Despite coming up short last year in their attempt to acquire Jimmy Butler, the Miami Heat may have another shot at acquiring the All-Star small forward. A new report indicates that the pending free agent is willing to listen to any effort the Heat plans on making for his services.
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Jimmy Butler has told confidants that if Miami wants to talk on or after June 30 he would certainly – and happily – listen, according to a person with knowledge of the situation.
(Of course, the “how would Miami have the $$$” portion of this equation remains most unclear.)
— Tim Reynolds (@ByTimReynolds) June 14, 2019
The 29-year-old Butler announced on Friday that he would opt out of the final year of his contract that was scheduled to pay him $19.8 million for the 2019-20 campaign. That will make him a free agent and allow him to likely make more than $30 million next season.
The problem for the Heat is that they have no space to fit Butler within their salary cap. Past efforts to trade center Hassan Whiteside have gone nowhere and no team has currently expressed interest in dealing for veteran point guard Goran Dragic, who will make $19.2 million after opting in on Thursday.
Last September, the Heat pursued a trade for Butler when he was still a member of the Minnesota Timberwolves. That ultimately failed and he was subsequently acquired by the Philadelphia 76ers. This past season, he averaged 18.7 points, 5.3 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game.
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