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According to The Athletic's Tim Cato, the three-team trade between the Philadelphia 76ers, Miami Heat, and Dallas Mavericks sending Jimmy Butler to South Beach is currently off. Now, Miami must find a team other than the Mavs to complete the deal.
https://twitter.com/tim_cato/status/1145551505086406657
According to reports, the Mavs agreed to become the third team in the trade, knowing that they would be getting high-flyer Derrick Jones Jr. However, the Heat didn't want to give up Jones and wanted Dallas to take Goran Dragic instead.
Dallas — despite their initial desire to have Dragic — changed course during negotiations and backed out from getting the Slovenian playmaker. The team argued that getting the 33-year-old guard and absorbing the $19 million in his contract is too big which would limit their flexibility this offseason.
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The Mavericks maintain they agreed to join the Jimmy Butler sign-and-trade under the belief they were getting Kelly Olynyk and Derrick Jones Jr., league sources say. The Heat reportedly do not want to surrender Jones and say they must trade Goran Dragic to make the cap math work
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) July 1, 2019
Both sides reportedly tried to sort things out to make the deal happen. In the end, though, it fell apart and the Heat will have to find another team to push through their acquisition of Butler.
It's unthinkable that the Heat will let theor trade with the Sixers get ruined because of their reluctance to part ways with Jones. It's still possible for them to come up with a new deal with the Mavs, though it seems more and more likely that Miami needs to sacrifice an asset to make the trade push through.
