With the Miami Heat now being open to hearing trade offers for Jimmy Butler, the Denver Nuggets have emerged as a potential suitor that is interested in acquiring the star forward. It is understood around the NBA that a player like Butler would prefer to land into a competitive franchise, and so he’s also been linked to teams like the Golden State Warriors and the Dallas Mavericks.
However, the possibility of the Nuggets landing Butler depends heavily on how much they value their own forward, 26-year-old Michael Porter, Jr. A 6-foot-10 wing from the University of Missouri, the Nuggets drafted him in 2018 and became a key figure in their 2023 championship run, with a career three-point shooting average of 40.8%.
Porter is currently in his third year with the Nuggets as part of a five-year, $179,299,750 rookie extension deal, and is still owed roughly $80 million over the next two seasons. It means his contract is taking up a significant portion of the Nuggets’ salary cap which they could be using to build around Nikola Jokic.
Also on the Denver Nuggets’ payroll are Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon, who are both earning over $30 million per season for the next few years. Murray and Gordon are both ineligible to be traded out because they had just recently signed their extensions during the offseason, leaving Porter’s contract as the odd one out.
Denver Nuggets could get Jimmy Butler in a three-team trade deal
Denver Nuggets have little draft capital to use and are already right below the second apron, which means they are unable to take on additional salary in a trade. The situation has led to a proposed three-team deal that also involves the Detroit Pistons.
In the proposed three-team deal, the Nuggets will get Butler; the Pistons will get Dario Saric, while the Heat will get Porter, Zeke Nnaji, a 2026 first-round pick swap as well as a 2031 first-round swap.
In the hypothetical trade proposal, the Denver Nuggets will get Butler, who they can pair with Jokic to lead a Western Conference contending team. Meanwhile, the Heat will get Porter, who is a three-point sharpshooter just about to enter his prime as well as Nnaji, who is mainly involved in the trade to match Butler’s salary. And lastly, the Pistons receive Saric, who has not really played much this season, at the cost of a 2025 first-round pick swap to give Miami a good trade deal.
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Dan has been active in sports since 2016 and has worked behind the scenes as a scriptwriter for basketball, volleyball, and other sports. At a time, Dan has also been working as a sports commentator for CBA Pilipinas. During the pandemic, he has also been actively writing betting articles for CashBet and BetNow.
