The Whiteboard: Making sense of Suns-Jazz picks swap before Jimmy Butler trade
By Wes Goldberg
Minutes before tipoff, I was sitting courtside in Miami, waiting for the Heat’s game against the Portland Trail Blazers to start, when I got an alert from Shams Charania’s X account.
The Phoenix Suns on Tuesday traded their 2031 first-rounder to the Utah Jazz for three first-round picks. Talking with people in Miami, the consensus was that this move was geared toward the Suns acquiring Jimmy Butler. Butler walking out of the tunnel with Suns-colored sneakers only cemented the sentiment.
Let’s lay out the exact terms of the deal, then get into how it impacts each team involved, directly or indirectly.
- Jazz acquire the Suns’ 2031 first-round pick (unprotected).
- Suns acquire the least favorable 2025 first-round pick from the Cavaliers or Timberwolves; the least favorable 2027 first-round pick from the Cavaliers, Timberwolves or Jazz; and the least-favorable of the 2029 first-round pick from the Cavaliers, Timberwolves or Jazz.
Utah Jazz
As a result of trades that sent Donovan Mitchell to Cleveland and Rudy Gobert to Minnesota, the Jazz had a stockpile of picks that were beginning to become a complication.
After using three picks in the top 28 of the 2023 draft and three picks in the top 32 of the 2024 draft, the Jazz were set to have three draft choices in 2025 and 2027.
It’s been a challenge for Utah to accommodate all of its young players. With eight players on the roster age 23 or younger, the Jazz front office going forward, needs to be more intentional with what draft choices it uses to add rookies to the roster.
By trading three first-round picks over the next five drafts, the Jazz are consolidating the least favorable of those picks while still leaving themselves with multiple first-rounders in each draft.
Those additional picks can be used to move around the draft board or to grease the wheels in later trades. Meanwhile, the Jazz now have what could become the crown jewel of unprotected picks: Phoenix’s unprotected 2031 first-rounder.
This is a Danny Ainge special: Betting against another team’s future. Ainge did this in Boston, when he acquired picks from the Brooklyn Nets and Sacramento Kings that provided a ton of value. Two of those picks became Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, who led the Celtics to the 2024 championship.
Now heading up the Jazz operation, Ainge is at it again. By 2031, Kevin Durant will be retired and Devin Booker will be in his mid-30s. If this is the first step in acquiring Jimmy Butler, he also won’t be around. Given the state of Phoenix’s roster, this is a bet that 2031 will be a rebuilding year for the Suns and that this pick could fall into the top five. Most around the league would agree with that projection, which also gives this pick immense value on the trade market between now and 2031.
When the Jazz decide to organizationally try to win games, this 2031 pick could be a linchpin in whatever comes next.
Phoenix Suns
There is significant risk in leaving themselves exposed in 2031, but the Suns remain focused on upgradin the team in the short term around Durant and Booker. Turning a single first-round pick into three will help them do that.
That Suns 2031 pick is more valuable on its own than either of the three picks they acquired, but teams can only trade one pick to one team. By tripling their tradeable picks, the Suns now have the assets to sweeten a deal that includes multiple teams.
Make no mistake: This deal has everything to do with Butler. The Suns wouldn’t have done this deal, and left themselves open to potential disaster six years from now, if they didn’t have a strong inclination that these new picks could help build a deal for Butler.
As a cohort of The Athletic’s insiders reported on Tuesday night, “In the wake of the Suns’ deal with the Utah Jazz on Tuesday night, in which Phoenix tripled its lot of available first-round picks, a source close to the Miami Heat star said there is rising optimism that he’s closer to reaching his desired destination — Phoenix — as a result.”
If, for whatever reason, a Butler trade falls through, the Suns can pivot and use these picks in separate deals to upgrade the roster before the trade deadline. For example, they could attach a couple of the picks to Bradley Beal (provided he accepts a trade) and turn that salary slot into a couple of helpful role players and another to Jusuf Nurkic.
