The Phoenix Suns made a stunning and unexpected trade on Tuesday night, agreeing to send their lone first round pick in 2031 in exchange for three firsts that will all convey before that year. This includes the 2025 NBA Draft - and given how well the front office did in selecting both Ryan Dunn and Oso Ighodaro - this is a positive development for the second apron team.
Thinking about no first of their own in 2031 would make you feel queasy - Kevin Durant will be long gone by then and who knows where Devin Booker will be - but the important part is that the Suns have more flexibility to get involved in some deals ahead of this trade deadline.
Jimmy Butler's latest antics on the night were worth paying attention to.
Butler was back playing for the Miami Heat after being hit with a seven game suspension by the organization, and a kind of uneasy truce appears to have broken out over there. He's not playing particularly hard or well right now - some believe that may be to force a trade out of South Beach - but he's on the court for the team.
It was his choice of footwear in an ugly loss to the bottom-feeding Portland Trail Blazers that was the latest talking point however, especially given the trade the Suns had just pulled off. All of a sudden Phoenix has enough first round picks to at least start a conversation with the Heat - or any other team that could help facilitate a deal -and Butler ensured fans kept talking by doing this.
Jimmy Butler's shoes tonight, must be a coincidence! pic.twitter.com/W8Xd9dNZmc
— PHNX Suns (@PHNX_Suns) January 22, 2025
Obviously there could be a very innocent reason for all of this. Given what we know about Butler however, it does seem to indicate here that by wearing the color way of the Suns he is still very much open to heading to The Valley. Of all the colors he could have worn - and while being a Heat player no less - it does feel like there was more to this decision than just liking the shoes.
The obvious hurdle still remaining here is what the Suns do with Bradley Beal. He has that no-trade clause and while rumors have begun to circulate that he may be open to waiving it for the right team, that is all speculation as of right now. Having those three firsts in their back pocket to sweeten any deal however, although there is another direction the franchise could go here.
Giving all of that draft capital up to bring in a 35-year-old and sign him to a new, long-term deal this offseason does not look like a good long-term plan here. Perhaps adding these pics was a way for the team to get more flexibility for other deals, such as dumping center Jusuf Nurkic for example.
No matter what way you look at it though, the Suns have to do something. The Cleveland Cavaliers recently ended their season as we know it - and whether it is through adding Butler, ditching Nurkic or both - big changes need to be made. This felt like the latest domino to fall, with the choice of shoes a strong indicator of what may come next.