Constructing the perfect Jimmy Butler trade package to get Kevin Durant to Miami

The NBA is already drunk, and the trade deadline is tomorrow, so we can't rule anything out.

The Luka Doncic trade still breaks my brain. Watching him drill halfcourt shots in the Lakers practice facility and take jumpers next to LeBron James and Austin Reaves is the ultimate mind-melter. It does not compute. It should not exist. If these are the end times, this is perhaps a sign from up above.

Doncic has not been the only star of consequence traded, though. The Spurs lept at the chance to acquire De'Aaron Fox, a deal which involved Chicago sending longtime trade machine staple Zach LaVine to Sacramento. He will reunite with DeMar DeRozan after three months apart, only this time with a real basketball team around them.

Perhaps setting up the greatest trade deadline of all time, however, is the Phoenix Suns' sudden interest (?) in trading Kevin Durant. We know Phoenix desperately wants to add Jimmy Butler, but without an avenue to dumping Bradley Beal's contract, there's really no way to acquire Butler without shopping Durant, who is... better, right?

There is maybe a convoluted argument in favor of Butler addressing a very specific need in the Phoenix offense — more rim pressure and creation skills in the halfcourt — but folks, we are talking about Kevin Durant. What are we even doing here? Durant has shown signs of mild decline at 36 years old, but so has 34-year-old Butler. KD remains a 7-foot-tall, scoring maestro with credible defensive chops and an unblockable jumper.

The smoke is real, though, and if the Suns are actually going to consider shipping Durant to the Miami Heat in favor of Butler, there has to be a trade package worth their while. That is what we are here to forge today.

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This Suns-Heat trade swapping Kevin Durant and Jimmy Butler might actually work out

Here's the tricky part of this whole ordeal for Phoenix. The Suns are hard-capped at the second tax apron, which means Phoenix cannot aggregate salaries in a trade. James Jones and the Suns' front office need an exact salary match for Durant's $51.2 million contract and cannot accept anything substantially greater than that number.

Butler is on the books for $48.8 million, so the idea of landing Butler and a significant haul of helpful role players is just not feasible. That is, unless the Suns can pull off a separate trade to get until the tax line, and thus aggregate salaries, which seems improbable.

Here's the best Miami can offer for Durant right now.

• Jimmy Butler
• Nikola Jovic
• 2029 first-round pick
• 2031 first-round pick

Is that enough for a 36-year-old Durant in the penulimate year of his contract? Well, the Suns are ninth in the West and a single game above .500, so if the logic behind this trade amounts to "screw it, why not?" it's hard to blame them.

Butler would bring a new dynamic to the offense and Nikola Jovic is a solid long-term piece with immediate rotational value. If the Suns can actually pry multiple first-round picks from Miami in the process — valuable picks from several years down the line, no less — then it at least merits consideration. Butler is plainly open to signing a new deal in Phoenix and if it doesn't work out, the Suns at least have a few more future assets to maneuver with.

This feels so improbable, but the Heat want Durant and the Suns are desperate to change a losing formula. Hard times and forge unexpected unions. A Durant-Butler swap is very much in the cards.