Suns-Jazz draft pick trade creates flexibility, Jimmy Butler trade or not

The Phoenix Suns’ one-for-three deal of first-round picks with the Utah Jazz on Wednesday certainly moved the needle further away from “impossible” with regard to the possibility of Miami Heat star Jimmy Butler landing in the Valley.

ESPN’s Shams Charania reported Wednesday that the Heat and “multiple teams” received a “boost” in conversations about a Butler trade since that Suns-Jazz trade went down.

That means Phoenix does not necessarily have a trade for Butler lined up and ready to go, as Arizona Sports’ John Gambadoro and others have reported.

“I don’t think there was something lined up already where you make the deal and all of a sudden Bradley (Beal) is traded and you get Jimmy and stuff like that,” ESPN analyst Bobby Marks told Bickley & Marotta. “I think you make the deal knowing that you have three options instead of one now with these draft picks.”

Added veteran NBA reporter Marc Stein in his Wednesday morning newsletter:

Sources with knowledge of the Suns’ thinking insisted to The Stein Line that Phoenix made its Tuesday trade with Utah without a specific follow-up move lined up.

Another crucial data point: A separate source told The Stein Line that the Suns, as of Tuesday night, had still not presented any trade scenarios for Bradley Beal to consider and tell them if he would be willing to waive his no-trade clause.

What flexibility does the Suns-Jazz trade give Phoenix for Jimmy Butler and beyond?

Option 1 — Getting Jimmy Butler: That’s the obvious, but it seems nearly guaranteed a third, fourth or fifth team would need to be added to the mix. That’s because the Heat reportedly do not want Beal’s contract and other teams are wary about his no-trade clause.

“The contract is big. The big sticking point is the no-trade carrying (to the next team),” Marks said. “I’ve talked to three teams, four teams. That’s a big deal as far as him not waiving it, eliminating it from his contract and all that.”

As for alternate Beal landing spots, Marks could see options including Chicago (Billy Donovan coached Beal at Florida) or Milwaukee (the Bucks benched Khris Middleton and could be looking for a third banana next to Damian Lillard and Giannis Antetokounmpo).

It’s going to take a lot of legwork on the Suns’ and others’ parts if a trade framework is going to be agreed-upon before we even approach the question of whether Beal will be OK with a potential new home.

“To do a three- or four-team trade … in the regular season is like putting a deck of cards together,” Marks said. “All you need is one or two teams to pull out and the whole thing comes down.”

Option 2 — Flipping a first-rounder into multiple seconds: The Suns already made lemonade out of very sour lemons when it turned a 2024 first into multiple seconds like this past draft. They traded down from No. 22 and drafted Ryan Dunn at 28, then after some second-round gymnastics added Oso Ighodaro and future draft capital.

Wrote Stein:

One league executive noted that Phoenix could simply keep the 2025 first-round pick that’s now coming this June from Utah (via Cleveland) and try again to use that selection like it used the No. 22 pick in the 2024 NBA Draft — trading down in exchange for three future second-round picks and the chance to add the player they wanted anyway in that range: Ryan Dunn.

Option 3 — Include a first-rounder in a Jusuf Nurkic trade as a sweetener: It’s not a given the Suns would have to burn all three first-round choices in a Butler deal (they still have a 2025 second-rounder via Denver to work with from the Nick Richards trade last week. too).

Butler trade or not, they could toss a pick into any Nurkic deal. Still, it seems unlikely that a team would take Nurkic and a “meh” first-round pick in exchange for, presumably, a rotation player heading to Phoenix.

Option 4: Hold until the offseason for Butler or otherwise: This does the 2024-25 team no good to sit on these picks if the Suns think this team can’t figure it out internally, but if the market is just bad, well, the offseason would present more trade opportunities, as it always does.

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