FanPost

How the Sixers Should Screw Over the Miami Heat...

The Wolves say they won’t accept a bad deal, which is why they haven’t agreed to send Jimmy Butler to Miami yet. The Heat have a fullcourt media press on Thibodeau, trying to get them to accept Justise Winslow and a bad contract—either Hassan Whiteside, Dion Waiters, James Johnson, or Tyler Johnson.

I’m pretty sure the Wolves badly want Justise Winslow, because his frame and game resemble Jimmy Butler’s. Both are free agents this summer. But Winslow only makes $3-4m, which means the Heat have to take back at least another $12-13m to make the trade work under CBA rules.

The Wolves would do Butler for Winslow and either Josh Richardson or Kelly Olynyk, but the Heat would be giving up too much. They’d be running in place if they did that, making it more likely Butler would leave in the summer, leaving the Heat without Butler or the stuff they gave up.

Add to that, the Wolves would like to unload Gorgui Dieng’s contract as well. Thus, no deal as yet.

The Suns have jumped in, saying they would take Jeff Teague off the Wolves’ hands if the Wolves accept Winslow and Dragic. However, that leaves the Heat without a point guard. So the Heat probably countered with Winslow and Tyler Johnson, and let the Wolves and Suns work out the Teague/Johnson part. Again, a deal is not done because those bloated contracts the Heat have are just not attractive to all sides.

The Sixers should help out the Wolves by giving them leverage, by offering them a deal that Miami can beat only by including Josh Richardson. That way, either a) the Heat get an older Jimmy Butler but lose two young good players on great contracts, which hurts them on the court this year and depletes some of the capspace in the near future should they give Butler the full $190m.

Or, b) the Sixers get Butler at basically a rental price, along with a good backup center for Joel Embiid. Even if Jimmy Butler were to leave us stuck with Dieng, Dieng is useful to us, plus the Sixers would have around $20m in capspace next year, which they should use to poach either Mario Hezonja, Justise Winslow or Kelly Oubre Jr., instead of offering a max contract to Khris Middleton or Tobias Harris.

Here’s the deal: Butler & Dieng < = > Chandler, Bayless, Muscala, and MIA21, DET21(2d), DEN22(2d). Then the Wolves distribute the goods to Miami and Sacramento, one of Bayless or Chandler and 2nd round picks to Sacramento, a first round pick to Miami for Winslow.

Sixers get Jimmy Butler and Gorgui Dieng. By opening up a roster spot, the Sixers could also get Patrick McCaw.

Wolves get Justise Winslow, plus Wilson Chandler and Mike Muscala, all three of whom are on expiring contracts. With KAT’s contract extension kicking in, Wolves would have Bird rights over each of them next summer.

Kings get Jerryd Bayless, Det21(2d), Den22(2dswap). They have offered their capspace to facilitate deals. If I’m VladeDivac/BrandonWilliams, I want Wilson Chandler in the deal, since they’re hole at small forward is so great.

Heat get MIA21(unprotected). Riley has been shopping Winslow, to no avail. The Wolves need the Sixers to offer a deal like this so that Thibodeau can give Riley a flat "no", and a hard option. Take your own first round pick for Winslow, or continue on with all those contracts and lose Winslow for nothing next summer.

*The Sixers may be $2m short for CBA purposes. If so, the Sixers should use another 2nd round pick to acquire a $2m chump from someone else to include in the deal. I retract a previous version of this deal that included Zhaire Smith.

An obvious objection is that Butler could leave the Sixers stuck with Gorgui Dieng next summer. This is a risk I’d be willing to take because a) the drop off after Jimmy Butler as far as wing players is concerned is pretty significant, b) I don’t think we’re going to get Kevin Durant or Klay Thompson, c) I’d rather not give $30m+ to Tobias Harris or Khris Middleton, d) preferring to use $20m or less on a younger wing player who still has room to grow into a stud: Winslow, Hezonja.

When Brett Brown says "more" and Elton Brand says "another piece", I’m unsure as to who they are referring to, because the list of players better than Covington and Saric is dwindling. If we allow the Heat to get Butler for cheap, they get stronger, the value of our holding MIA21 depreciates, while the pool of elite players shrinks even further.

With 643, 284 2nd round picks at our disposal, we need to put some of them to work. I think this is the opportunity. Using them, MIA21 and expiring contracts to get Jimmy Butler for even just one year would be productive. We can’t miss Chandler or Muscala if we never get to see them. In fact, they’ve been curiously absent. You’d think the Sixers would tout their offseason acquisitions. Hopefully, their low-profile indicates they know they could still be on the move.

If Butler blows up the locker room, we trade him in February. Easy peasy.

Assuming however the Sixers do not get Butler, assuming the Wolves are intent on dealing with the Heat, we should at least help them get both Winslow and Richardson out of South Beach.

A user-created LB joint. The Liberty Ballers staff does not contribute to FanPosts.