pursuing a trade for disgruntled Minnesota Timberwolves guard Jimmy Butler on Sunday, targeting a player who has long been a favorite of the organization, according to several league sources."

"Heat president Pat Riley and coach Erik Spoelstra always have admired Butler, not only because of his offensive game, but because of his competitive nature and strong defensive skills, which resulted in him being named second-team All-NBA defense four times in his career."

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What Could Be Included in a Jimmy Butler-Heat Deal?

Recently, ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski pointed to Goran Dragic being involved in the deal as part of a three-team trade with the Phoenix Suns. In these talks, the Timberwolves would receive Dragic and potentially send current point guard Jeff Teague to the Suns.

A bit later, Wojnarowski did reveal the asking price for Butler was too steep for the Suns at this moment so the potential for that to happen has cooled off quite a bit. It's not completely dead, but Dragic being the centerpiece of a three-team deal seems less likely.

Here's where things get even more fun, though. The Miami Herald pointed out that the Heat have already made it known Hassan Whiteside, Tyler Johnson, and Dion Waiters are all available via trade. But while Whiteside has solid trade value and both Johnson and Waiters are intriguing, it'd likely take more than that.

Plus, how on earth are Karl-Anthony Towns and Whiteside going to play together? Could the duo coexist inside? It's a big question to answer, and it's probably not worth the headache for Thibodeau unless he and the front office are incredibly high on the big man.

Realistically, we'd probably be looking at something like a first-round pick, Dragic and potentially Waiters or Josh Richardson. Bam Adebayo would likely also find himself at least in the conversation. I'm not sold on the Heat being all that interested in dealing Richardson, but if it meant landing the player Riley and Spoelstra covet, then I can see it happening.

Specific Trade Possibility

*We used ESPN's Trade Machine to evaluate a possible deal, and this worked out for both sides.

Timberwolves Receive
– Goran Dragic
– Dion Waiters
– Bam Adebayo

Heat Receive
– Jimmy Butler
– Gorgui Dieng

Not sure if a first-round pick would need to be included in this, but this trio is quite a bit in exchange for Butler. I'm actually not sure if the Heat would go this far, but it's obviously very possible.

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