Mailbag: Exploring the complicated Jimmy Butler situation, as Heat works to find trade
The Miami Herald’s Heat mailbag is here to answer your questions. If you weren’t able to ask this time, send your questions for future mailbags via X (@Anthony_Chiang). You can also email them to achiang@miamiherald.com.
@Jthefox101YT: Do you think it’s a good idea to bring back Jimmy Butler to the team even though it may not look good for the locker room?
Gail: Pat Riley and Heat management share the bulk of the blame for the current mess. The fans and season tickets holders get the shaft along with Heat team members. Deja vu ...
Jeffrey: It’s absolutely ridiculous how much money certain athletes are being paid today. I don’t begrudge him and his windfall. But if you are going to make that kind of money, you deserve every bit of criticism. The Heat definitely should not sign him to a new contract.
Anthony Chiang: At this point, playing the blame game isn’t productive. What matters right now is finding a resolution to this complicated situation. Why is it so complicated?
Butler would like to be traded and the Heat says its working to make that happen by listening to trade offers. So, just make a trade. Sounds simple, right? But it’s not. Between Butler’s big $48.8 million salary for this season and the NBA’s relatively new trade rules for teams above the first and second salary-cap aprons, it will be challenging to pull off this type of deal ahead of the Feb. 6 trade deadline.
For example, the Heat can’t take back more salary in a trade than it sends out as a team above the first apron. Then teams above the second apron like the Phoenix Suns and Milwaukee Bucks can’t aggregate salaries in a trade or send out cash in a trade, along with not being able to take back more salary in a trade than they send out.
The Heat also doesn’t feel the need to trade Butler just for the sake of ridding itself of this ugly situation. While the Heat prefers to get a deal done before the end of Butler’s seven-game suspension, it will only accept an offer that it feels will help the team now and moving forward.
In any Butler trade, the Heat wants to acquire a quality player (or players) who can help the team this season. That will be the top priority for Miami. But the Heat also doesn’t want to take back long-term salary that’s going to clog its cap for the 2026 offseason, unless it’s for top-end All-Star talent. Draft capital is also important for the Heat, as it currently only has one unprotected first-round pick that it can deal away.
The Heat has had discussions with several teams in recent days regarding a potential Butler trade, according to a league source, but nothing has surfaced enticing enough for Miami to make a deal yet.
If a trade doesn’t materialize before the end of Butler’s seven-game suspension, the Heat expects him to rejoin the team and play in games. He will be eligible to come back when the Heat returns to Miami to host the Denver Nuggets on Jan. 17.
If Butler is still on the Heat’s roster at the end of his suspension and he chooses not to report back to or play again for the Heat, he would be in danger of losing more of his salary for this season.
Both the Heat and Butler hope it doesn’t get to that point. But there’s certainly a chance that it does — as awkward as that would be — just because of how difficult finding the right trade has proven to be so far.
@jowall_p: What’s ailing Bam Adebayo? Why is he struggling this year to put it together?
Anthony: It has definitely been a weird season for Adebayo on the offensive end, as he’s shooting just 45 percent from the field. Adebayo, a three-time NBA All-Star, has shot better than 50 percent from the field in each of the first seven seasons of his NBA career prior to this season.
After scoring fewer than 10 points in four games last regular season, he has already totaled fewer than 10 points six times through the Heat’s first 34 games this season.
Adebayo entered Tuesday with the league’s second-worst true shooting percentage (a shooting percentage that also factors in the value of three-point field goals and free throws) among the 68 players with at least 400 field-goal attempts this season. Only Houston Rockets guard Fred VanVleet ranks below Adebayo in this category among this group.
But on the defensive end, Adebayo has still been elite. He ranks in the NBA’s 97th percentile for estimated defensive plus-minus this season.
The Heat needs Adebayo to be a more efficient offensive player, though, especially without Butler on the court. The Heat doesn’t have enough offensive firepower on its roster to survive Adebayo’s shooting struggles.
