All the people involved in this Jimmy Butler case are proud, and rightly so.
Pat Riley has been part of nine NBA championship teams – as a player, assistant coach, head coach or top manager. And teams he has been a part of have made 19 NBA Finals. There have only been 78 finals in the history of the competition. That means Riles’ teams have been in a quarter of them. Nearly three decades after he came to Miami, his Heat organization remains, as it is, ruthless and obsessed with winning, led by a coach in Erik Spoelstra, whose brand of tough love earns nothing but respect and accolades from players around the world competition.
Butler has earned everything he’s earned in the NBA, coming out of Tomball, Texas, to become one of the game’s best clutch players, a postseason force unlike most they’ve ever strung together. To mix sports metaphors, Jimmy Butler rake in the play-offs. And if the Heat, who appear to have stabilized themselves after a rough start, make another postseason run, a healthy Jimmy Butler would likely rake again.
The story of the greatest players in NBA history. In 100 compelling profiles, top basketball writers justify their selections and reveal the history of the NBA in the process.
The story of the greatest plays in NBA history.
But as things stand now, the player and the team seem destined to part ways. Maybe amicably, that’s what Mom and Dad say when they go to Splitsville, so as not to upset the kids. But still separated. Whether it’s during the season or next summer, with the 35-year-old Butler holding on to a $52 million player option for the 2025-26 season, we appear to be headed toward that inevitability with the backdrop of last season. when both sides seemed to irritate each otherstill fresh in my mind.
Unless… the Heat comes to the table with the two-year, $113 million extension Butler has wanted for the past year. Which isn’t likely.
At the very least, the Heat are indeed seriously listening to trade offers for Butler for the first time, league sources said. No serious offer has materialized yet, but even the willingness to listen marks a change in where the team was when Butler nearly pushed them to a championship in 2023 before Miami was overwhelmed by Nikola Jokić and the Denver Nuggets in five games .
But Miami is sober about its current state.
In 2023, Miami was a Play-In team that became popular at just the right time. Last season it was … a Play-In team, getting smoked by Boston in the first round, with Butler sidelined with a sprained knee. This season, the Heat seem to have found something with Butler and Haywood Highsmith flanking Bam Adebayo in the back of Miami’s defense. But no one thinks Miami is on Boston’s level right now. And the whole point of Patrick James Riley’s professional life is to compete for championships, not for the eighth seed.
So if moving Butler brings back players who give Miami a better chance, the Heat will act. That likely means taking back players, rather than a deal that includes some future picks. Riles doesn’t do renovations. (Plus, he’ll be 80 in March.)
They’re not there yet. But they listen.
Butler listens too. He didn’t ask to be traded from Miami, but if he stays, he wants the most.
He took Riley’s admonitions to heart after the Boston series, when he called Butler for an appearance on a podcast in which he said: if he had been healthyMiami would have defeated the Celtics or New York in a first-round series.
“If you’re not playing on the field against Boston, or playing on the field against the New York Knicks, you need to keep your mouth shut in your criticism of those teams.” Riley shot back.
So Butler came to camp in even better shape than usual and is averaging almost 32 minutes per game, although he missed four games early in the season due to ankle problems. He’s shooting 55 percent from the floor in 18 games, which would be a career best if it held up all season. He still makes mistakes and shoots more than seven free throws per game. He believes he is proving his worth on the pitch and is preparing to play for big money next season. It could be Miami; could be somewhere else. It’s not that he’s ambivalent; All things being equal, he would prefer to stay.
But… see above. And he does understand that Miami has to figure out what it can get for him, and that it could go either way.
In that sense, we shouldn’t discount the possibility that Miami is trying to gauge not only the trade market for Butler, but also what it would cost to bring him back if/when he opts out.
None other than Brooklyn would have the cap space to land Butler via that route next summer. That’s not a likely destination for Butler, who wants to play for rings. So Miami’s play, if it wants to make a deal, would be the sign-and-trade route. By figuring out what Butler’s market is now, the Heat can also decide whether, for example, they should offer him a free agent deal that’s more like what the LA Clippers gave to James Harden (two years, $70 million), instead of what the Philadelphia 76ers ultimately gave. Paul George (four years, $212 million).
How deep is a potential trade market for Butler? This could certainly form before the trade deadline as teams become increasingly desperate to add a long-term difference maker. This is especially true in the West, where Denver and Minnesota are struggling to regain their previous form, whether due to injuries to key players (the Nuggets) or simply some kind of malaise that has descended on the team (the Timberwolves). New Orleans, which is flat on its back at 5-21, certainly needs to reassess its roster and exactly who it can slot around Zion Williamson and Dejounte Murray going forward.
But the reality of the second platform, and the enormous penalties it carries for teams that exceed it, makes it incredibly difficult to pull off a blockbuster deal for someone with Butler’s talent, age and price tag.
Minnesota has already made a blockbuster trade this year with the Karl-Anthony Towns trade and is still trying to figure out how Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo best fit into the Wolves’ rotation. As our Sam Amick detailed on Friday, the surging Rockets, who are headed to the NBA Cup semifinals in Las Vegas this weekend on the back of an already formidable defense, are a long shot to get into the Butler Sweepstakes.
Golden State has been linked to Butler, but Miami should think an Andrew Wiggins-based package, which likely also includes De’Anthony Melton, who is now out for the season, should get them closer to June games. then a pat on the back (no pun intended) with Jimmy Buckets. That is a questionable premise.
Dallas is turning the ball over too much for comfort right now, but the Mavericks are still a top-four team in the West and are in the top 10 in defensive rating. They also have several alphas who can take over games offensively – Luka Dončić and Kyrie Irving – with a third in Klay Thompson, who is no stranger to postseason heroics. So they don’t necessarily need another scorer, although they struggled at times to put the ball in the basket consistently during the finals series with Boston last June. (And, as Spotrac’s Kevin Smith notesacquiring Butler would require the Mavs to jump through significant second-tier hoops and then fill out their roster, sending multiple players/contracts to the Heat to make a Butler deal work.)
New Orleans wants to move Brandon Ingram, that’s for sure. But you wouldn’t trade Butler if you weren’t going to keep him, which means the Pelicans would have to get even with an extension. And that would be very expensive for the Pels, whose four-year, $112 million extension for Trey Murphy III starts next year. They’re not interested in being really expensive.
Phoenix is also mentioned as a potential destination. And sure, the Suns are in win-yesterday mode. Having Butler on the floor with Kevin Durant and Devin Booker would make Phoenix much more formidable, and Mike Budenholzer could certainly figure out ways to utilize Butler’s defensive skills for maximum impact on the other end.
But a trade between Miami and the Suns would involve Bradley Beal waiving his no-trade clause to facilitate a deal, allowing Phoenix to make a relatively clean trade with Miami for Butler. When Beal chose the Suns over the Heat in the first place in 2023, when the Wizards had the framework of a deal with Miami to send him there, it’s hard to imagine him wanting to go the other way now, even if the Eastern Conference is certainly less treacherous to navigate than the Western Conference. Beal chose Phoenix over Miami in part because it was much closer to his wife’s extended family in California.
Sacramento is certainly underperforming, hitting .500 in 26 games and currently out of the Play-In round. But even if they were interested, the Kings should know they could re-sign Butler next summer. With the Kings already in first place, moving on to retain Butler seems like a non-starter while De’Aaron Fox inches closer to unrestricted free agency.
Pride goes before a fall, it says in Proverbs. The best solution for Jimmy Butler and Pat Riley and the Miami Heat might be for everyone to swallow their collective pride, make a deal that everyone can live with, and play it out on South Beach.
(Photo: Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)