Warriors Emerge as Frontrunners to Land Steph Curry a New $146 Million Co-Star
The Golden State Warriors have emerged as the frontrunners to land Jimmy Butler if the Miami Heat trade the six-time NBA All-Star.
Butler has a strong interest in joining Stephen Curry and the Warriors, Shams Charania of ESPN indicated on “NBA Today” on December 17, doubling down on his earlier report.
“The Suns and the Warriors are believed to be atop their list, his preferred win-now destination, if the Miami Heat were to trade him, with the Rockets and Mavericks being the others,” Charania said. “This is a fluid situation that we’ll see play out over the coming weeks.”
The Warriors have the cleanest path to trading for Butler with different combinations of draft picks, young players such as Jonathan Kuminga and Brandin Podziemski and midsize contracts, including their newest acquisition Dennis Schröder, to work around with.
The Rockets have already dropped out of the Butler sweepstakes after Rafael Stone, the team’s general manager, went on record that they do not plan to make significant changes to their young but ascending team. On the other hand, the Mavericks have no interest in adding another max player as they already have two of them — Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving, who are also ball-dominant stars. They would need to gut their depth for Butler.
Meanwhile, the Suns have limited assets. They have Bradley Beal’s $50.2 million as their salary ballast, but they would need him to waive his no-trade clause. It also doesn’t make sense for the Heat to replace Butler with the injury-prone Suns guard’s onerous contract.
