Jimmy Butler, De’Aaron Fox and more

The man of the moment in the NBA when it comes to the league’s trade market is the Miami Heat star. Jimmy Butlerwho could play his final stretch of games in South Florida. Whether measured in weeks or months, it doesn’t look like Butler will play for the Heat in 2025-26.

There has been a ton of reporting on the subject over the past week, led by a Shams Charania Christmas Day report, which wrote that Butler preferred a trade out of Miami before the Feb. 6 trade deadline:

Six-time NBA All-Star Jimmy Butler prefers a trade out of Miami before the Feb. 6 deadline, league sources tell ESPN. ESPN reported on the Dec. 10 Inside Pass that the Heat were willing to listen to trade offers for Butler and that Butler wanted a win-now contender in any deal. Butler has not officially requested a trade with the Heat, sources said, but he would be willing to leave.

Some of the teams that have already been mentioned as potential landing spots for the star swingman are the Suns, Mavericks, Rockets and Golden State Warriors, with the Suns and Warriors being mentioned as Butler’s preferred landing spots.

As rumors about Butler’s unhappiness in Miami reached a fever pitch, including at a Heat practice over the weekend where players and coaches were asked about Butler’s future with the team, the president of the Heat Pat Riley released a categorical statement saying the team would not trade Butler.

We will see if this turns out to be true or not.

So how did we get to this point?

According to reports, many factors were involved.

On the one hand, Butler was “mostly disappointed” with the team declining to extend him last summer on what would have been a two-year, $113 million deal. Miami instead opted to maintain future cap flexibility.

But it wasn’t all about money for Butler, as he was also reportedly surprised after 2023-24 when Riley, during his end-of-year press conference, publicly told him to shut up after Butler facetiously stated that the Heat would have beaten the Boston Celtics and New York Knicks in the playoffs if he had stayed healthy.

Finally, Butler reportedly wanted Miami to provide him with more help, something the team was unable to do during Butler’s time in South Florida.

Butler has yet to fully demand a trade and the Heat seem content to let that drag on into the offseason when they’ll likely let him walk for nothing to open up financial flexibility, but there’s no doubt that the team botched this whole situation. Miami, buoyed by its complacency after two trips to the Finals and a run to Game 7 of the 2022 Eastern Conference Finals, has largely failed in recent years to land another star to give the team a legitimate chance at winning a championship. It was even despite the superstar point guard Damien Lillard publicly demanding a trade with Portland and saying he wanted to join the Heat.

In addition to this failure to add more talent around Butler, Riley, who only speaks to reporters once a year, then decided to publicly mock his team’s star player and tell him to shut up anyway what Butler had done to coach a mediocre Heat. rosters across several deep playoff runs.

It’s actually surprising that Butler hasn’t made more of a splash in Miami — and sooner than now.

Nonetheless, Butler seems likely to stay with the Heat for the remainder of 2024-25. We’ll see if anything changes on that front. Maybe a team makes Miami an offer they can’t refuse in exchange for the aging star.

For the latest Jimmy Butler trade rumors and contract information, click here.