Bradley Beal Has All The Power In Jimmy Butler Trade Saga

Jimmy Butler’s demand to be traded out of Miami has been the dominant topic of conversation in the NBA for the last week (and the rumblings of Butler’s potential departure has been a major story for a month). Butler and Heat president Pat Riley are locked in a battle of wills, which figures to be fascinating as Riley is about as prideful as any front office person in the league and can go toe-to-toe with Butler in the “getting uncomfortable” department.

However, what makes the Butler trade saga so fascinating is that a third party, who has no incentive to help anyone involved, is the most powerful person in the entire thing. That would be Phoenix Suns guard Bradley Beal. Butler’s desire to go to Phoenix is well-known, and was further reiterated in the latest reporting from Jake Fischer in The Stein Line newsletter. Per Fischer, Phoenix was named as Butler’s preferred destination by every single high ranking team official he contacted, with the belief being that Butler sees Phoenix as one of the only places willing to give him the big, long-term deal he’s seeking this summer.

However, Phoenix is a second-apron team and, as such, cannot combine salaries to land Butler. That means they have to trade one of their max guys and the only one they’re interested in moving is Beal, who has two more years (worth $110 million) on his massive contract after this season. However, Beal’s deal has one of the NBA’s last true no-trade clauses, which he used to steer his way to Phoenix in the first place after asking out of Washington. That means that even if the Suns manage to find a third team that wants Beal — this is another fun subplot, that Miami won’t take Beal back cause they don’t want that contract — they then have to convince Beal to waive his NTC.

That’s not in the cards at this moment, and Beal is in the extremely rare position of not only controlling his fate, but really the fate of two franchises and another star player.

Beal’s no-trade clause is so vital to this dynamic and thus team officials have to tread carefully in this situation. Until there is some multi-team trade construction that could work for both the Suns and Heat, Phoenix has no incentive to broach this subject matter with Beal. “You can’t bring anything to Brad unless there’s a deal on the table,” said one longtime Eastern Conference executive. “You can’t lose him until you know you’re going to move him.” By all accounts, Beal has settled his family in the desert, does not want to be moved at this juncture and has no intention of waiving his no-trade clause.

The Suns don’t have an awful lot of leverage with Beal at this point, but they seem to be trying everything they can. Beal got moved to the bench this weekend, with the official reason being that they want to kickstart his offensive game by giving him the reins with the second unit, but many believing it was an effort to make him frustrated and want out. As such, I’m not sure the “tread carefully” part of the process has been successful, as Beal reminded everyone that “I hold the cards” after being asked about the situation over the weekend and seems keenly aware of all the chatter about the Suns pursuit of Butler — or Butler’s pursuit of the Suns, depending on how you’d like to frame it.

We have seen in the past that stars tend to get what they want in trade demands, but this time there’s a second player involved who has completely different incentives complicating matters. We will find out who can win a battle of wills and whether there’s a third team that both wants Beal enough to give up something of value that Miami wants and interests Beal enough to waive his no-trade. That makes this far more challenging than normal for Butler to bend the league to his will as so often happens with star trade demands, and we may find out the one way to prevent a star getting what he wants in the NBA is, in fact, another star player.