In a league where so many players bounce from franchise to franchise on a regular basis, Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat seem to have offered a shining example of a team and player made for each other. A Heat franchise that embraces tough personalities and refuses to waver from its win-now mantra, with Butler (and his sharp tongue, charismatic personality and maniacal work ethic) as its face? It made all the sense in the world.
They had come together in 2019, when they needed each other most. After tumultuous endings to his three-year stint in Chicago, Minnesota and Philadelphia, Butler had to prove his competitive fire was fueled by winning, not a need to argue with teammates and coaches. Meanwhile, the Heat had missed the playoffs in two of their previous three seasons and were struggling to find a way back to the top of the Eastern Conference without LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh leading the way.
This marriage has been a great success for both parties. Miami has played in two NBA Finals and was one victory away from a third in 2022. Butler has regained his reputation and established himself as one of the best playoff players of his generation.
The possibility of that marriage ending has become a hot topic since the end of the 2023-24 season, especially after Heat president Pat Riley showed clear frustration (sparked by Butler’s inconsistent availability in the recent years) and a reluctance to commit to a long-term contract extension for their star.
“It’s a big decision on our part to commit those kinds of resources unless we have someone who is there and available every night,” Riley said in June. “That’s the truth. We have to consider whether we make that kind of commitment and when we do it. We don’t really have to do it until 2025.”
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Rather than negotiate an extension with the Heat now, Butler plans to play out the 2024-25 season, then opt out of the final year of his contract and become an unrestricted free agent in 2025, per The Athletic’s Shams Charania. That would also be Butler’s stance if he is traded to another team. The messaging from Butler’s side has been clear: He plans to have a bounce-back season in 2024-25, ideally with Miami, which will set him up for a big payday next summer.
This isn’t an ideal outcome for either team, though it’s a middle ground that many weren’t sure they could reach. Over the next calendar year, both Butler and the Heat must face tough questions that will eventually need answers.
Butler is about to face one of the biggest decisions he’s made in his career, and much like his decision to join Miami in 2019, his next move could largely determine what his career looks like once it’s said. and done.
Based on everything we’ve heard so far, Butler would prefer to sign a long-term contract next summer and finish his career in Miami rather than go elsewhere. It would be a great way to close out his final years as a professional and cement him among the Heat’s most beloved players to wear the uniform.
If so, he must prove he can stay on the court and avoid the off-court clashes with his superiors that ruined his relationship with his three previous teams. He has missed 99 regular-season games in his five seasons with the Heat. Even amid this successful five-year run, there have always been rumors about Butler’s off-court antics, whether good-natured or not, and how much the Heat would tolerate them if they weren’t winning.
That theory was put to the test at the end of this season, when Butler missed Miami’s first-round loss to Boston due to a knee injury he suffered in the play-in tournament. His absence was a microcosm of a disappointing season for the Heat marked by constant injury problems among his main collaborators. This led to Riley attacking Butler and some of his teammates during his press conference.
“We have a really good group of players and our biggest issue is player availability,” Riley said in June. “Getting our players to play every night.”
The biggest bombshell during that press conference was Riley’s response to a viral social media post in which Butler said the Heat would have beaten the Celtics and Knicks if he had been healthy during the playoffs. Considering Riley’s annoyance with Butler’s absences during the season, he wasn’t a fan of this type of talk.
“If you’re not on the court playing Boston or on the court playing the New York Knicks, you have to keep your mouth shut about criticizing those teams,” Riley said.
It’s rare to hear a top executive publicly and vehemently berate his star player based on a comment on social media, but Riley has never been afraid to voice his feelings, especially when he believes his teams are underperforming. Considering the talent the Heat had on their roster last season, it’s hard to disagree with his point of view.
Jimmy Butler reacts on the bench during the Heat’s playoff series against the Celtics. The lack of availability of it is a big problem. (Michael Laughlin/USA Today)
The big question for Butler isn’t whether he’ll get paid next offseason. He remains one of the most impactful two-way perimeter players in the league when he is healthy and secured. Some teams will embrace Butler’s ability to get them to the playoffs, as he has done several times in Miami.
But will it be the Heat, as Butler seems to want? As important as it is for Butler to land the plane at the end of his career in a way that satisfies him, Miami must also begin to evaluate what life will be like after Butler and how soon it wants to face that reality.
While Riley criticized Butler last month, he was also clear about his star’s importance to the team’s success. The Heat, under Riley and head coach Erik Spoelstra, are always in “championship or bust” mode. They know they have no chance of making it this far in the postseason without Butler returning to form in 2024-25.
“The one who moves the needle the most on our team is Jimmy,” Riley said. “Jimmy is the one who moves the needle the most. He is an incredible player. What I said at the beginning about the change is that he has to think about it himself a little so that this team is what he wants it to be.”
However, if Butler plays next season and enters free agency in 2025, he will be eligible to sign a four-year deal with the Heat for a projected $243 million or a three-year deal for a projected $171 million with a different team. That’s a lot of money to hand over to a player who turns 35 in September. Might it be wiser for Miami to completely turn the page on the Butler era?
Over the past few seasons, the Heat have begun accumulating young assets and easing their salary cap in an attempt to lay the groundwork for a future beyond Butler. The beauty of having a player like soon-to-be-27-year-old Bam Adebayo as a captain is that it has allowed Miami to quietly operate within a Warriors-style, two-timeline structure. They’ve had older players like Butler, Kyle Lowry and Kevin Love who brought the intelligence and versatility needed to compete in the playoffs. They’ve had players like newly acquired 30-year-old Terry Rozier who are closer to Adebayo’s timeline. However, they’ve also begun to assemble a core of younger players like Tyler Herro (24), Jaime Jaquez Jr. (23), Nikola Jović (21) and 2024 first-round pick Kel’el Ware (20), who can be the building blocks next to Adebayo down the street.
Last season, the Heat were looking for an opportunity to part with some of those young players to acquire Damian Lillard and adopt a win-now mentality. After seeing the maturity shown by Jaquez and Jović this season, perhaps it makes more sense to invest in these young players and prioritize them over other short-term solutions. But if that were the case, it wouldn’t make as much sense to commit such a large amount of money to keep Butler. The fact that Butler lives out his current contract allows the Heat to avoid this dilemma for now, but they will have to face it head-on at some point.
If Butler is healthy next season and plays at a high level, the Heat’s decision may be easy. Historically, Miami loves to keep veteran players it considers essential to its culture, and Butler fits that description as much as anyone else on the roster.
However, if this is another season where Butler misses 20-25 games and the Heat perform poorly as a result, the future will look even murkier for both sides.
(Top photo: Michael Reaves//Keynote USA/Getty Images)
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