Trade rumors rankings: Jimmy Butler, De’Aaron Fox and more

The man of the hour in the NBA as far as the league’s trade market is Miami Heat star Jimmy Butler, who could be playing his final stretch of games in South Florida. Whether that is measured in weeks or months, it doesn’t look like Butler will be playing for the Heat in 2025-26.

There has been a ton of reporting on the matter over the past week, led by a Shams Charania report on Christmas Day, who wrote that Butler prefers a trade out of Miami by the Feb. 6 trade deadline:

Six-time NBA All-Star Jimmy Butler prefers a trade out of Miami ahead of the Feb. 6 deadline, league sources told ESPN. ESPN reported in the Inside Pass on Dec. 10 that the Heat are willing to listen to trade offers for Butler, and that Butler wants a win-now contender in any deal. Butler has not formally requested a trade with the Heat, sources said, but is believed to be ready for his exit.

Some of the teams that have already been mentioned as potential landing spots for the star swingman are the Suns, Mavericks, Rockets and Golden State Warriors, with the Suns and Warriors mentioned as Butler’s most preferred landing spots.

With scuttle about Butler’s unhappiness in Miami reaching a fever pitch, including at a late-week Heat practice where players and coaches were asked about Butler’s future with the team, Heat president Pat Riley released a statement flat-out saying the team would not be trading Butler.

We’ll see if that winds up being true or not.

So how did we get to this point?

According to reports, there were a lot of factors to it.

For one, Butler was “primarily disappointed” with the team for declining to extend him last summer on what would have been a two-year, $113 million contract. Miami chose to maintain future cap flexibility instead.

But it wasn’t all about the money for Butler, as he was also reportedly taken aback after 2023-24 when Riley, in his year-end press conference, publicly told him to keep his mouth shut after Butler facetiously said the Heat would have beaten the Boston Celtics and New York Knicks in the playoffs had he stayed healthy.

Finally, Butler reportedly wanted Miami to get him more help, which the team famously was unable to do during Butler’s time in South Florida.

Butler has yet to fully demand a trade and the Heat seem content to let this drag out into the offseason when they’ll probably let him walk for nothing to open up financial flexibility, but there’s little doubt the team has flubbed this entire situation. Miami, propped up with self-importance after two Finals trips and a run to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals in 2022, very much failed over recent years at landing another star to give the team a legitimate chance at a championship. That was even despite superstar point guard Damian Lillard publicly demanding a trade out of Portland and saying he wanted to join the Heat.

On top of that failure to add more talent around Butler, Riley, who speaks to reporters just once a year, then decided to deride his team’s star player publicly and tell him to keep his mouth shut despite all that Butler had done to drag mediocre Heat rosters on multiple deep playoff runs.

It’s actually surprising Butler hasn’t raised a bigger fuss in Miami – and sooner than now.

Nevertheless, Butler seems likely to remain with the Heat for the rest of 2024-25. We’ll see if anything changes on that front. Maybe a team makes Miami an offer it can’t refuse in exchange for the aging star.

For the latest Jimmy Butler trade rumors and contract information, click here.