Jimmy Butler Has Officially Told The Heat He Wants To Be Traded And Is Open To Anywhere Other Than Miami

Megan Briggs. Getty Images.

As more and more time goes by, it starts to feel increasingly likely that the Jimmy Butler Era is coming to an end in South Beach. Outside of the Shams "reports" for engagement and Pat Riley coming out and flat out saying the team isn't trading him, pretty much whenever there's smoke there's fire, and when you look at both the on the court and off the court breadcrumbs, I'm not sure how anyone could feel differently.

On the court, things haven't been all that great. Prior to 2025, Butler hadn't played since 12/20 when he played just 7 minutes against the Thunder before hurting his ankle. Immediately following that game, the Heat ripped off 3 of their next 5 with Tyler Herro exploding, putting up All Star caliber numbers during that non-Butler stretch and really playing the best basketball of his life.

Butler came back in the new year, and things didn't look all that better. Not in a way that his play was poor, he was efficient in his minutes, but it certainly was not your typical Jimmy level production

and it included being bench in the 4th in their win over NO

Not a wrong stance to have, but also not the best look to DNP your best player. That's always going to spark drama, even if it was well-intentioned. You add all that recent on the court stuff in addition to the trade drama and then factor in how Butler was talking after tonight's game

I mean holy shit. Jimmy is no fool. This isn't his first rodeo. Listen to how he's talking in that clip "wherever that may be", "well find out here pretty soon", "happy here…off the court", talking about how he can't get his joy back if he stays in MIA, this is basically like demanding a trade without demanding one. 

I'm also not ruling out that the "happy here…..off the court" was a shot at Spo. How could it not be? Jimmy Butler never says anything by accident. And what does he mean by we'll find out here shortly? One would think he means the trade deadline, but Pat Riley said the team isn't trading him, so who's full of shit? 

My guess? Riley makes the PR claim like that to 

A) Drive up the price

B) Just hadn't found an offer he likes yet

C) Probably deep down doesn't want to trade him

The problem is the Heat also don't want to pay Jimmy Butler and now if he's beefing with Spo, what choice do they have? Butler turning down his player option and leaving for nothing is how you destroy your rebuild. If you don't want to extend him, you have to trade him for the assets. It's honestly bad basketball business if you don't, especially if you're going to have to deal with a malcontent Butler. You can always just spinzone things and say how situations changed and an offer was made that you felt was the best decision for your franchise. Just because you denied the trade bullshit a few weeks ago doesn't mean you still have to live by that decision come next month's deadline. It's clear this is headed for a breakup, so have some guts and rip the bandaid off. 

That's partially why the Heat are even in this position in the first place, so in a way it's pretty fitting this is how it would end if that's where we end up.