Jimmy Butler will be headed from the Miami Heat to the Golden State Warriors, getting his wish to find a new home and perhaps the joy he lost playing in South Beach, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported on Wednesday.
But finding that joy will have to happen not with the reported favorite landing spot on the Phoenix Suns. Phoenix reportedly had mutual interest in navigating its way to a Butler trade. And the Suns set themselves up to do that by dealing an unprotected 2031 first-round pick to the Utah Jazz for three lesser first-rounders, which seemingly could be distributed among multiple teams in a complicated trade.
Charania reports the deal is in exchange for Andrew Wiggins, Dennis Schroder, Kyle Anderson and a protected first-round pick. Butler is declining his 2025-26 player option for this new $121M deal.
In addition to the trade, Charania reports that Butler has agreed to a new two-year, $121 million extension with the franchise through 2026-27.
Butler is making $48.8 million this season and has a $52.4 million player option he was expected to opt out of while seeking a longer-term deal. Miami this offseason made it clear it would not pay the aging star what he sought, while Phoenix appeared to be one viable landing spot where Butler could not only chase a title this year but earn a long-term deal.
Heat president Pat Riley on Dec. 26 released a statement to quiet rumors about Butler’s imminent departure, at the time saying they would not trade him.
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“We usually don’t comment on rumors, but all this speculation has become a distraction to the team and is not fair to the players and coaches,” Riley said in a release distributed by the team. “Therefore, we will make it clear — we are not trading Jimmy Butler.”
But Miami on Jan. 3 reversed course by suspending Butler for seven games after he told reporters in a postgame press conference that he’s lost joy playing with the Heat and probably couldn’t find that joy again without a change of scenery.
“We have suspended Jimmy Butler for seven games for multiple instances of conduct detrimental to the team over the course of the season and particularly the last several weeks,” the team said in a statement. “Through his actions and statements, he has shown he no longer wants to be part of this team.”
That suspension sidelined the veteran through a Jan. 15 game against the Los Angeles Lakers.
Butler returned for three games before earning a second suspension of two games for missing a team flight to begin a short road trip. He then returned only to walk out of practice the morning of a game to earn a third suspension that at a minimum of five games was set to last through the trade deadline.
Miami’s willingness to aggressively pursue trades appeared to change in tune with Butler’s third suspension. ESPN’s Brian Windhorst reported that the Heat lowered the asking price and began looking at non-Suns trade options.
Heat’s Jimmy Butler trade was a long-time coming ahead of the NBA trade deadline
Noise about Butler’s intentions of joining Phoenix cropped up in mid-December. ESPN’s Shams Charania linked Butler’s interest to the Warriors, Rockets and Mavericks as the then-Heat forward filed through hair color changes that appeared to correspond to each of those teams’ colors.
Arizona Sports’ John Gambadoro then reported that the six-time NBA All-Star had the Suns among the favorites if he were to be traded. His hair was colored orange the day that report broke.
Though Phoenix’s path to acquiring Butler required the threading of the needle from a financial perspective before even getting to Bradley Beal’s ability to squash a deal, rumors in NBA circles continued to connect Butler to the Suns and owner Mat Ishbia, whose willingness to spend seemed like an avenue for the 36-year-old to get a contract extension.
As other potential contenders were listed, two in particular — Memphis and Milwaukee — were shot down from Butler’s side as potential landing spots.
The hang-up on Phoenix’s end was its inability to aggregate salaries to match Butler’s $48.8 million owed this year — he has a $52.4 million player option for 2025-26 that made this essentially a contract year. The Suns could have navigated a near straight swap of Beal or Butler, but the Heat did not want the two years and $110 million left on Beal’s deal, nor to take on one of two NBA contracts with a no-trade clause.
That was before getting to the hurdle of Beal waiving the no-trade clause to initiate any trade out of Phoenix.
Butler’s production in 2024-25, by the numbers
The 30th overall pick in the 2011 draft put together two of his best playoff runs in 2022 and 2023 with Miami. In the latter season, he averaged 26.9 points, 6.5 rebounds, 5.9 assists and 1.8 steals per game in 22 outings, helping the Heat reach the NBA Finals, where they fell to the Denver Nuggets.
But due to age or that lack of joy, Butler’s numbers have been underwhelming in the 2024-25 regular season. He averaged 17.0 points, 5.2 rebounds and 4.8 assists per game while being more selective as a scorer.
He shot 54% on 10.5 attempts per game, the lowest volume since his third NBA season with the Chicago Bulls in 2013-14.
While Butler is shooting a respectable 36% from three, he is only taking 1.4 per game.
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