The Jimmy Butler era is over for the Miami Heat.
In a four-team deal with the Golden State Warriors, Utah Jazz and Detroit Pistons, Miami agreed to send Butler to the Warriors and in return received Andrew Wiggins, Kyle Anderson, P.J. Tucker and a first-round pick. It’s worth noting that Miami has already agreed to ship off Tucker to the Toronto Raptors in a separate trade.
In light of Butler going to Golden State, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst reported that Miami wasn’t very motivated to part with all that much more than just Butler in a trade for Phoenix Suns star Kevin Durant.
“There was a window for Kevin Durant to be traded to the Miami Heat,” Windhorst said. “And once the Warriors were out, instead of it being a three-team thing, it was sort of a two-team thing, with the Suns and the Warriors both potentially being able to negotiate with the Heat for Jimmy Butler. And I think the Suns were willing to negotiate. I don’t think they were anxious to trade Durant.
“… I think that the Suns’ asking price was gonna pretty high for Durant, and partially because of what they gave up to get him. And I think the reason that they were close on the three-way trade was that the Suns were going to be able to get Jimmy Butler-plus, as I was calling it in my conversations today. It was going to be Jimmy Butler plus some other things from the Warriors to get Durant.
“If it was just the Heat negotiating directly with the Suns, you were looking at Jimmy Butler and not so much else. The Heat weren’t really as motivated to offer that.”
Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald offered more context on X.
Wiggins certainly isn’t the talent Durant is, but he played at a high level with the Warriors this season. He averaged 17.6 points, 4.6 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game across 43 appearances with Golden State in the 2024-25 campaign.
The 29-year-old could prove to be an ideal fit in Miami thanks to his playoff experience and two-way play. For as solid an offensive player as he’s long been, maybe his most memorable contributions as a Warrior came when he contained Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum in the 2022 NBA Finals.
There’s a real argument to be made that Wiggins was Golden State’s second-best player in that championship series behind only Stephen Curry. On top of his excellent defense on Tatum, he averaged 18.3 points and 8.8 rebounds per contest in a series the Warriors won in six games.
The Heat are likely hoping that the acquisition of Wiggins will help keep the team in the playoff picture in the Eastern Conference standings. Miami owns a record of 25-24 on the season and holds the No. 6 seed in the conference with more than half of its 82-game schedule already in the books.
Miami can win its second game in a row with a victory over the lowly Brooklyn Nets on Friday. The Nets are losers of seven of their last 10 games.