The Miami Heat reportedly could make a decision on the future of the franchise and star Jimmy Butler as soon as the trade deadline in the 2024-25 season.
Butler is under contract for the 2024-25 season and has a player option for north of $50 million in the 2025-26 season. However, he could opt out of his deal next summer and become a free agent.
The Heat have yet to agree to an extension with Butler, leaving his future with the franchise up in the air.
“The NBA appears as set as it has been for years in September,” the Sun Sentinel’s Ira Winderman wrote. “As for your point, the Heat are positioned to play out Jimmy Butler’s contract and still have ample time to then move ahead with the franchise’s next generation. Now it just comes down to a matter of the timing of such a transition, which could be by February’s NBA trading deadline or by Jimmy Butler’s opt-out decision and that late-June deadline. It is a proposition that likely will remain fluid, with an extension seemingly not even a talking point on either side.”
Butler, 34, has been with the Heat since the 2019-20 season.
He led Miami to the NBA Finals that season and in the 2022-23 campaign, although the franchise did not win either series. Still, the Heat have enjoyed a ton of success with Butler on the roster, making the Eastern Conference Finals in three of his five seasons and the playoffs in each of the five seasons.
Last season, an injury knocked Butler out for Miami’s first-round playoff series against the Boston Celtics, and it ended up losing the series in just five games.
During the 2023-24 season, Butler averaged 20.8 points, 5.3 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game while shooting 49.9 percent from the field and 41.4 percent from 3-point range.
He’s still one of the game’s better players, but if he and the Heat can’t come to a long-term extension, it may make sense to move him at the deadline rather than risk losing him for nothing in free agency.
The Heat could also wait and hope that they can work a sign-and-trade deal with Butler in the offseason if he decides that he doesn’t want to return to the franchise.
Miami has some young pieces – Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro, Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Nikola Jovic – that it could look to build around in a post-Butler era.
As Winderman noted, the situation remains fluid, but there is no guarantee that Butler is on the Heat beyond the 2024-25 season.
Hopefully, the two sides can work something out that will either leave Butler in Miami or will put the Heat in an advantageous spot to build a roster without him down the line.
