Heat’s youngest players move forward after enduring Jimmy Butler drama: ‘To us, it’s all we know’
Jimmy Butler’s ugly breakup with the Miami Heat was the talk of the NBA for weeks. For the Heat’s youngest players, the saga proved to be a crash court on the business of the sport.
“To us, it’s all we know,” 23-year-old Heat rookie Pelle Larsson said ahead of Wednesday night’s matchup against the league-leading Oklahoma City Thunder at Paycom Center. “I mean, this is our first season, so I guess it’s our normal as far as our NBA career goes. So we’re just trying to look after our older guys and do whatever they do, and that’s getting ready every day and proceeding with work as normal.”
But life for the Heat has been far from normal for the last few weeks, as it suspended Butler three times in January before trading him to the Golden State Warriors last week. The Heat acquired Andrew Wiggins, Kyle Anderson and a top-10 protected 2025 first-round pick from the Warriors and Davion Mitchell from the Toronto Raptors in return for Butler.
At the center of Butler’s dispute with the Heat was actually a contract dispute. According to multiple sources, Butler’s relationship with the team took a turn this past offseason when Heat president Pat Riley challenged Butler publicly during his season-ending news conference and the Heat declined to give Butler a two-year, $113 million max contract extension.
As part of Butler’s move to the Warriors, he signed that two-year max extension with Golden State immediately after the trade. This extension will pay Butler about $54.1 million next season when he’ll be 36 years old and $56.8 million for the 2026-27 season when he will be 37 years old.
“That’s all we’ve been taught from a young age is that when you get to the NBA, it’s a business,” 23-year-old Heat rookie Keshad Johnson said. “It’s an organization, it’s a business, so just stay ready because anything can happen. Guys get traded, guys sign long-term big contracts. It’s all a next-day mentality. So just be ready for the unexpected and just come in and work each and every day. Make sure you leave each and every day like you gave it your all and you got better.”
Butler helped at least one of the Heat’s young players get through that drama-filled stretch prior to the trade.
“From the jump, Jimmy actually talked with me that this is all a business and you got to play no matter what,” 21-year-old third-year Heat forward Nikola Jovic said days before the Butler trade was finalized. “... For me personally, I’m still in touch with him. We’re great friends and I just play ball. No matter who’s on the court, who’s available, who’s not, I’ll give everything I have.
“I think the young guys like Pelle and Kel’el [Ware], they’re really smart and I think that they think the same way. It’s what it is, you got to play no matter who’s here, who’s injured, who’s not, what’s going on. If you get your time on the court, you got to prove yourself. For them and for me, too, it’s a chance to show that we can play and maybe that we deserve more minutes.”
The Heat’s last three first-round picks — Jovic in 2022, Jaime Jaquez Jr. in 2023 and Ware in 2024 — all produced positive moments during the stretch leading up to Butler’s departure. Ware has established himself as a Heat starter, and Jovic and Jaquez appear to be fixtures in the Heat’s bench rotation.
“It’s the message from Bam [Adebayo], it’s [Heat coach Erik Spoelstra], it’s everybody, it’s kind of the same thing: Nothing about the mission has changed from training camp,” Larsson said. “We’re going to try to do the same thing when we’re on the floor and come with the same energy and our goal is the same.”
Johnson added: “The coaching staff just says to stick together, work through everything, just focus on what we got in the locker room each and every game. Whatever we go out there with when we play, just try to make it happen. It’s a next guy up league, as coach Spo always likes to say. So I just take that into account.”
Now, the Heat and its young core moves forward in the wake of last week’s Butler trade. After taking on the Thunder in Oklahoma City on Wednesday, the Heat closes its pre-All-Star break schedule on Thursday against the Dallas Mavericks at American Airlines Center (8:30 p.m., FanDuel Sports Network Sun).
“We were able to put that behind us,” the 20-year-old Ware said, “and just focus on the group that we have with us.”
