The holiday season wasn’t warm and cozy for Miami Heat fans. The winter grew cold for the relationship between Jimmy Butler and the front office, leading to Pat Riley putting Jimmy Butler on the trade block and waiting to move the 6-time All-Star to the highest bidder.

Butler has lost his joy, Riley has lost his patience, and it appears the Miami Heat will lose the franchise’s centerpiece since his arrival in 2019. For the last six years, Playoff Jimmy exemplified Heat Culture. Now, he wants to play anywhere but Miami.

It’s hard to imagine this relationship has soured beyond the point of forgiveness and reconciliation, but here we are. While Jimmy Butler’s hair colors have (not so) subtly hinted at where he wants to go, one team stands out among the rest, and that’s the Phoenix Suns.

Chris Haynes reported late Sunday night the Phoenix Suns are expected to remove Bradley Beal and Jusuf Nurkic from their starting lineup this week.

A deal between the Suns and Heat could make sense. Beal is under contract 2 seasons after this, while Nurkic is under contract one more year after this. The Heat say they want cap flexibility and both contracts total over 70 million, but if they can get past the financial aspect, this trade could work, especially if the Heat can convince Beal or Nurkic to restructure their contracts upon arrival.

Beal’s averaging 17.8 PPG, 3.7 RPG, and 3.1 APG. Nurkic averages 8.8 PPG and 9.5 RPG. Meanwhile, Butler’s averaged 17.6 PPG, 5.5 RPG, and 4.7 APG for the Heat.

If anyone remembers, Beal had Miami on his shortlist when he was on his way out of Washington. Unfortunately, things worked out where Beal wouldn’t join Butler, but would take $50+ million a year to join Kevin Durant and Devin Booker in Phoenix. That Big 3 experiment has been about as effective as Philadelphia’s Big 3 of Joel Embiid, Paul George, and Tyrese Maxey. But Beal would likely accept a move to Miami and joining the Heat Culture, while the allure of making this deal would get Jimmy Butler out the door who doesn’t want to be there anymore.

And from an on-court production aspect, Bradley Beal and Jimmy Butler are pretty comparable, but Nurkic makes this deal intriguing. The Heat have Bam Adebayo and are starting to acclimate rookie Kel’el Ware to the rotation, and nothing behind them with the Thomas Bryant trade to Indiana. For Ware’s development, it would help to get a third big man and potentially play Ware with Adebayo in games more often.

As for Phoenix, you add Jimmy Butler to the Devin Booker and Kevin Durant “Big 3” with Duke alum Mason Plumlee and point guard Tyus Jones, who has led the NBA in six consecutive years with his assist-to-turnover ratio, including the best ratio in NBA history last year at 7.35.

Assuming Miami doesn’t have to give up much to get Beal and Nurkic from Phoenix, the lineup and rotation could look similar to this:

[PG] Tyler Herro | Terry Rozier

[SG] Bradley Beal | Duncan Robinson

[SF] Jaime Jaquez | Haywood Highsmith | Pelle Larson

[PF] Bam Adebayo | Nikola Jovic

[C] Kel’el Ware | Jusuf Nurkic

Of course, a Jimmy Butler trade at this stage won’t move the needle. You won’t get an All-Star in their prime. Butler’s age and making his disgruntled comments public have ruined that. The best you can do is replace the production Butler gave your team on the court, fill a hole on the roster, and create a healthier locker room. Beal and Nurkic would accomplish all three of those goals.

If the Heat can accomplish cap flexibility or receive draft capital to make moves, that would be icing on top of the cake. But the Heat have to make the most out of a bad situation.

Currently, Butler is serving a 7-game suspension handed down by the Miami Heat for conduct detrimental to the team. He could be on his way out any day now, or the team has the right to wait until after the full suspension is served.

But one thing’s for sure, Jimmy Butler will not be in Miami for the rest of his career like so many fans hoped for. As a matter of fact, he won’t be on the Heat team much longer.

Stay tuned to Fans First Sports Network as we continue to follow this developing story, and when the ball does drop, we will be here to report and analyze the pending Jimmy Butler trade.