For as special as star veteran Jimmy Butler has been during his tenure with the Miami Heat, he has missed a lot games.
He has never appeared in more than 64 games in a single regular season with the Heat, and he’s coming off a season in which he appeared in just 60 regular-season games before being sidelined for the playoffs.
This season, he wants to play “as many games as possible.”
“I want to play as many games as possible,” Butler said Saturday. “I’ll leave it at that. I don’t need to put a number on the amount of games that I play. I know the more games that I play, the more opportunities that my squad has of winning. I do know that.”
Butler added that he’s “just here to win,” pushing aside money as a motivating factor.
“If we’re being brutally honest, no matter what, nothing I do now is going to get me paid any more money,” Butler said. “Even though I don’t care about the money. All-NBA, dah, dah, dah, dah, none of that is going to matter. I’m at a point right now that I got more than enough money. I’m just here to win.”
Butler is under contract with the Heat for the upcoming season and then has a player option on his deal for the 2025-26 season. As such, he could become a free agent next offseason. He isn’t expected to sign any sort of extension anywhere before then.
But even with Butler potentially hitting free agency in the 2025 offseason, he seemingly wants to remain with the Heat, so folks should be on the lookout for a new deal between the two parties next summer.
It will be interesting to see how many games the six-time All-Star plays in this season. The Heat may need him on the floor more often in the regular season than in years past if they want to capture a solid seed in the Eastern Conference, as they’ve been the No. 8 seed in the playoffs in two straight seasons.
However, there’s also an argument to be made that Butler shouldn’t totally empty the tank in the regular season, as the Heat will likely need some more of his playoff magic if they want to make a deep postseason run in the upcoming campaign. Butler has helped the Heat reach the NBA Finals twice since he joined the team.
Earlier in his career, Butler checked an impressive box by appearing in 82 out of a possible 82 regular-season games with the Chicago Bulls. Whether or not something similar is in the cards for him this season remains to be seen.
