In a face-to-face meeting last week, suspended Miami Heat wing Jimmy Butler told team president Pat Riley that, actually, he could pick up his $52.4 million player option for the 2025-26 season, but only if it facilitates his exit, according to ESPN.
On Jan. 3, the Heat suspended Butler seven games “for multiple instances of conduct detrimental to the team over the course of the season and particularly the last several weeks,” the team announced. He’d formally requested a trade at that point, and his camp had reportedly made it known that he planned to decline the player option and become a free agent.
Sometimes, the threat of leaving in free agency is all the leverage a disgruntled star needs. For the 35-year-old Butler, though, the situation is more complicated. The Brooklyn Nets are the only team that projects to have the cap space to offer him anything close to a max contract in the offseason, and they are not on his timeline. If Miami can’t find a trade it likes before the Feb. 6 deadline or a sign-and-trade it likes over the summer, Riley can simply let him walk, which would give the team more flexibility:
In this particular set of circumstances, Butler could effectively make his contract with the Heat last longer as a means of leaving them sooner. He knows that it would be inconvenient for the Heat to have that $52.4 million on their books, so, in this case, the threat of picking up the option could give him some leverage. This isn’t all that different than what James Harden did in the 2023 offseason when he wanted out of Philadelphia; that situation just went south much later in the process.
One issue here, though: Picking up the option means delaying his next multi-year contract. This is already Year 14 for Butler, so that is risky.
Another issue? It’s not clear that a lack of urgency on Miami’s part is why Butler remains on the roster. The Heat have gone so far as to formally announce that they will listen to trade offers, but, two days before his suspension ends, there is nothing to suggest that the ones they’ve received have been appealing. If that doesn’t change in the next few weeks, then Butler will all but certainly need Miami to work with him in the offseason, regardless of whether or not he picks up the option. And as long as the Heat believe the trade market will be significantly better in the offseason, why would they make a bad trade now?
