Miami Heat star Jimmy Butler returned to the franchise on Friday after a seven-game suspension, and he’s appeared in Miami’s matchups against the Denver Nuggets and San Antonio Spurs.
Several teams reportedly have indicated that they’re willing to help a potential Butler trade after the star requested to be moved from the Heat earlier this season.
ESPN’s Tim MacMahon didn’t hold back when discussing the potential options for the Heat and Butler going forward.
“The full circle thing here is it just gets back to – they are not going to do something that is going to be a negative next year and into the future just to get rid of the biggest headache in the league,” MacMahon said of the Heat. “And Jimmy has successfully made himself, again, the biggest headache in the league – which you knew was happening – literally you knew this was happening as soon as Pat Riley’s press conference at the end of last season ended.”
There’s no doubt that the Butler situation has put the Heat in a tough position this season.
Miami is currently the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference with a 21-20 record, and it’s won just four of its last 10 games.
With Butler’s future with the franchise up in the air for even the 2024-25 season, the Heat are going to face a bit of an uphill battle to make a postseason run.
Butler has a player option in his contract for next season that he could decline in the offseason to become a free agent. So, there’s a chance that Miami may need to trade the six-time All-Star before this season’s trade deadline to get something in return for him.
However, as MacMahon pointed out, the Heat aren’t interested in taking on deals that could potentially negatively impact them in the future, which makes it much harder to trade Butler during the 2024-25 season.
So far this season, Butler is averaging 17.2 points, 5.3 rebounds and 4.7 assists per game while shooting 54.3 percent from the field and 34.3 percent from 3-point range. He’s coming off an eight-point game in Sunday’s win over the San Antonio Spurs.
While Butler has led Miami to two NBA Finals appearances during his time with the franchise, it appears that the two sides are headed for an unceremonious breakup. It’ll be interesting to see how the Heat deal with Butler in the coming weeks ahead of the league’s trade deadline.
