The Heat Are Reportedly Open To Trading Jimmy Butler, And He Wants To Go To The Rockets, Mavericks, Or Warriors

As we inch closer and closer to the NBA trade deadline (Feb 6th), it's only natural that we start hearing "reports" of potential trades and certain levels of interest different teams have in terms of making moves. If there's a team out there that's underachieving, the noise becomes even louder.

But every once in a while we get a "report" or a "rumor" about a star player who isn't on a bad team, but still may find himself on the trade market due to their contract situation, and if you put any stock into Shams reporting, this year that player might end up being Jimmy Butler

While that's certainly a surprising report because the Heat have turned around their season and currently sit in 5th in the East while being within striking distance of a top 4 seed, you have to remember, Pat Riley decided that MIA wasn't going to give Butler the extension he was looking for, which is how you find yourself in a position like this. It's not just a Heat thing, it's an NBA team thing. When you don't extend a player and he has one year left as a player option like Butler does

Trading that player, before he could potentially leave you for nothing as a way to not lose that asset and be empty-handed, is pretty much what you have to do if you have no plans of keeping that player long term. To me, that's really the crux of that whole report. It's bad business to lose an asset of that caliber for nothing, especially when you could perhaps bring back some pieces to help your next stage of a rebuild. The second the Heat declined to extend Butler this summer, this situation became their reality.

What makes things tricky though is what a team would be willing to give up for a player who could simply walk after this year. Even if the player is great like a healthy Jimmy Butler is, at that price of $48M it means you probably have to give back multiple rotation players, which is always a risk for a guy who is not locked up long-term. I will say it is a little interesting we're hearing the Heat are open to something like this pretty much immediately after Pat Riley talked about how he basically despises trading players

but perhaps he's finally had enough of the Jimmy Butler Experience?

Now, in terms of the teams on Jimmy Butler's list, it sure sounds like another guy who doesn't want the grind. Is he that scared of the Celtics that he needs to move conferences? Who knows, I'm just asking the questions. What is it with these players like Dame and Jimmy who just want to join good teams so things are easier for them? I get they're old, but there's still basketball left in their tanks. 

If they wanted, the Rockets do have a path to make the money work. They could include Jalen Green (has a $33M extension price), and pair that with someone like Steven Adams ($12M) and filler. The Heat get a young player to help build around and some picks and that's certainly better than losing Butler for nothing.

With the Mavs, it's a little more complicated because outside of Luka/Kyrie they don't have another player on their roster making over $15M. They don't really have the combination of high-salary young talent/picks that you could see the Heat trading for, so to me that ship has probably sailed. Plus, why would they disrupt what they have going right now? Luka needs off-ball players who are shooters around him, and Jimmy Butler isn't exactly an ideal off-ball player.

The Warriors are an interesting option. They have a similar situation on their hands with Jonathan Kuminga, a player they didn't want to offer a max extension to who now enters RFA after this summer. They could use the $12M of De'Anthony Melton's deal since he's out for the season, and they have a few $8-10M players you could add to make things work money-wise. Maybe they throw them Podz/Kuminga as a young duo and add whatever picks are needed. They could also perhaps get ahead of things and use Wiggins' $26M since he only has one more year after this season before his player option in 2026-27 to avoid what the Heat are currently going through with Butler. Remember Shams' report from last week?

That could certainly be Jimmy Butler based on that description. Personally I always thought that was LeBron, but with this news today, it also makes sense that this could actually be Jimmy Butler.

The point is, where there's smoke like this there's usually fire. When you add up everything from what happened over the summer with Butler's lack of extension and what that tends to mean for NBA teams, this is a rumor that I think has some legit legs to it. What we don't know is if the Heat will be as stubborn with trading Jimmy as they were when they tried to trade for Dame. At what point does potentially losing the asset for nothing trump all, and maybe they take 60 cents on the dollar. I also wonder if the way Tyler Herro has been playing recently is what has the Heat ready to cash in this chip and move onto the first stage of rebuilding around Herro/Bam and whatever they get for Butler.