The Jimmy Butler saga seems distant and removed from the Toronto Raptors.
While the cantankerous star forward tries to turn up the heat (sorry) on the Miami organization, numerous teams in the playoff mix are discussing what it would look like to make a trade offer. The Heat, for their part, seem displeased with all of the potential trade packages.
When a star player is on the trade market, however, teams spend hours and hours and days and weeks building trade possibilities to make sure they don't give up on a deal that seems impossible. Whether that is finding third or fourth teams, altering the money exchanges or any of a hundred possibilities, teams owe it to themselves to work hard to find those tiny wrinkles to unlock a trade.
Take the Karl-Anthony Towns trade, for example, where the New York Knicks worked out a way to sign and trade multiple minimum players to the Charlotte Hornets to balance out the money. What looked like an impossible trade became not only possible but actualized by finding the tiny wrinkles.
The Raptors don't have any sort of logical need to trade for Jimmy Butler. They are having a terrible season, with injuries ravaging their rotation and a lack of cohesion evident now that the core players are finally healthy. They are 8-30 on the season and are looking much more closely at Cooper Flagg's tape than how Jimmy Butler could fit on their team.
That doesn't mean that they cannot be a part of a Jimmy Butler trade, however. One way for a team to unlock a trade offer to Miami is to add a third team, potentially one with a large expiring contract to flip to the Heat so they can clear their books.
Enter the Toronto Raptors and one Bruce Brown Jr.
The Raptors essentially picked up Brown's team option in order to trade him, and such a deal has yet to materialize, in part because Brown missed the start to the season after offseason knee surgery. He is back in action now, and may just be the answer to a team's attempt to trade for Jimmy Butler.
Let's look at a deal recently proposed by Sam Vecenie of The Athletic and discuss whether it makes sense for all parties involved.
Laying out the Jimmy Butler trade
There are a number of teams interested in a Jimmy Butler trade, and a number of teams the Heat may be willing to work with on a deal. Those lists don't necessarily line up, but perhaps the Raptors can bring a couple of parties together (and hope Butler goes along with it).
The trade involves the Golden State Warriors making an offer for Butler, but also recognizing that the Heat would rather not take on long-term money such as with Andrew Wiggins' contract. During the season with roster limits there is nearly no way to make a deal work between the two sides unless the Warriors include Stephen Curry (not happening), Draymond Green (probably not happening) or Andrew Wiggins (maybe).
In this version of a deal, the Warriors call up their 2019 Finals foes and fold them into the trade, sending Toronto another native son in Wiggins as well as Gui Santos, who has been outside of the Warriors' rotation but has shown real flashes when he takes the court. In return, the Raptors would send Bruce Brown and his $23 million expiring deal to the Miami Heat, joining Dennis Schroder, Gary Payton II and two draft picks.
The Warriors do this deal to get a win-now star in Jimmy Butler who is famous for elevating his play in the playoffs and would alleviate the scoring load on Curry. They also do so without giving up any of their young core, be that Jonathan Kuminga, Brandin Podziemski, Moses Moody or Trayce Jackson-Davis.
For the Heat, they will largely see Butler's money wiped off the books next offseason. Dennis Schroder, Payton and Brown are all on expiring contracts, which would open up a wealth of possibilities for the Heat. They also get a pair of picks to make use of, and few teams draft as well as the Heat.
What about the Raptors - does this deal make sense for them?
Grade the Trade: Do Raptors make this deal?
Bruce Brown is not a necessary part of the team this season. Everyone does seem to enjoy having him around, but his brand of solid play as a defender and playmaker is best deployed on a winning team. With Brown hitting free agency this summer, it seems difficult to imagine the Raptors bring him back unless it's with a trade in mind - and they already lived that episode this season.
Moving on from Brown therefore makes sense, especially ahead of Scottie Barnes' max extension kicking in next summer. The difficult question is whether it makes sense to flip him for a player who is under contract for longer. That's what would happen here with adding Wiggins, who is under contract for two more seasons at an average of $29 million per year.
The Toronto native is having a bounceback season this year, although he hasn't regained the same heights of his 2022 All-Star season and key role on a title team. Wiggins is averaging 16.4 points and 4.4 rebounds per game and shooting a smooth 39.4 percent from deep on 5.3 attempts per game. He remains a solid defender on both wings and guards.
In essence, Wiggins is the kind of 3-and-D player who can fit in on any team. He will turn 30 years old a few weeks after the Trade Deadline but doesn't appear to be in danger of having his skills drop off a cliff anytime soon. For a Raptors team without a true small forward involved in the rotation, just a lot of shooting guards, his size would be a welcome addition if they hope to compete for a playoff berth next season.
There will be other teams interested in Wiggins, even more so than in Brown, because Wiggins can shoot. His deal is very reasonable given his production; it was questionable last summer, and could become so again, but his bounceback this year is encouraging for his value moving forward, both to the Raptors and on the trade market.
if the Raptors could open up significant cap space by letting Bruce Brown's money come off the books, this would be a more difficult decision. As it is, they will be capped out anyway, so this merely makes things tighter with the tax aprons. If they need to, however, they can either flip Wiggins this summer or it gives them a replacement to move RJ Barrett if needed. Add in Santos, an intriguing young wing to develop, and it certainly appears the Raptors are coming out ahead even without any draft capital coming their way.
Toronto loves to trade for hometown players, and Wiggins fits the bill and then some. There is risk here, and potentially there is more upside in a different deal, but this is a solid move for a good player.
Grade: B+