The Phoenix Suns made a trade on Tuesday, but it wasn’t the one we were expecting. In a deal with the Utah Jazz, the Suns sent out their unprotected 2031 first-round pick in exchange for three lesser first-round picks: the least favorable between Minnesota’s and Cleveland’s in 2025, and the least favorable of Minnesota’s, Cleveland’s and Utah’s in 2027 and 2029. Now, at the risk of cueing the Brian Windhorst fingers, why would the Suns do that? What’s going on in Phoenix?
Well, in short, they still very much seem to be trying to trade for Jimmy Butler. This deal was designed as a step in that direction. Why? Because the Suns had only one tradable first-round pick before Tuesday. They could have sent that pick to Miami for Butler, but then they’d have no assets left to use to convince someone to take on Bradley Beal’s contract. Beal’s contract has to be in the trade because the Suns, as a second-apron team, can neither aggregate salaries nor take in more money than they send out in any trade. Now, with three picks instead of one, they can divide and conquer. Those picks will now presumably be divided between the Heat and any other facilitating parties in the deal, most notably one who would be absorbing Beal.
Is there a Beal taker yet? It’s a complicated question not only because of his disappointing production and supermax contract, but because of his no-trade clause. The Suns can’t simply banish him to Detroit and call it a day. They’ll have to find a home he consents to. For now, the likeliest such home appears to be the Milwaukee Bucks.
According to Suns insider John Gambadoro, Beal would be open to potentially waiving that no-trade clause to join the Bucks. Multiple reporters have indicated that the Bucks have potential interest in Beal, and there’s a viable framework here. The Bucks could send the expensive but shorter contracts belonging to Khris Middleton and Bobby Portis to the Heat, allowing Miami to retain its 2026 cap space, and take Beal back in return.
This brings up our next major hiccup. The Bucks are a second-apron team, so right now, they are subject to the same restrictions the Suns are. The catch is that they could theoretically get under the second apron by trading enough salary. That’s what they’d have to do here. In addition to Middleton and Portis, they would also send out further salary, Pat Connaughton and most likely MarJon Beauchamp, to dip far enough below the line to bring in Beal and sign enough free agents through prorated minimum salaries and 10-day deals to reach the NBA’s minimum for rostered players.
Of course, to do that, they’d need a fourth team able to absorb that money, as the Heat are a first-apron team that is unable to do so. If you’ve been wondering why the Butler deal is taking so long and why all of the reporting has suggested it is going to be at least a four-team trade, this is why. The parties involved here are all working very hard to sidestep the restrictions created by the new CBA.
The fact that the Suns have already finalized one trade that theoretically facilitates the Butler deal suggests that they are confident some version of this trade is going to happen. The question is what the final construction winds up being. So we’re going to construct a few hypothetical deals here to try to land on a viable final trade. Given the magnitude of a trade involving Butler and Beal, it’s hard to imagine we ultimately land on the exact, final parameters. However, these fake trades should give you a broad idea of what is feasible for the Suns, Heat and Bucks as they attempt to make this work.
Trade No. 1: Four-team deal with Pistons
- Heat receive: Khris Middleton, Bobby Portis, Ryan Dunn, 2027 first-round pick (least favorable of Jazz, Timberwolves and Cavaliers)
- Pistons receive: Pat Connaughton, MarJon Beauchamp, 2029 first-round pick (least favorable of Jazz, Timberwolves and Cavaliers)
- Bucks receive: Bradley Beal, 2025 first-round pick (least favorable of Timberwolves and Cavaliers)
- Suns receive: Jimmy Butler
Believe it or not, this is the simplest construction we’re working with today. Before we get into the basketball of the deal, we have some housekeeping. First of all, Detroit would have to waive a player to fit in two new ones. Second, this deal would take the Bucks down to 12 players. Every deal we cover here is going to do that. As a reminder, the NBA’s roster minimum is 14 players. However, teams can duck below that line for up to two weeks at a time and for 28 days in total during a season. That would give the Bucks a bit of time to get their house in order where the bench is concerned. Still, given how close they’d be to the second apron (which becomes a hard cap for them if they aggregate salaries through trade), it would be a bit uncomfortable. It would take a combination of prorated minimum deals and 10-day deals managed carefully to get them through the season.
