NBA TV analyst Sam Mitchell, who was the 2007 NBA Coach of the Year, predicted the Miami Heat would swap the disgruntled Jimmy Butler for Sacramento Kings star point guard De’Aaron Fox to reunite him with Bam Adebayo.
“If you’re the Miami Heat and Pat Riley, do you want to deal with Jimmy Butler at $52 million, who is going to be an unrestricted free agent?” Mitchell posed the question on NBA TV. “No, that would be a nightmare scenario, so to me, I think he’s going to get moved, and now that things have been happening in Sacramento, Mike Brown, don’t be surprised. I smell a Fox in Miami.”
The Kings fired Brown, the unanimous NBA Coach of the Year in 2023, following a five-game losing skid and his constant public callout of Fox.
Fox and Adebayo were teammates at Kentucky in the 2016-17 season. Fox’s current teammate Malik Monk was also on that Kentucky team that reached the Elite Eight.
ESPN’s Tim MacMahon mentioned the Heat as one of the potential landing spots for Fox if he seeks a trade.
“If he does ask out, San Antonio and Houston—keep an eye on those two. I’ve heard Lakers, but it’s hard for me to tell how much of that is just people jumping to conclusions because he’s a Klutch client. And then I’ve heard Miami with the Bam connection there,” MacMahon said on the “Hoop Collective” podcast on December 27.
Fox, who made it to the All-NBA Third Team and the Clutch Player of the Year in 2023, is on the fourth year of a five-year, $163 million deal with the Kings. Next summer, Fox will be eligible for a four-year, $229 million extension.
3-Team Trade Floated
Butler, however, does not make sense for the Kings in a straight swap.
Sacramento already has DeMar DeRozan, who plays the same position and, like Butler, is not a volume 3-point shooter.
Former NBA player Steve Smith, Mitchell’s colleague at NBA TV, floated a three-team trade scenario where Butler lands in Golden State, Fox in Miami, while the Kings get draft capital to start a rebuild.
“I see a three-team deal with the Warriors,” Smith said.
Heat Not Trading Jimmy Butler
Heat president Pat Riley already issued a strong statement, saying they will not trade Butler.
“We usually don’t comment on rumors, but all this speculation has become a distraction to the team and is not fair to the players and coaches. Therefore, we will make it clear – We are not trading Jimmy Butler,” Riley wrote in a statement on December 26.
It is unclear if that changes Butler’s earlier stance that he prefers a trade out of Miami, which ESPN’s Shams Charania reported before Riley’s statement.
According to a Miami Herald report, Butler was “caught off guard” by Riley’s public comments, admonishing him for his postseason smack talks to the Boston Celtics and the New York Knicks during the longtime executive’s end-of-the-season press conference in May.
Butler is inclined to decline his $52.4 million player option for next season to enter unrestricted free agency, according to Charania. Butler is basically applying the pressure on the Heat to trade him without directly asking for it.
But the Heat, according to the Miami Herald report, does not feel the urgency to trade Butler since only the rebuilding Brooklyn Nets have the cap room to sign him in the offseason.
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