Jimmy Butler
Over the past couple of weeks, the Jimmy Butler storyline has truly gotten out of hand. The situation between the Miami Heat and Jimmy is clearly in a bad place and, at this point, it would truly be surprising if he wasn't traded at some point between now and the February 6 NBA Trade Deadline. The big question is whether he's going to get to his preferred landing spot or not. It's become clear over the last few weeks that in an ideal world, Jimmy would get his wish to be traded to the Phoenix Suns.
However, it's probably not going to be that simple. This is where the broken relationship between the Heat and Jimmy could throw off everything. With how ugly everything has gotten, it's unpredictable how Heat President Pat Riley is going to operate over the next two weeks. That's why this situation could get more interesting heading into the deadline. But, if I did have to guess, I would think that cooler heads are eventually going to prevail and that the Heat is going to send Jimmy to the Suns.
Prediction: Phoenix Suns
While this would be quite the happy ending for Jimmy, the path toward getting a deal done is going to be complicated. Because of Bradley Beal's no-trade clause, the Heat are probably going to have to come around to the idea of absorbing the final couple of years of his contract if a deal is going to be done. Unless, of course, there's a team that emerges for which Beal would be willing to waive his no-trade clause. At least up to now, that doesn't appear to be a very realistic possibility. But, again, anything can change at any given moment in the NBA.
Ultimately, because of the natural lack of a trade market for Jimmy, the Heat are going to want to get this saga over and done with. The team can't effectively move forward until they trade Jimmy. I can't imagine the Heat will want this to linger into the offseason and if they don't trade him at the deadline, that's probably where this is going. Miami and Jimmy had a good run together. But it's clearly time for them to move on.