Those of you who spend time on the trade machine are likely wondering why the Suns are allowed to trade both Beal and Dunn. After all, they aren’t ducking below the second apron like Milwaukee is, so aggregating salary in their position is illegal. The answer, without getting too in the weeds about cap minutia, is that trading multiple salaries does not always equal aggregation. The cap has mechanisms like simultaneous trades to account for situations like this. For now, all you to know is that Beal makes more than Butler. Therefore, a Beal-for-Butler straight up trade is legal without aggregation on Phoenix’s end. Adding another salary on top of an already legal match does not negate the trade’s legality so long as all other parties are able to complete the deal.
With that out of the way, we can get into the basketball of it all. Detroit isn’t facilitating this deal without compensation. There goes one Phoenix’s three available first-round picks. For now, we’ll assume that Milwaukee is also charging one first-round pick for the price of taking on Beal. Of course, there is also a basketball rationale for them here as well. In short: Beal is healthy. Middleton rarely is. While this deal would make them smaller and thinner, it would also give them a bit more assurance that Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard will have a worthwhile third scorer by their side.
The Suns would surely argue that they are therefore getting enough out of the deal and shouldn’t ask for a first-round pick on top of the upgrade a Beal-for-Middleton swap represents. But Milwaukee has all of the leverage here. It’s not even clear that anyone else is willing to take on Beal, and even if there was another suitor, Beal could reject them with his no-trade clause. The Suns have to accommodate the Bucks here. That’s probably going to mean a first-round pick. We’re sending them the 2025 pick because, as a win-now team, they’ll want a cheap rookie as quickly as possible. The Pistons get the 2029 pick because they are the most flexible of the three acquiring teams here.
That leaves the Heat. The 2027 pick is uniquely valuable to them because, if they manage to make the playoffs this season, they will owe their own 2027 first-round pick to the Hornets. That creates messy Stepien Rule problems for future trades, but having a guaranteed 2027 pick from another team could help solve them. If the Heat miss the playoffs, they instead owe out unprotected picks in 2026 (to the Thunder) and 2028 (to the Hornets). It is therefore a priority for them to reach the playoffs this season, which is why they are getting a player-centric package back.
Middleton’s health is iffy, but the Heat don’t need him to last into June. They just need to either earn a top-six seed or make it through the Play-In Tournament. Those aren’t especially lofty goals. Portis could help provide front court depth, especially since the Heat are now starting two traditional big men in Bam Adebayo and Kel’El Ware.
The sticking point here is Dunn. This is where Phoenix’s negotiations with Milwaukee come into play. If the Suns can get the Bucks to take Beal without compensation, they can offer the Heat two first-round picks for Butler. If the Bucks and Pistons both need one, the Heat simply aren’t trading Butler for a single first-round pick. While Middleton and Portis might be helpful in the short-term, they are salary filler, not long-term additions for Miami. The Suns would need to find extra value for Miami. High-end 3-and-D prospects with three years left on cheap rookie deals are rare. The Suns would hate to give Dunn up. If they want Butler badly enough, they might not have a choice.
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If the Heat made this trade, it would likely be with a quick reboot in mind. Middleton and Portis both have player options for next season, but would come off of the books in time for the very strong 2026 free agent class. The Heat would still have Adebayo and Tyler Herro as centerpieces, and they would have Dunn, Ware and Jaime Jaquez on cheap rookie deals to serve as a supporting cast. Nikola Jovic would be a restricted free agent, but he would have a tiny cap hold as a former No. 27 overall pick, so Miami could keep him without compromising its space. The idea here would either be to trade the expiring contracts of Middleton and Portis along with draft picks for a star at some point in the 2025-26 season or to simply let those deals expire and chase someone like De’Aaron Fox or Trae Young in free agency afterward. Luka Doncic can also become a 2026 free agent, though he is widely expected to extend with the Mavericks. If he didn’t, for whatever reason, Miami would be perfectly positioned to make its pitch. Either way, this would be a step back more than a total rebuild.
