Reports: Jimmy Butler rejected max offer from Sixers to join Heat for less money
It took a while to figure the official trade out, but Jimmy Butler is now set to become a member of the Miami Heat.
Butler’s move south comes only months after the Philadelphia 76ers gave up Robert Covington and Dario Saric in a midseason trade for the forward, with a stated hope that Butler would re-sign and become part of the Sixers’ core moving forward.
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Obviously, that didn’t happen. It apparently wasn’t for a lack of trying, as multiple reports out of Philadelphia indicate that the Sixers indeed offered Butler as large an offer as possible. The veteran simply wanted to move on.
Jimmy Butler rejected $190 million from Sixers, per report
According to reports from Kyle Neubeck of PhillyVoice and Tom Haberstroh of NBC Sports, the Sixers were willing to give Butler a full max deal of five years, $190 million.
That offer is a year longer and worth $48 million more than the four-year, $142 million deal Butler will get from the Heat, per ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski.
With Butler and the rest of their previous core, the Sixers were an insane Game 7 bouncing buzzer-beater from Kawhi Leonard away from the Eastern Conference Finals. Clearly, Butler didn’t feel too strongly about hanging around for a second season.
The Sixers will probably be fine
As tough it is to lose a player like Butler, the Sixers seem to have recovered quite well.
For starters, the team is receiving a promising — and cheap — young player in Josh Richardson through the Butler sign-and-trade with Miami. The team is also getting Tobias Harris back and adding Al Horford in free agency.
Suddenly, the Sixers are likely to have the largest starting five in the league between Ben Simmons, Richardson, Harris, Horford and Joel Embiid, which could make for a terrifying defensive presence and a strong team culture. Maybe they would have preferred to just keep Butler and Harris, but that’s a decent consolation prize in a wide-open Eastern Conference.
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