Shams Charania of ESPN reported on Tuesday morning that the Miami Heat are willing to listen to trade offers for Jimmy Butler. It makes sense — the Heat are barely above .500, which is good enough for fifth place in the Eastern Conference but not good enough to really compete. Tyler Herro has shown that he can spearhead the offense this season, while Bam Adebayo ties things together defensively. Butler just turned 35 and is set to be a free agent this summer (provided he declines his player option as expected).
Add in that there was some apparent tension between Butler and Pat Riley this past offseason, and a clean break between both parties that lets the Heat get something back while Butler seeks out greener pastures isn’t a shock. There are, however, some tricky things here:
1. According to Charania, Butler wants to go to a team where he can win right now, and specifically mentioned the Rockets, Mavericks, and Warriors.
2. Butler makes a lot of money ($49.7 million this season).
3. Butler plans on hitting unrestricted free agency this upcoming summer.
4. The new apron rules restrict some contenders from aggregating salaries to bring Butler in.
None of this makes a deal impossible, it’s just tricky to get a sense of what the Heat would be able to get back if Butler is a rental. It does help that Butler is putting up some decent numbers this year — 19 points, 5.4 rebounds, 4.8 assists, 1.2 steals in 32.1 minutes per game on 55.7 percent shooting from the field — and is about as proven of a playoff performer as there is in the league, even as he’s getting older.
All that said, we wanted to look through the NBA and try to identify which teams could potentially pull off a move of this magnitude, whether they’re on Butler’s list or not.
Houston Rockets: Dillon Brooks, Steven Adams, Jabari Smith, the worst of their three 2027 first-round picks (their own, an unprotected pick from Phoenix, a pick swap with Brooklyn)
If any team should take a swing on Butler, it’s the Rockets, which have turned into one of the best teams in the NBA this year due to their commitment to being tougher than everyone else under Ime Udoka. Butler would be a fantastic fit on both ends of the floor, and would give Houston the sort of big name that they’ve clearly coveted ever since James Harden left town. And since his hometown is not too far Houston, perhaps they’d get a bit of a hometown discount in free agency.
As for what they’d have to give up, Brooks and Adams seem destined to go out the door in any deal for a star just for financial purposes, while they’d have to give up at least a pick. The hard part is which young guy they’d move — Amen Thompson and Tari Eason should probably be off the table, Reed Sheppard is super promising but can’t get on the floor for Houston, and Jalen Green can’t be traded this year after signing an extension. All that said, we’ll go with Smith, who is the sort of guy that would really benefit from getting a chance to enter the Heat’s player development system — and is about to be due for extension talks himself.
Dallas Mavericks: Klay Thompson, Maxi Kleber, Quentin Grimes, one of Daniel Gafford or P.J. Washington, a future pick swap
To be clear, Dallas should 100 percent not do this, and we’re simply including them here because Charania mentioned them as a team that Butler would be interested in. They’d have to give up way too much of their rotation to make the money work, and their big problem this year (which is a very funny thing to say about a team that is 16-8) is that Luka Doncic hasn’t quite played up to his standard. The thought of a Jimmy, Luka, and Kyrie Irving trio is exciting for sure, but this is probably a pipe dream unless Butler goes there as a free agent in the summer on a major discount. On top of this not making sense for the Mavs, it also probably wouldn’t fit what Miami wants out of a Heat trade, as they should be looking to get younger and/or add draft assets.
Golden State Warriors: Andrew Wiggins, De’Anthony Melton*, Jonathan Kuminga, Lindy Waters III, a 2028 second-round pick via Atlanta
Melton has an asterisk next to his name because he cannot be traded until after Dec. 15, but unless Butler basically demands a trade in the next, like, two days, that shouldn’t be an issue. Wiggins has played well this year and Waters provides some salary ballast, but the real question here is whether the Warriors would move one of their youngsters (Kuminga or Brandin Podziemski, as Moses Moody can’t be traded this year after signing an extension) to make this deal happen. Miami should 100 percent demand Kuminga — who is still young and fits pretty nicely between Adebayo and Herro, although he’s going to need a contract extension, as he is a restricted free agent this summer. I assume that the Heat wouldn’t want Trayce Jackson-Davis since they have Adebayo and promising rookie Kel’el Ware, so if the Warriors are hell-bent on keeping Kuminga and Podziemski, perhaps this deal can happen with Gary Payton II thrown in here with at least one of their future first-round picks.
Orlando Magic: Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Cole Anthony, Anthony Black, Jett Howard, 2025 and 2026 second-round picks
The first of the three teams that Charania did not mention is Orlando, which would make a really un-Orlando Magic move by swinging for Butler. There is a very real path for the Magic to make it to the NBA Finals, and if they determine that they are one star away, it’s not hard to see how an engaged Jimmy Butler would fit awfully well alongside Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner, and Jalen Suggs. Caldwell-Pope has struggled offensively in Orlando, and while giving up Anthony (a valued member of the roster) and Black (who looks really promising and just screams “guy who would be awesome on the Heat”) would sting, Butler would raise their ceiling to a place it hasn’t been since the Dwight Howard days. Again, this would be something that we just never see Orlando do — and maybe Butler would take the ball away from Banchero and Wagner, who are both injured right now, so much that it’s a non-starter — but they can legitimately win the East this year, and this sort of move would be a statement of intent.
Los Angeles Lakers: D’Angelo Russell, Rui Hachimura, Austin Reaves, an unprotected 2029 first-round pick
Hey look, it’s the constitutionally mandated inclusion of the Lakers in one of these! Frankly, Miami should not accept this sort of deal unless they can get Dalton Knecht back, but Los Angeles would be foolish to part ways with him right now. Butler also wants to go to a contender, and the Lakers are just not good enough — especially having to give up considerable depth to add Butler. Any trade L.A. makes should be with a focus on one last dance in 2025-26, as that’s the final year of LeBron’s contract, and Butler does not fit that with his own contract situation. Having said that, perhaps the allure of getting a third star next to their two main guys is too much for the Lakers to overcome, and if that’s the case, the perpetually available package of Russell, Hachimura, and a pick (along with Reaves, who would be one heck of a Heat Culture™ player) should be presented to Miami’s front office.
San Antonio Spurs: Keldon Johnson, Harrison Barnes, Blake Wesley, Chicago’s top-10 protected 2025 first-round pick
San Antonio has a ton of stuff to potentially move as they look to put a team around Victor Wembanyama. I don’t think they’d want to cash it all in on Butler, but the Texas connections mixed with the opportunity to show Butler why he should stick around as a free agent for a few years alongside Wemby might make some sense. Like Orlando, this would be a pretty un-Spursy move, but with how Butler’s helped in the development of talented young centers (Adebayo, Joel Embiid) in the past, and with how San Antonio has a shot to make the playoffs this year, this just might be a risk worth taking. Miami, meanwhile, would surely love to add a pick to their dwindling stash of assets, while Wesley is a low-risk bet on a guy who hasn’t panned out and Johnson is a nice player who is under contract through 2026-27. Ultimately, San Antonio probably passes on getting in the Jimmy Butler business — perhaps it’s different if he has another year on his deal — but he’d surely enjoy playing with Wembanyama, and I, for one, would love to see how surly a Gregg Popovich team that features Jimmy and Chris Paul would be.