As Jimmy Butler trade rumors circulate, Mat Ishbia and Suns continue to strive for short-term highs

Say this about the Phoenix Suns: They have one of the NBA’s most creative front offices when it comes to finding new and different ways to mortgage their future. Not to mention that this strategy peaked two years ago and it was long past time to turn things around; They are still plowing ahead at full speed, throwing life jackets overboard.

Sorry, I was just about to compliment the Suns before I got distracted. In their own way, Phoenix made a creative trade on Tuesday, sending an unprotected 2031 first-round pick to the Utah Jazz in exchange for three additional first-round picks in 2025, 2027 and 2029. These picks probably won’t turn out nearly as valuable, and I’ll explain why in a moment. But essentially the Suns broke a dollar bill into three quarters to improve their immediate trade flexibility, and The athlete reported late Tuesday that optimism is growing that this will bring Miami Heat star Jimmy Butler closer to his desired destination – Phoenix.

Of course, it’s the same impulsive habit under owner Mat Ishbia – chasing short-term sugar highs while burning the future – that motivates teams like Utah to enthusiastically participate in these deals.

In the last 18 months, the Brooklyn Nets, Houston Rockets, Memphis Grizzlies, Washington Wizards, Orlando Magic and Utah Jazz have made big bets that the Suns will be terrible between 2026 and 2031. So far, so good: It’s still early in 2025, and Phoenix is ​​an old, average team with zero cap flexibility and few draft assets.

The thing about using three-quarter coins instead of a dollar bill, however, is that you can give one team a quarter and another team a quarter. The Suns essentially split the baby based on their most valuable (not to mention only) remaining asset, the 2031 pick. That obviously could be significant if they are involved in a multi-team trade that requires them to send draft capital to two different teams.

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In this particular case, it also allows the Suns to bypass the Stepien Rule, named after former Cavaliers owner Ted Stepien, who had a penchant for trading all of his draft picks and keeping the team on track for the future Let dry. I can’t think of any other recent examples of this.

The Stepien Rule prevents teams from trading first-round picks in consecutive years by requiring that they be able to safely trade at least one pick in each two-year window. The loophole for Phoenix, however, is that it doesn’t necessarily have to be one team’s own Picks. (Side note: We will definitely get an “Ishbia Rule” at some point in the next two collective bargaining agreements.)

Having already traded their firsts in 2025, 2027 and 2029 as well as pick swaps in 2026, 2028 and 2030, the Suns were unable to trade any future firsts aside from this pick in 2031. The picks they received from Utah will likely be at the bottom of the first round – the worst pick by Cleveland or Minnesota in 2025 (so probably 29th or 30th) and the worst by Cleveland, Utah or Minnesota in 2025 years 2027 and 2029.

Sidesteppin’ Stepien means everything is now back on the table. The Suns can trade one or more of their traded picks in 2026, 2028 and 2030, or they can trade one or more of the new picks they received from Utah in 2025, 2027 and 2029. They still can’t move their picks in consecutive years, but Phoenix could certainly combine and, for example, trade his traded pick in 2026 and the pick he received in the Utah trade in 2029,

I bring this up because it could be important for trades not Involve butlers. For example, the Suns could send Jusuf Nurkić and a pick in one trade to get something back, and Grayson Allen and a pick in another trade to get something back.

It’s just hard to believe that this is the real reason they do this – for two reasons. First of all, no team, no matter how bad things are, is going to make a trade like that and then just say, “Well, maybe let’s see what we can do?”

You already know the answer. You do not make such a trade by default; They do this to satisfy a specific need that has already been communicated by another trading partner.

Second, Phoenix probably wouldn’t do this unless it did something largebecause that’s the Suns’ last chip. I can’t stress this enough, as the Suns keep coming up with deals to get more from their dwindling draft pick inventory: This is where it ends.

Suns owner Mat Ishbia poses for photos with Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal before the start of the 2023-24 season. (Mark J. Rebilas / USA Today Sports)

No, you can’t rinse, lather and repeat in a year. Due to the CBA’s repeated review of the second frontcourt, the Suns’ 2032 picks are frozen and they cannot trade them. The same goes for every subsequent election until they get their payroll under control.

Sure, they’ll likely trade their 2032 second-rounder within minutes of gaining access, but it won’t bring much in return. The same goes for trading “swaps of swaps” to gain access to more seconds, especially now that this has already happened on three different picks.

At this point, all roads obviously lead to Butler, as he is the only shiny, shiny object on the trade market and the Ishbia Era Suns cannot resist shiny objects. The fact that Phoenix made this move to Utah is a sign that we’re warming up, and not necessarily to a two-man deal.

Most importantly, a trade that involves Bradley Beal going to Milwaukee, Butler going to Phoenix, and at least one other team besides Miami involved seems highly plausible based on the reports from my intrepid colleagues at The athlete and common sense when looking at a cap leaf.

The logistics are difficult but not insurmountable: The Bucks will have to spend at least $58 million in salary to get Beal’s $50.2 million salary back and stay below the second frontcourt once they clear the roster for all of the empty spots probably four for one or five for one. Beal would also have to waive his no-trade clause; Presumably the teams involved would consider whether this was a realistic possibility before jumping headfirst into a deal.

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If we assume Giannis Antetokounmpo, Damian Lillard and Brook Lopez are off-limits, reaching $58 million basically requires the inclusion of Khris Middleton, Bobby Portis, Pat Connaughton and two other low-salary players, possibly MarJon Beauchamp and Chris Livingston. Filling the roster with three minimum contracts and keeping the roster at 14 for the rest of the season leaves the Bucks about half a million dollars under the threshold.

At this point, it will probably take some time for the deal to get off the ground: all the salary waste has to go somewhere and the demand isn’t particularly great. Multiple teams would likely be involved, and the Heat could end up with just one or two of the aforementioned Bucks. (An interesting sidebar, for example: Could the Suns possibly cram in a Nurkić-for-Portis sidebar? Seems unlikely, but they’d certainly ask.) From Miami’s perspective, it’s mostly a bottom-line deal with the Heat Luxury tax is likely to be much more palatable given the relatively small amount of compensation they face; A Butler for Middleton trade gets them there, but the other Bucks would have to go elsewhere.

And that, in turn, is probably why the Suns made their trade in the first place. A two-team deal with Miami wouldn’t require them to split their bill into such coins; However, in a multi-team trade, Miami will likely compensate with one or two of the first and then send the others to compensate other teams for accepting unwanted contracts.

Either way, we end up where every Suns deal ends: They’ll be a little more competitive in the short term, but in the long term they’ll be even deeper in the abyss. I say “long term,” but this doom cycle is still essentially 24 months away even if everything goes well, and most likely closer to four months.

Butler or another star would help win a few more games this year, but it won’t change the Suns’ overarching reality: their best player is 36, they have no draft picks, they have no good young players and They cannot sign free agents above the minimum.

Basically, the fields will be salty by 2031. Now all that’s left is starvation. No wonder everyone wants to trade for Phoenix’s picks.

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(Top photo of Jimmy Butler, Bradley Beal and Kevin Durant: Megan Briggs / Getty Images)