The perfect Nuggets-Heat trade that pairs Jimmy Butler with Nikola Jokic
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Jimmy Butler requesting a trade from the Miami Heat has 2025 off to a hot start – pun intended – in regards to NBA storylines. The build-up to the trade request had its own unique headlines thanks to Butler’s usage of his own hair to drop hints. Furthermore, Butler and his agent nixed the Memphis Grizzlies as a trade option, via NBA insider Chris Haynes.
But there is another Western Conference contender that should have internal dialogue about Butler’s potential fit on their roster. Funnily enough, it’s the team that sent Butler and the Heat home in the 2023 NBA Finals.
The Denver Nuggets have been the subject of plenty of trade rumors this season. The team’s quest for improvement would have to involve trading Michael Porter Jr. because of the extensions signed by teammates Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon in the offseason, via NBA insider Marc Stein.
Denver owns four first round draft picks through 2031. And the Stepien Rule renders the draft pick from that year, 2031, the only one able to be traded. If the team wanted to include another draft selection, they would have to wait until the end of the league year.
Nikola Jokic is the best player in the NBA. He turns 30 years old in a little over a month. If the Nuggets are serious about improving their roster soon, packaging their 2031 first-round pick with Porter Jr. and the necessary salaries is essentially their only option.
Trade proposal sends Jimmy Butler, Kevin Love to Nuggets
Porter Jr. and Butler have a difference in salary this season of about $13 million. But if Denver added Zeke Nnaji and Dario Saric to the deal, it would bring the outgoing salary to $49.7 million.
If the Heat included Kevin Love in the deal, it would bring their outgoing salary to $52.5 million and render the trade legal under the current CBA. Denver can attach their 2031 first-round draft selection to the deal with no problem.
Veteran center DeAndre Jordan has dutifully backed up Jokic again this season, averaging 11.3 minutes per game in the process. Love has played 11.4 minutes per game for Miami in his 16 games played. He hasn’t played since the infamous game against the Rockets on December 29.
Having clearly fallen out of favor with the Heat, there is a chance that Love could outplay Jordan as the team’s backup center in certain playoff matchups where his shooting would be helpful. Nobody’s style of play comes close to Jokic’s for several reasons, but the ways in which Love impacts the game with his savvy passing and shooting ability approximate what Jokic brings to the floor more closely than the rim-running Jordan.
The Heat get back Porter Jr., who can space the floor for both Tyler Herro and Bam Adebayo. They acquire the 24-year old Zeke Nnaji, who played in five postseason games during the Nuggets’ championship run and fits into “Heat Culture.” And they acquire the 30-year old Saric, an unfortunate representation of another misusage of the mid-level exception by the Nuggets. His deal only has one more year left.
The franchise would have an opportunity to see what “re-tooling” looks like before deciding whether or not to commit to a rebuild. Herro’s play this season has been impressive enough to justify giving it a try. But most importantly, they would put an official end to Butler’s trade request and the resulting drama surrounding the organization.
For the Nuggets, or any basketball team, having Jokic on your roster is the ultimate blessing. But the curse of it comes with the constant pressure to surround the superstar with the best talent possible. Stars request trades often in today’s NBA landscape. But are not often available for the package it would reportedly take to land Butler.
If the Nuggets want to pounce on this one instead of continuing to wait, this trade proposal provides the framework to make it happen.
Nuggets could use reinforcements
The Nuggets have sole possession of the fourth seed in the Western Conference. After the – yes, pun intended – rocky start to their season, they’ve found their level. And Russell Westbrook has been an enormous part of that process. His offensive impact has not been elite, but he has brought energy, hustle, and experience stuffing stat-sheets to the table. He averages 12.6 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 6.7 assists per game as a result.
The issue for the Nuggets is that the injury to Gordon has made Westbrook the glue keeping together its starters. His job was supposed to be propelling the team’s second unit that, from a scoring perspective, is frankly nonexplosive. With the timeline surrounding Gordon’s return from injury being unclear, Westbrook’s services are still needed to open and close games.
That has resulted in players like Julian Strawther and Peyton Watson having larger offensive roles than planned. Both players have stepped up in major ways for this team and fight admirably each game to contribute. But neither one has an offensive-EPM that scores better than the NBA’s 35th percentile.
It’s no surprise that the team has been rumored to be exploring trades that land them capable scorers. The Nuggets have reportedly been listening to trade offers that include Porter Jr., with Zach LaVine being the target getting the most buzz.
But what if there was a true star available that has a record of helping teams reach the NBA Finals? What if the Nuggets, perhaps as a result of facing that star in the 2023 NBA Finals, know the great lengths to which they will go to win? And what if that star could potentially be available, even to teams with relatively less draft capital than others, because of the nature of their trade request?
How Jimmy Butler can help Nuggets return to Finals
The elephant in the room is that Butler’s actions this season have not represented a singular focus on winning. But aside from his shenanigans, Butler has genuinely been impacting games at a high level. In his 22 games played thus far, his offensive-EPM of +3.8 falls in the 97th percentile among all NBA players.
The data shows that, despite the headlines and trade requests via hair dye, there are few players that have impacted offense like Butler has this season. Twelve, to be exact. Jokic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Darius Garland, Steph Curry, LaMelo Ball, Luka Doncic, Jayson Tatum, Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, Tyrese Haliburton, Dame Lillard, and Paolo Banchero.
Of the group, the only players that could imaginably be available via trade soon would be Ball and Garland. Would the Charlotte Hornets or Cleveland Cavaliers seriously consider an offer for either of those young, dynamic guards seriously that featured Porter Jr. and one draft pick? The answer is likely no.
The Murray, Caldwell-Pope, Porter Jr., Gordon, and Jokic lineup won Denver the NBA championship in 2023. But Kentavious Caldwell-Pope signing with the Orlando Magic in free agency ended that starting five’s reign as the most synergistic lineup in basketball. Second-year wing Christian Braun has done an impressive job stepping up in Caldwell-Pope’s absence, it’s hard to quickly replicate the comfortability that the championship-winning group developed over the years.
Denver’s days of leaning on their venerable, hardware-delivering, starting lineup being over. And the situation unfolding with Butler in Miami could present the team with just the right opportunity. Butler’s versatility on the court makes him malleable in regards to the role he plays at any given moment.
When opening or closing games, Butler’s mid-range marauding and ability to read the floor could bring balance to Jokic and Murray’s two-man game. But it’s when Jokic rests that Butler has the greatest opportunity to solve one of Denver’s most pressing issues, which is the extent to which its offense’s productivity craters when the three-time MVP sits.
Butler can run the offense himself, develop his own two-man game with Murray, or even pair with Westbrook in lineups head coach Mike Malone could deploy when the team needs a spark or some competitive edge. The options that Malone would have in regards to staggering Jokic, Butler, and Murray would represent the balance brought to the roster.
It would be the result of trading a key member of the team’s championship-winning starting lineup for a talent upgrade that the team’s brain trust believes can help them play a full 48-minutes of Mile High basketball.
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