Jimmy Butler Rumors: 76ers a Sleeper Suitor; Paul George Trade Floated by NBA Insider

As the desperation meter gets turned up on the Miami Heat to resolve their situation with Jimmy Butler, one of his former teams could look to put themselves in the mix to bring him back.

Per Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports, the Philadelphia 76ers could "quietly" emerge as a suitor for Butler in a potential swap for Paul George. Goodwill added that he believes Joel Embiid has been pushing for the Sixers to reacquire the six-time All-Star.

Any hope for a potential reconciliation between Butler and the Heat likely ended on Monday when the team suspended him for the third time this month.

Butler's latest suspension is indefinite and will last no fewer than five games, which is how many games the Heat have remaining before the Feb. 6 trade deadline.

One reason the Sixers could at least try to get involved in the bidding is because of the cost. ESPN's Brian Windhorst said Tuesday on SportsCenter that Miami has dropped its asking price for Butler and is "really, really trying" to get a deal done.

On the flip side, the Sixers' potentially offering presents multiple problems. Goodwill noted Sixers management told George when he signed with them last summer they won't trade him in year one of the deal.

Unless something like that is in writing, there's nothing technically holding the 76ers to that vow. Daryl Morey hasn't always been the most forthright front-office executive with his players, even if it was easy to justify why he may have backed out of a promised deal with James Harden two years ago.

Another problem, as Windhorst and Tim Bontemps noted on Jan. 24, is the Heat want to keep long-term money off their books because they are looking at the potential free-agent class of 2026 to make a big splash.

George is making more than $50 million in each of the next two years and has a $56.6 million player option for 2027-28. That contract doesn't seem likely to age well for a player who is already 34 years old with a litany of injuries on his resume.

One more problem for the Sixers is, even in a scenario where the Heat decide to do the swap, what does Butler do that significantly changes the ceiling for the 2024-25 team? Goodwill said that Embiid is pushing for the team to bring Butler back, but Embiid really can't have much of a say in anything right now because he's only played 13 games this season due to injuries.

Unless the Sixers' hope is just to get right back where they were last summer, with a max cap slot to use by hoping that Butler opts out of his contract, there's really no world where they are a materially better team than the one they currently have with a 17-27 record.

Butler spent most of the 2018-19 season with the 76ers after being acquired in a trade with the Minnesota Timberwolves. He helped the team finish 51-31 and reach the Eastern Conference semifinals where they famously lost to the Toronto Raptors on Kawhi Leonard's jumper that bounced off the rim four times before going in as time expired in Game 7.