NBA Execs Expect Jimmy Butler To Remain With Heat

Butler is extension-eligible this offseason. He’ll make $48.8 million next season.

Butler, who turns 35 in September, has a player option worth $52.4 million for the 2025-26 season. 

“A far murkier dynamic is that of Jimmy Butler, who’s extension eligible in Miami,” Fischer wrote. “The Sixers, of course, have been in the Butler business before. He and Joel Embiid maintained a close relationship, and Butler may have been the All-Star whom Daryl Morey most often attempted to acquire in Houston, sources said. At this juncture, however, league executives are of the mind Butler will most likely remain with the Heat.”

The Heat lost to the Boston Celtics in the first round of the 2024 playoffs in five games. Butler didn’t play because of a knee injury. 

A six-time All-Star, Butler averaged 20.8 points, 5.3 rebounds and 5.0 assists this season while shooting 49.9% from the field, 41.4% from beyond the arc and 85.8% from the free-throw line.

The Heat were 26th in the NBA in points per game, third in points per game allowed and 16th in net rating this season. They went 46-36 in the regular season.

Butler joined the Heat in the summer of 2019 via a sign-and-trade deal with the Philadelphia 76ers. He has guided Miami to the NBA Finals twice. 

The Heat lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2020 NBA Finals, lost to the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round of the 2021 playoffs, lost to the Celtics in the 2023 conference finals, lost to the Denver Nuggets in the 2023 NBA Finals and lost to the Celtics in this year’s postseason. 

Butler has career averages of 18.3 points, 5.3 rebounds and 4.3 assists with the Chicago Bulls, Minnesota Timberwolves, Sixers and Heat. He’s made six All-Star teams, five All-NBA teams and five All-Defensive teams.

Butler has been linked to his old team, the Sixers. According to NBA insider Marc Stein, rival teams believe Philadelphia could try to acquire Butler this summer. 

“More than one rival team out there has likewise wondered whether Philadelphia, in the wake of its first-round exit, will mount a trade run at Butler to reacquire Embiid‘s close friend,” Stein wrote.