No NBA player has been more heavily featured in trade rumors lately than Miami Heat forward Jimmy Butler, particularly since a report came out in early January indicating that he wants to be traded out of Miami.
But according to an anonymous head of basketball operations for an NBA team, it’s hard to imagine there being a huge trade market for Butler. The executive added that Butler been in ugly situations throughout his pro career for a recurring reason: money.
“It’s more difficult than people think,” the head of basketball operations told Heavy Sports. “First of all, Jimmy’s 35 and doesn’t have much value. And then the team that would like him the most is probably Phoenix, because they’re so bad and they have the worst contract in [Bradley] Beal. Other than that, I don’t know of any teams that would want to take on Jimmy Butler, other than teams that just want to dump contracts — and Miami won’t go for that. I just don’t know how it’s going to work.
“But all this stuff with Jimmy — all the stuff in Miami and Minnesota and Chicago and Philly — all of it is because he wants to get paid. That’s where he’s at right now. He wants to be paid for what he’s done for Miami.”
The expectation has been that Butler will opt out of his contract for the 2025-26 campaign and enter unrestricted free agency this coming offseason.
The unnamed head of basketball operations hinted at the idea that money has often been a conflict for Butler throughout his time in the NBA, but his career earnings imply that he has been paid well.
Butler has earned more than $364 million playing in the NBA ever since he started his career with the Chicago Bulls in the 2011-12 campaign, per Spotrac. Only nine players in the history of the league have made more money in the NBA, and among them are LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry.
Plus, it’s not as if Butler’s base salary of nearly $49 million with the Heat this season is anything to scoff at.
Butler might not want to get his hopes up that an NBA team will hand him a massive contract in the near future. While he’s one of the better playoff performers the league has ever seen, he’s also getting up there in age and has shown possible signs of decline with the Heat this season.
The 35-year-old is averaging only 17.6 points per game in 22 games played to this point. Miami also has just a 12-10 record in games he’s appeared in since the beginning of the campaign.
