'Through all the chaos': Heat in moving-on mode as Jimmy Butler trade possibilities increase

Ira Winderman, South Florida Sun-Sentinel on Jan 28, 2025

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MIAMI — With Jimmy Butler in the midst of his third unpaid Miami Heat team suspension, this one a five-game sanction that runs through the Feb. 6 NBA trade deadline, the sense around the team is of being closer to impending closure than any other point during the process.

According to a source familiar with the Heat’s increasing activity on the trade market, the acceptable return for Butler, despite his six All-Star appearances, is now viewed as an expiring contract, a potential contributing component whose contract does not run past the 2025-26 season, and a pair of draft picks.

Financial flexibility for the 2026 offseason has been viewed as critical to any Heat trade approach, with that the summer when the NBA not only will feature a far superior free-agent class than this coming offseason, but also when the contracts of Duncan Robinson and Terry Rozier are scheduled to come off the Heat’s book.

Currently, the only contracts on the Heat’s books for 2026-27 are Bam Adebayo ($51.9 million), Tyler Herro ($33 million), as well as smaller team options on the rookie-scale contracts of Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kel’el Ware and Pelle Larsson.

The Heat since Jan. 3 have acknowledged an ongoing willingness to field offers, with this third Butler suspension leading to heightened scouring of potential landing spots.

While the initial focus had been solely on Butler’s desire to get to the Phoenix Suns, where an expectation is of receiving the type of extension the Heat had been unwilling to offer, there now is considered a wider breadth of potential landing spots.

Butler, 35, left the Heat’s morning shootaround Monday displeased about being out of the starting lineup, with Monday’s game against the visiting Orlando Magic having been his scheduled return from a two-game suspension for missing a team flight last week to Milwaukee and other cited violations.

Butler previously had been suspended for seven games on Jan. 3, for “conduct detrimental to the team.”

Unlike those previous two suspensions, with the current sanction for “intentionally withholding services,” there is no requirement of Butler making himself available for practices on non-game days. While for at least five games, the Heat announced the current suspension as being “for an indefinite period.”

Against that backdrop of uncertainty, the Heat pushed through for a 125-119 double-overtime victory over the Magic on Monday night.

“It’s pretty simple,” forward Nikola Jovic said, “our best player is not here right now.”

But Jovic, who is among those closest to Butler in the locker room, said the team has stressed keeping the focus on the court.

“I don’t think it bothers really any of us,” he said of the constant unknowns with Butler. “Even though you see a lot of news, we’re trying to avoid it. We’re just coming in and playing. Because without him, we’ve got to show us younger guys are worth playing.”

That proved to be the case against the Magic, with Jovic scoring the basket that sent the game to the second overtime, after first-round pick Kel’el Ware scored the basket that sent the game to the first overtime.

From there, Adebayo put it away with six of the Heat’s nine points in the second extra period.

Afterward, Adebayo discussed the whirlwind.

“I mean, we’ve been in a lot of situations this past year, this year,” he said, with the unease with Butler dating to the offseason. “So it shows through all the noise, through all the chaos, we can still win, we can still come together and be a great team and believe in one another and still go out there and compete.

“Because, at the end of the day, like I said before, the game’s still got to get played. No matter what’s going on in the organization, we’ve still got to play games and they still expect us to win.”

The victory, guard Duncan Robinson said, was the right result at the right time.

“Very refreshing. It makes everything that’s going on a lot more tolerable,” he said, alluding to the Butler suspension. “Winning, in a way, cures everything. So we just want to keep trying to put one foot in front of the other and keep winning games.”