How the Portland Trail Blazers Could Land Jimmy Butler This Offseason

Sorting Out the Financials

I have already established why Butler would want to come to Portland, but that is only half of the battle. As I previously mentioned, the Blazers do not have cap space to work with, so Butler will have to be acquired through a sign and trade.

A max contract for Butler could cost the Blazers around $141 million over four years. It is very possible that they could sign him for less, but for now, let’s assume that it is a max deal. In order to make room, the Blazers would first have to renounce the rights to free agent Al-Farouq Aminu. Then, they would ideally dump the expiring contracts of Evan Turner and Maurice Harkless in the trade. Attaching a pick should make those deals easy to absorb for lottery teams considering that they will come off the books next summer.

The Atlanta Hawks, who are projected to have upwards of $50 million in cap space this summer, is a perfect potential trade partner for Turner.

If the front office is unable to move those contracts, the Blazers could simply sign and trade Butler for McCollum. The 76ers would get great value back for Butler and McCollum fits perfectly next to Simmons.

However, losing McCollum and Aminu to acquire Butler is a lateral move, and the appeal of Butler is adding him to a Lillard-McCollum core. Therefore, option one should be the only option. The timing is perfect since Turner’s contract will no longer be so difficult to move.

A lineup featuring Lillard, McCollum, Butler, and Nurkic would immediately contend in the West.