Jimmy Butler Trade Rumors: Heat 'Patiently Waiting for the Best Possible Offer'
Joseph Zucker@@JosephZucker
Featured Columnist IVJanuary 26, 2025
The Miami Heat are still "patiently waiting for the best possible offer" for disgruntled star Jimmy Butler, according to Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald.
Butler was absent as Miami beat the Brooklyn Nets 106-97 on Saturday night while finishing the second game of the newest suspension issued by the team.
The six-time All-Star used his night off to attend a local padel event. He was naturally asked about his future with the Heat and sidestepped the questions, choosing instead to speak positively about the city.
For now, it doesn't appear the Heat are any closer to a trade than they were when Butler first started to register his discontent. ESPN's Brian Windhorst laid out Miami's problem when he said Jan. 7 on First Take that interested suitors simply aren't that motivated to be aggressive in negotiations:
First Take @FirstTake"Jimmy Butler isn't going to extend with any team. And so, because teams know that, they're offering the Heat right now the poo-poo platter. There's only one team that is ready to pay Jimmy Butler exactly what he wants, and that's the Phoenix Suns."<br><br>—<a href="https://twitter.com/WindhorstESPN?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@WindhorstESPN</a> <a href="https://t.co/q8LZLPOFOV">pic.twitter.com/q8LZLPOFOV</a>
Miami, for its part, hasn't reached the point where it will settle for the best deal on the table.
Windhorst and colleague Tim Bontemps reported Friday for ESPN that "the offers coming in haven't included what Miami is looking for: players who can help now, young talent, draft capital and salary that expires by the summer of 2026."
NBA insider Jake Fischer added the franchise is broadly "against acquiring players in exchange for Butler who have significant future money," with Phoenix Suns star Bradley Beal cited as an example. Beal makes $53.7 million next year and has a $57.1 million player option for 2026-27 that he'll almost certainly exercise.
Considering how tense the relationship between Butler and the Heat already is, the team might as well wait as long as it can up until the Feb. 6 trade deadline. At the very least, the trade offers probably aren't going to get any worse.
The million-dollar question is whether team president Pat Riley and general manager Andy Elisburg are willing to surrender if Butler's market doesn't markedly improve. Trading him away for pennies on the dollar might be better than having him for the rest of the season and going through this saga all over again in the offseason, assuming the 35-year-old picks up his player option.
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