The Jimmy Butler trade rumors have been picking up in recent weeks, and it’s starting to seem like it will only be a matter of time before the Miami Heat send him to another team.
A recent report revealed there are two teams that Butler would prefer to play for if traded.
“The [Golden State] Warriors and [Phoenix] Suns are at the top of Butler’s wish list,” according to ESPN insider Shams Charania, via NBACentral.
The Warriors and Suns are at the top of Jimmy Butler’s list, per @ShamsCharania
pic.twitter.com/sdqC5D5UjF— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) December 17, 2024
The Warriors and Suns are good teams that perhaps need that one missing piece to get over the hump and become legitimate championship contenders.
At this point of his career, one perhaps cannot count on Butler to be a volume scorer on a regular basis, but come crunch time, he’s still one of the more feared players in the NBA.
He’s averaging 19.4 points a game this season, which is his lowest scoring average since the 2018-19 season, and the Heat looked to have maxed out the potential of their core.
They reached the Eastern Conference Finals three times and the NBA Finals twice in the previous five seasons, and now that Butler is 35 years old, it seems it is time to start retooling while he still has value.
Miami has a couple of young stars in Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro they can build around moving forward, and trading Butler could net the Heat some draft capital to use in a rebuilding project.
NEXT: Details Emerge About What Heat Want In Jimmy Butler Trade
