Jimmy Butler and the Golden State Warriors opened up discussions on a contract extension on Wednesday, which led to his eventual trade there from the Miami Heat later in the evening. On Sunday, it was reported that Butler was not interested in extending with the Warriors. Since that time, however, the Phoenix Suns realized there was not a Bradley Beal trade to be made, and the Warriors improved their extension offer.
“The key was earlier on Wednesday, the Warriors started doing contract negotiations with Jimmy Butler,” said Brian Windhorst on Tuesday evening’s Sports Center. “Once that happened, it was pretty clear which way this was going to go they reached a new two-year deal.”
The deal was reported as a two-year, $121 million contract extension between Butler and the Warriors.
Windhorst also shared more insights on the situation on The Hoop Collective Podcast with the Suns discussing trading Durant to the Miami Heat in return for Butler as a motivator on what Golden State would be willing to offer Butler financially.
“Golden State has been trying for a year to get some sort of star player,” said Windhorst. “And they got tired of waiting. At one point today, I think they thought ‘Damn, Kevin Durant might go to Miami. And Jimmy Butler might go to Phoenix. And we may be holding the bag here.’
“Something motivated them to basically go to that $60 million they were going to add. I’m not sure they had been there before. And I reported four or five days ago that Jimmy didn’t want to go to Golden State because he wasn’t interested… Two things happened since then. The Phoenix thing kind of dimmed. He wasn’t going to be able to go play with Kevin Durant. They gave up on a Beal trade. Secondly, the money coming from Golden State was an attractive number.”
While there was some discussion between the Heat and Suns on a Durant for Butler swap, Miami was disinclined to meet Phoenix’s significant asking price.