ESPN’s Shams Charania shared his side of the reporting surrounding Jimmy Butler and his potential trade from the Miami Heat.
Earlier this month, Charania reported that the Heat would be willing to move Butler in a trade and that the star forward has four destinations that he would want to land in a potential deal.
However, Butler’s agent, Bernie Lee, fired back at the ESPN insider’s reporting, calling it “complete and utter made up bulls—.”
Charania joined ESPN’s Pat McAfee to stand on his reporting again in the Butler saga.
“The situation is I 1,000 percent stand on the reporting,” Charania said. “This is probably the most vetted story I think I’ve ever put out. I’m that confident in this story. This is exactly where it is: The Heat are open to listening to trade offers for Jimmy Butler. That’s what sources told me last week. That remains to be the case. There’s no urgency though.”
Charania also shared that the Heat aren’t worried about losing Butler in free agency since there are only a few teams that will have cap space in the offseason. It was reported earlier this month that Miami is not afraid of losing Butler in free agency, and that it would take an offer of a certain threshold to move the six-time All-Star to a new team.
“The reporting that I had is that if he were to be moved, four destinations he would be open to, from what I’m told has been communicated around the league,” Charania said. “That’s the [Dallas] Mavericks. That’s the [Houston] Rockets, the [Golden State] Warriors and then the [Phoenix] Suns. And that all remains to be the case.”
Since Lee called out Charania, one of ESPN’s NBA insiders – Bobby Marks – came to the defense of his colleague.
“Bernie Lee, who is Jimmy Butler’s agent stole the show the other night as far as with his verbal – I don’t even know what to call it – assault on Shams,” Marks said. “I’m not gonna really dive into that. But I would say this, that what Shams put out there certainly with what he wrote in his really good article on NBA Pass on ESPN. And then what was reported with Phoenix being a team that Butler would go to if he can’t work out a deal in Miami, that was a hundred percent accurate.
“From all the people I’ve talked to, and all the people he’s talked to, hundred percent accurate. So, I have no idea why Bernie Lee would go on a rampage that night, but it is what it is, and I’m not going to speak out on that.”
In addition to Marks’ support, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst reported on Monday that the Suns have interest in Butler in the trade market.
Only time will tell if the Heat decide to move on from Butler or not as the NBA season gets closer and closer to the trade deadline.
This season, Butler is averaging 19.4 points, 6.1 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game while shooting 55.2 percent from the field and 35.7 percent from 3-point range. He had 35 points, 19 rebounds and 10 assists in Miami’s overtime loss to the Detroit Pistons on Monday night.
The Heat currently hold the No. 6 spot in the Eastern Conference with a 13-11 record. If they can stay in the mix for a top seed in the East, it may lead to them deciding to keep Butler for the entire 2024-25 season.