As end of suspension nears, uncertainty surrounding Jimmy Butler’s Heat future remains
As Jimmy Butler nears the end of his team-issued suspension, the uncertainty surrounding his future with the Miami Heat remains.
Butler met with Heat president Pat Riley last week, and more meetings with Heat officials are expected in the coming days to discuss the path forward, according to league sources. ESPN’s Shams Charania was the first to report the news of last week’s meeting between Butler and Riley.
Among the Heat officials expected to meet with Butler this week before his potential return to the team is Heat owner Micky Arison.
Butler’s position remains unchanged, though. The six-time NBA All-Star prefers the Heat trade him to another team in the wake of a damaging few weeks for the Butler-Heat relationship.
The Heat has had discussions with several teams in recent days regarding a potential Butler trade, according to a league source. But the Heat has not yet received an offer that has warranted serious consideration in its eyes and the possibility of Butler rejoining the Heat at the end of the week is becoming more likely with each passing day.
With Wednesday’s matchup against the Los Angeles Lakers at Crypto.com Arena (10 p.m., FanDuel Sports Network Sun) marking the end of the Heat’s six-game West Coast trip and Butler’s seven-game team-issued suspension, Butler is eligible to come back when the Heat returns to Miami to host the Denver Nuggets on Friday.
Butler will be expected to rejoin the Heat and be available to play in games if he’s still on the roster at the end of his suspension. As of now, the Heat is not interested in having Butler remain away from the team while paying him the remainder of his $48.8 million salary for this season after his suspension is over.
If Butler is asked to rejoin the team and be in uniform at the end of his suspension, the expectation is that Butler will oblige and be available to play in order to avoid losing more of his salary. Butler’s current seven-game suspension will cost Butler a total of about $2.4 million in salary, although the National Basketball Players Association intends to file a grievance to dispute the suspension in hopes of recouping some of that money.
But either way, Butler’s days with the Heat appear to be coming to an end soon. Even if Butler remains on the Heat’s roster past the NBA’s Feb. 6 trade deadline, his intention will be to leave Miami to join another team this upcoming offseason.
Butler has a $52.4 million player option in his contract for next season. He could bypass that option to become a free agent and join another team by signing into cap space or through a sign-and-trade agreement.
But max-level cap space around the NBA is expected to be limited this offseason, with the Brooklyn Nets currently the only team in the league on track to have max cap space this summer. And longtime NBA reporter Marc Stein recently reported that the Nets have no plans to use that cap space to sign Butler amid their rebuild.
Also, executing a sign-and-trade transaction is difficult because teams above the first and second aprons are not allowed to acquire a player through a sign-and-trade.
So, while the initial plan was for Butler to turn down his $52.4 million player option to become a free agent this season, a league source indicated that Butler could exercise that player option to then get the Heat to trade him as a big expiring contract this offseason. There will be at least nine teams that can help facilitate a Butler trade this summer that don’t have the cap space to do it now.
Teams that can easily clear out cap space to help the Heat and a Butler suitor facilitate such a trade in July include the Nets ($91 million in projected practical cap space, according to Spotrac), New Orleans Pelicans ($33.8 million), Charlotte Hornets ($30 million), San Antonio Spurs ($27.9 million), Detroit Pistons ($24.6 million), Houston Rockets ($19 million), Washington Wizards ($19 million), Chicago Bulls ($17 million) and Utah Jazz ($14 million).
Even if Butler returns to the Heat after his suspension, the Heat will likely continue to listen to trade offers for him up until the February trade deadline.
According to multiple sources, Butler has been disappointed with the Heat primarily because Miami declined to give him a two-year, $113 million contract extension this past summer, a deal that would have run through the 2026-27 season. Butler was open to signing such a deal early in the negotiating window, but his mind-set changed when the extension wasn’t immediately offered by the Heat.
“I want to see me get my joy back from playing basketball,” Butler said on Jan. 2 during a postgame news conference at Kaseya Center. “And wherever that may be, we’ll find out here pretty soon, I want to get my joy back. I’m happy here — off the court. But I want to be back to someone dominant. I want to hoop and I want to help this team win. Right now, I’m not doing that.”
Does Butler believe he can get his joy back while remaining on the Heat’s roster? “Probably not,” Butler said.
The day after Butler made those comments, the Heat announced his suspension through a press release that said: “We have suspended Jimmy Butler for seven games for multiple instances of conduct detrimental to the team over the course of the season and particularly the last several weeks. Through his actions and statements, he has shown he no longer wants to be part of this team.
“Jimmy Butler and his representative have indicated that they wish to be traded, therefore, we will listen to offers.”
The Phoenix Suns appear to be the team pushing hardest to trade for Butler, according to league sources, but the complication is that Suns guard Bradley Beal would very likely need to be involved in that deal to make the salary cap math work. The Heat is not interested in acquiring Beal’s no-trade clause, meaning the Suns need to find a third team to take Beal, and Beal would need to approve of being dealt to that team while the Heat also gets assets in return that it’s interested in as part of the trade.
While the Heat has been on the West Coast, Butler has been able to use the Heat’s facilities at Kaseya Center to stay in basketball shape even while suspended. Heat assistant coach Octavio De La Grana, player development coach Remy Ndiaye and assistant athletic trainer Armando Rivas did not travel with the team in order to be available to work with Butler in Miami during his suspension.
Butler, 35, is averaging 17.6 points on 10.5 field-goal attempts, 5.5 rebounds, 4.7 assists and 1.2 steals per game while shooting 55.2 percent from the field this season. The Heat is 8-8 in games without Butler this season and 3-3 through the first six games of Butler’s suspension.
Butler, who is in the middle of his sixth season with the franchise, has helped lead the Heat to three Eastern Conference finals appearances and two NBA Finals appearances since joining the team during the 2019 offseason. He has been selected for two NBA All-Star Games and made an All-NBA team three times during his first five seasons with the Heat.
The Heat enters Tuesday in seventh place in the Eastern Conference with a 20-18 record.
This story was originally published January 14, 2025 at 2:20 PM.
