Jimmy Butler was a Sixer. And then after a Philadelphia minute, the ball bounced around four times, went in, and suddenly he was gone.
In the seasons since 2019, the six-time All-Star put the Miami Heat on his back and took them to two NBA Finals berths and three Eastern Conference Finals. The five-time All-NBA Teamer and five-time All-Defensive teamer will turn 35 this coming September, but the latest news doesn’t make it sound like 76ers’ Prez Daryl Morey would be deterred from potentially extending the superstar’s contract if he were acquired via trade.
The latest per Philadelphia Inquirer’s Keith Pompey:
“It’s no secret that the 76ers are closely monitoring Jimmy Butler’s contract situation with the Miami Heat.
The Sixers view him as a fallback option if they are unable to sign Paul George in free agency.
And, according to sources, the Sixers are prepared to give Butler a maximum-salary extension if things align and he forces a trade out of Miami.”
Once this nugget in particular goes through the social media aggregation machine, it will probably wind up sounding like a slight to Jimmy Buckets.
He’s a fALlBaCk pLaN? PaUl GeOrGe OvEr Me!
And has JB not been significantly more successful than PG over the last five postseasons or so?
But you’d have to immerse yourself in Sixers caponomics to understand why the team should vastly prefer PG (even if they didn’t necessarily have him ranked higher on their proverbial board than the former Marquette Golden Eagle, Jimmy Buckets).
In short, trading for Butler would almost certainly mean Morey getting bled dry by Pat Riley, depleting the 76ers’ five first-round pick haul, and Morey might even have to throw in a few swaps to boot.
On the flip, if they signed Paul George using cash, they could then retain that significant pick haul and target yet another complementary piece or three!
So Butler here is a fallback option, albeit one with some Finals MVP-level upside.
Pompey continues:
“The former Sixer wants a two-year maximum extension for $113 million. There had been reports that Miami may look to trade the small forward rather than give him an extension.
However, Heat president Pat Riley told reporters on May 6 that Miami is not trading the six-time All-Star.”
Butler is set to earn $48.7M this coming season. Next summer he’ll have a player option worth $52.4M, or he could decline it, opt out and become an unrestricted free agent come summer 2025.
If Miami refuses to commit to their franchise cornerstone beyond the 2026 season with the extension Butler’s camp is seeking, then they’d inevitably have to consider trading Butler before he could simply leave them empty-handed one year later; to avoid that risk, Miami would need that bit of The Jimmy Butler Business to be settled before the 2025 NBA Trade Deadline next February.
So Mr. Pat Riley, what’s it gonna be? Go No. 2 or get off the bowl? Because if there’s one thing we learned about Butler from his Minnesota days, if he isn’t happy, he’s burning the whole thing down to the ground in a Tour de force blaze of practice session glory.
Morey is no stranger to telegraphing intense interest to any and all superstars, including the disgruntled, pre-disgruntled and perfectly content variety. Butler would seem to fall into the pre-disgruntled category here.
Recently, Yahoo Sports’ Jake Fischer reported that “at this juncture, however, league executives are of the mind Butler will most likely remain with the Heat,” but Fischer did refer to the situation as “murky.”
Brian Windhorst of ESPN put it this way last month ago:
“There’s gonna be a number of names that are gonna come up but I’m gonna give you two off the bat here: both involve players who can get extensions with their teams but for various reasons will not.
The first name to watch is Jimmy Butler from the Miami Heat. He has got two years left on his contract. There is interest in him extending.... If Jimmy Butler wants to extend and the Heat are not willing to do it, facing heavy luxury tax penalties, is there a way to revisit [Butler to Philly]?”
So wait, double take that last sentence of the first paragraph from Windy above... Butler will not get an extension from Miami... for various reasons?
So... if that’s true then it’s really only a matter of time until he’s in a new uniform, no?
If Butler wants an extension from Riley (something he essentially said in a GQ Interview recently) but Miami is balking, could JB ask for a trade to Philly specifically where he’d know he’d get that same dollar figure he’s hoping for? It’s a town where he knows he can also potentially win that title he’s been chasing his entire career? Can you even imagine how far a title would vault his already impressive legacy? You’d have to think he’d surpass names like James Harden, and a handful of other Hall of Famers with jewelry, no? Does he think Philly — with his former teammate Joel Embiid and now All-Star Tyrese Maxey — could provide a better path than Miami as well as a boatload more cash?
The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor made it sound as if Butler would have to insist that he wanted to play for Philly and only Philly in order to make it work when KOC recently penned:
“Aside from the pipe dream that Kevin Durant or Jimmy Butler would ask to be dealt directly to Philly, sources familiar with the Sixers’ thinking say that Brandon Ingram is the primary fallback plan.”
I recently made the case for the Sixers to target Butler via trade if they can’t sign Paul George.
If Butler could be acquired on draft day, the Sixers would still have up to $17.3M in cap space to splash around with, plus an $8M Room exception, before extending Maxey — then they could fill the rest of the roster out with vet minimum signings, Morey’s specialty.
If nothing else, a report like this puts the Bat Signal out there that Daryl Morey would love to bring Jimmy Butler back to Philly... even if it’s not his first choice this summer.
