ESPN’s Marks: Straight Jimmy Butler for Bradley Beal trade ‘just not happening’

A straight trade of Miami Heat guard Jimmy Butler and an extra salary to the Phoenix Suns for Bradley Beal doesn’t look realistic to ESPN’s Bobby Marks.

“If it’s involving just the two teams, it’s just not happening,” Marks told Arizona Sports’ Bickley & Marotta on Thursday. “I mean, I never want to put in a 100% ‘no’ just because of the world we live in, but I don’t see a world where it would make sense for the Miami Heat to take back the $110 million owed to Bradley Beal after this year. (Beal’s) no-trade clause, for me, is not a factor at all this year.

“I just think where Miami is, they would rather just extend Jimmy Butler at that number than take on Bradley Beal’s numbers — certainly based on what we’ve seen the last two years with Beal.”

Beal has missed 10 of the Suns’ 15 games this season and last year only appeared in 53 regular-season outings. Prior to that, he’s only hit the 60-game mark once in his final four campaigns on the Washington Wizards.

That history, a dip in production when healthy and more than $50 million in each of the next few years owed to him make him hard to trade for a Phoenix team that accepted his no-trade clause when it added him two offseasons ago.

Beal has averaged 17.8 points, 4.2 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game this season while shooting 49% and 36% from three. It’s been decent production discounting the contract size.

Still, even three- or four-team deals end with problematic questions.

The Suns could sweeten a trade pot by adding a 2031 first- or a couple of second-round picks. Even so, Marks finds it hard to believe a team would want to acquire Beal’s contract unless it is also getting off a player or two to do that.

A team acquiring Beal would be one “that’s willing to get rid of stuff they don’t want,” Marks said. “Certainly, the hard part is Phoenix only has that pick in 2031. They’ve got a couple seconds here to get out and move.

“The rebuilding teams don’t make sense,” Marks added. “It goes back to, like, Brooklyn has always been linked to Jimmy Butler as a free-agent destination. I don’t see that happening because of the timeline in Brooklyn.”

Marks thinks the Suns will be active in talks beyond Jimmy Butler and Bradley Beal, but do they need to make a trade?

Grayson Allen ($16 million), Jusuf Nurkic ($18 million) and Josh Okogie ($8 million) will be the three Suns most mentioned in trade rumors, but Phoenix’s financial situation and those players’ roles could make them difficult to move.

Allen proved a capable starter last season and is still working into a sixth-man role.

“It’s a great insurance policy because you don’t know tomorrow Beal might wake up and his knee might be swelling,” Marks said just as Beal is likely to make a return from a couple-game absence due to that issue.

Nurkic is still a starting-caliber player, while Okogie has defensive value. He is the most expendable of the three, but his contract size would only work on a team wanting to dump salary.

The question is then: What addition is worth losing a key backup guard or starting center? And do the Suns necessarily have a glaring hole to fill?

“I don’t know if there’s an ingredient (the Suns need),” Marks said. “I picked this team to go to the Finals before the season started. I think we’ve seen what they can do when Kevin (Durant) is out there … If you said to me on Feb. 7 Phoenix didn’t make a trade at all, I would say, ‘OK, this team can compete in the Western Conference.’ But they gotta stay healthy, that’s the biggest thing.”

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