Miami Heat
The Jazz-Suns pick swap sent shockwaves through Kaseya Center, with an understanding that this was a necessary step in the Suns and Butler finally getting what they so desperately wanted.
It’s no secret that Butler prefers a trade to the Suns, but constructing a deal became difficult considering all the salary cap hoops and mouths that needed to be fed. By turning one first-round pick into three, the Suns acquired the building blocks they believe are needed to facilitate a deal.
One hypothetical scenario:
- Phoenix gets: Butler
- Miami gets: Khris Middleton, Bobby Portis, 2027 first (least favorable from Cavaliers, Timberwolves or Jazz), 2029 first (least favorable from Cavaliers, Timberwolves or Jazz).
- Milwaukee gets: Beal, 2025 first (least favorable from Cavaliers or Timberwolves).
- Detroit gets: Pat Connaughton, second-round pick
Two weeks until the Feb. 6 trade deadline. Stay tuned.
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NBA News Roundup
- With 27 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists, Nikola Jokic has now recorded a triple-double in four straight games. FOUR! Maybe more impressive is that he’s one assist on Jan. 12 away from it being six straight. For those wondering what the record is, it’s 11 straight, set by Jokic’s current teammate Russell Westbrook in 2019.
- It was another record-setting night for LeBron James, who on Tuesday became the second player in NBA history to record a triple-double at age 40 or older. LeBron had 21 points, 13 assists and 10 rebounds in the Lakers’ 111-88 victory over the Wizards. He also climbed to seventh place on the league’s all-time steals list, passing Scottie Pippen with his 2,308th career swipe.
- Presented without comment: "I'll never take being able to play free basketball like this for granted again,” said D’Angelo Russell when asked about his role with the Nets after his trade from the Lakers.
A dramatic change to the NBA Dunk Contest
Two rookies, San Antonio’s Stephon Castle and Chicago’s Matas Buzelis, have committed to participate in the 2025 slam dunk contest. Wait, sorry, you’re not excited?
Don’t worry, nobody is. The slam dunk contest stinks. No amount of Matt McClungs can fix it. The format is antiquated. Fans are tuning out or, worse, rolling their eyes and poking fun.
Nowadays, anyone can go on YouTube and see a sick dunk. That it comes from the 11th pick in the draft or someone from an And-1 mixtape (dated reference, sorry) doesn’t matter. Fans want to see the stars dunk. Period. That’s the point of it happening at (checks notes) All-Star weekend.
The only problem is that All-Stars don’t want to do it.
So here’s my fix.
Make the dunk contest part of the All-Star game.
Genius, I know. Still not sold? This batching solution checks every box. Here are the most common complaints about the current dunk contest.
- Dunks are too rehearsed.
- Multiple attempts sap them of their potency.
- Casual fans don’t know who these people are.
Now, here’s what my fix would accomplish.
- In-game dunks – widely considered superior - replace rehearsed dunks.
- One shot, in the flow of the game, to get it done.
- Casual fans know who all these dudes are.
In other words, instead of Beavis Earnhart jumping over a Honda wearing a sponsored arm sleeve and dapping up Kevin Hart, we’ll get Anthony Edwards trying to yam it over Evan Mobley. Do I really need to explain why this is better?
In terms of the particulars of how this idea would work, it’s quite simple. The All-Star game is played per usual (or within this round-robin format) and a panel of dunk contest judges is stationed in the arena. Every time there is a dunk, the panel scores it 1-10. Players can attempt any amount of dunks they want and only their highest score counts. When the All-Star game is over, the player with the highest-scored dunk is named the dunk contest champion.
Dissenters will claim that the All-Star game could turn into a parade of dunks.
My response: Good! Dunks are fun! It’s not as if we’re getting a real basketball game anyway.
The NBA has shown a willingness to experiment with dramatic changes to the All-Star Weekend product. Give this one a try. If it doesn’t work, go back to the old format. No harm, no foul. It’s not like anybody is going to regret not getting to see Pacome Dadiet dress up like Alexander Hamilton and dunk while wearing Ray-Ban Meta Glasses.
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