Trade No. 2: Five-team deal with Pistons and Raptors
- Heat receive: Khris Middleton, Ryan Dunn, 2027 first-round pick (least favorable of Jazz, Timberwolves and Cavaliers)
- Pistons receive: Bobby Portis, MarJon Beauchamp
- Raptors receive: Pat Connaughton, 2029 first-round pick (least favorable of Jazz, Timberwolves and Cavaliers)
- Bucks receive: Bradley Beal, 2025 first-round pick (least favorable of Timberwolves and Cavaliers)
- Suns receive: Jimmy Butler
This construction was the brainchild of cap expert Yossi Gozlan, and while it might look very similar to the one we just covered, it differs in a few key ways. For starters, you’ll notice that Detroit is no longer receiving a first-round pick. Instead, the Pistons get Portis rather than Connaughton, and instead of renting out their cap space for draft capital, they’d simply be spending it on a player who could help them. With Jaden Ivey hurt, Detroit could use a bit more offense. Portis could slide into the minutes currently occupied by Simone Fontecchio and Paul Reed. If Detroit insists on receiving a first-round pick, we return to the Suns-Bucks staring contest we covered above. Toronto would need to get a pick for this to work, so either the Pistons or the Bucks have to lose the one they got above.
Why is Toronto here at all? Because sending Connaughton there allows us to trade Portis into Detroit’s cap space, which means he isn’t landing in Miami. That matters because, of this writing, the Heat are around $13.5 million above the luxury-tax line. If they made this version of the trade, they’d be able to duck the tax entirely. We don’t know if that’s a priority for Miami, but it often is in star trades. Who knows. Maybe that matters enough to the Heat to bypass the first-round pick they’d be receiving in this deal. Unlikely, but hey, we need someone to sacrifice a pick.
For you cap nerds, this deal is only legal because of changes made in the 2023 CBA. Specifically, teams are now allowed to use their mid-level exceptions to absorb salaries through trade. Toronto can therefore use its non-taxpayer mid-level exception to bring in Connaughton without sending out a contract (though they would need to waive someone for roster-size purposes), staying just below the tax line in the process. Detroit could absorb Portis with its $14 million or so in space, but to take in Beauchamp as well, it would need to use its cap room mid-level exception. As both maneuvers are now legal, this trade is now feasible.
Trade No. 3: Five-team deal with Pistons and Blazers
- Heat receive: Khris Middleton, Bobby Portis, Ryan Dunn, Rayan Rupert, 2027 first-round pick (least favorable of Jazz, Timberwolves and Cavaliers)
- Pistons receive: Pat Connaughton, MarJon Beauchamp, Jabari Walker, 2025 first-round pick (least favorable of Timberwolves and Cavaliers)
- Trail Blazers receive: Jusuf Nurkic, 2029 first-round pick (least favorable of Jazz, Timberwolves and Cavaliers)
- Bucks receive: Bradley Beal
- Suns receive: Jimmy Butler, Robert Williams III
Once again, the Suns wouldn’t need to aggregate salary to make this trade. Butler-for-Beal works independently, and so does Nurkic-for-Williams. Phoenix actually winds up saving a nice chunk of change in this deal, and it takes a swing on upgrading its center position with Williams, a once-dominant defender whose career has been derailed by injuries. Portland gets a first-round pick to take on the ugly Nurkic deal.
Of course, if Portland is getting a pick, that means someone is losing one. This is a “Milwaukee doesn’t get a pick for taking on Beal” scenario, and becomes impossible if the Bucks insist on compensation because Detroit has to get a pick for taking Connaughton. The Heat would have to waive a few players, but I don’t think they’d miss Alec Burks or Josh Richardson all that much.
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There’s another holdup here, and it relates to Portland’s payroll. The Blazers are only around $3.7 million away from the tax. This trade gets them dangerously close to it before you even factor in adding players to replace those who have been traded, which they’d need to do for roster minimum purposes. The actual tax amount would be negligible, but if you’re even one cent above the tax line, you don’t get a luxury-tax payout from the teams who actually do pay the tax. Small-market teams loathe giving that windfall up even if it gets them draft picks. Portland would therefore have to save some money in another deal or feel comfortable playing the minimum salary and 10-day contract game for the rest of the season while ducking the line.
The broader message of this concept, though, is that with three first-round picks, Phoenix now has a bit more flexibility to explore Nurkic trades in addition to its pursuit of Butler. Gozlan, for instance, proposed an expanded deal with Toronto in which the Suns would land Kelly Olynyk. Any team below the first apron interested in a first-round pick that has a veteran cheaper than Nurkic the Suns could use would be a viable partner for them in such a deal. Such a deal is only possible if either the Bucks or another party involved is willing to forego a first-round pick, but that’s not out of the realm of possibility, so we’re covering it here.
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