Jimmy Butler may follow Paul George’s footsteps down an increasingly rare path — an All-NBA level player hitting free agency. Butler is extension-eligible and is set to make $47.8 million this coming season with a $52.4 million player option for the 2025-26 season. When asked about that extension heading into this summer, Heat president Pat Riley said, “We don’t have to do that for a year. We have not discussed that internally right now but we have to look at making that kind of commitment.” He said the Heat were not trading Butler this offseason.
If Butler declines his option, he will become a free agent, but in a summer when the contenders will not have cap space to sign him. Which leads us to this interesting note from Stefan Bondy of the New York Post.
Butler reportedly has decided he’ll play out next season and won’t extend in Miami ahead of his opt-out in 2025. The odds of him picking up his player option are slim unless he agrees to a max deal with the Heat beforehand. The six-time All-Star is the most accomplished standout on that list not named James, and he likes Brooklyn, according to sources close to the player.
There’s a lot of things that have to happen here:
• The Heat aren’t likely to give Butler a max. After last season Riley expressed frustration with players missing time and Butler played in just 60 games and missed the Heat’s first-round playoff loss to the Heat. Riley will want to see how much Butler is on the court this season before throwing a massive number at him, or any number for that matter. Or does Riley see this as a time for the Heat to pivot around Bam Adebayo (who was locked up with a three-year, $165.8 million extension)?
• Are Butler and his agent going to take a hard look at the market and decide to opt into the final year of his contract at $52.4 million?
• The Nets will be one of the teams in the Cooper Flagg sweepstakes (a deep draft with Ace Baily and Dylan Harper among others), Brooklyn is going to struggle this season. However, they could be the team at the heart of the summer of 2025 — the Nets will have four first-round draft picks plus possibly as much as $70 million in cap space. If the plan is to start building around youth, will the Nets want to spend big money on an aging star? Brooklyn will have flexibility and options next summer, Butler is one of those options but far from the only one.
• After the Heat season ends, whenever that is, they will have an exclusive window to talk to and agree to an extension with Butler. We’ll see where Miami and Butler are at after the season, but the window will exist.
• Butler to the Nets isn’t impossible, and Butler may like the idea, but a lot of things have to align for that to happen.
