Just when you thought that NBA free agency couldn’t get any crazier, it did.

Late Sunday night, after it was reported that the Philadelphia 76ers would be executing a sign-and-trade deal that would land Jimmy Butler with the Miami Heat, the deal hit a snag.

The principal pieces of the deal were Butler, who would head to Miami, and Josh Richardson, who would be sent to Philadelphia.

By virtue of the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement, however, any team receiving a player in a sign-and-trade deal is subjected to a “hard” salary cap.

For that reason, in order to execute the deal, the Heat needed to recruit a third team to absorb some additional salary that they would need to send out. The Dallas Mavericks, apparently, were recruited as that team.

According to the New York Times’ Marc Stein, the Mavericks agreed to join the trade under the condition that they would receive Kelly Olynyk and Derrick Jones from Miami. Apparently, there was a miscommunication, as the Heat were seemingly under the impression that they would be sending Olynyk and Goran Dragic to Dallas instead.

The Mavericks are huge fans of Goran Dragic but could not take him back in the Miami sign-and-trade with Philadelphia that sends Jimmy Butler to the Heat because Dallas feared losing its flexibility to make additional moves this summer, league sources say — Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) July 1, 2019

As a result, the trade hit a snag, with Dallas, apparently, backing out after being apprised of the fact that they would need to take on Dragic in the transaction.

The Mavericks maintain they agreed to join the Jimmy Butler sign-and-trade under the belief they were getting Kelly Olynyk and Derrick Jones Jr., league sources say. The Heat reportedly do not want to surrender Jones and say they must trade Goran Dragic to make the cap math work — Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) July 1, 2019

Believe it or not, in the NBA, these things happen. Multi-team trades are incredibly complicated and require a lot of back and forth and cross-communication between the parties involved. Throw in the fact that Butler is being signed-and-traded and the fact that Miami is over the cap and it’s somewhat easy to understand how details could have been lost.

For the deal to have gotten to this point, though, it means that the parties are each motivated. In all likelihood, the Sixers and Heat will either recruit another team with salary cap space to make the deal work or the Mavericks could try to get future draft assets from either Philadelphia or Miami. At this point, it’s accepted that Butler’s time in Philadelphia has come to a close and that he wants to play in Miami. The Heat just need some help to get the man they covet.

In other words, this is probably just a delay of Butler’s exit from Philadelphia, not something that will miraculously result in him ending up staying with the Sixers.

Still, as of this moment, the sign-and-trade deal as we knew it doesn’t appear to be happening.