The Jimmy Butler trade saga repotedly comes to an end as he finds a new home in the Bay Area.
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After weeks of internal turmoil, the Heat agreed to a massive multi-team trade that will send six-time All-Star forward Jimmy Butler to the Warriors in exchange for Andrew Wiggins, Kyle Anderson and a protected first-round pick, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported Wednesday.
Golden State will additionally trade Dennis Schröder to Utah — his ninth NBA team — while P.J. Tucker rejoins Miami via the Jazz after a previous one-season stint, according to Charania. Lindy Waters III and Josh Richardson join Detroit via the Warriors and Heat, respectively, to round things out.
The Heat had agreed to a trade with Toronto for Anderson, but that portion of the overall deal fell through, Charania reported. Miami will now consider whether to keep Anderson or seek another trade.
BREAKING: The Miami Heat are finalizing a deal to send Jimmy Butler to the Golden State Warriors for Andrew Wiggins, Dennis Schroder, Kyle Anderson and a protected first-round pick, sources tell ESPN. pic.twitter.com/82mWHKCnVM
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) February 6, 2025
Warriors receive:
Heat receive:
Jazz receive:
Pistons receive:
Additionally, Butler has declined his 2025-26 player option in order to sign a two-year, $121-million extension that will keep him with the Warriors through 2026-27, Charania and ESPN’s Brian Windhorst reported.
New Golden State Warriors star Jimmy Butler has agreed to a new two-year, $121 million extension with the franchise through 2026-27, sources tell me and @WindhorstESPN. Butler is declining his 2025-26 player option for this new $121M deal.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) February 6, 2025
The blockbuster trade concludes a lengthy saga that saw Butler, disgruntled by Miami’s reluctance to give him the lucrative extension he coveted, draw three separate suspensions since early January, the most recent an indefinite ban as the Heat sought a final resolution.
The 35-year-old swingman joins his fifth team, where he’ll team with fellow decorated veterans Stephen Curry and Draymond Green in the hopes of lifting the Warriors — mired in 11th place in the Western Conference — back into playoff contention.
Butler, the key player on Heat squads that reached the 2020 and 2023 Finals, is averaging 17 points, 5.2 rebounds and 4.8 assists in his 14th NBA season.
Mark down March 25: Golden State at Miami, the first time Butler could play again in South Florida.
Golden State becomes Butler’s fifth team, after stints in Chicago, Minnesota, Philadelphia and Miami. His arrivals were celebrated in all four cities, and his departures weren’t exactly smooth in any of them.
The Warriors had a closed-door meeting in the locker room Wednesday as news of the trade was getting out; coach Steve Kerr met with the team during the period that the room is typically open to reporters before games. Golden State wound up falling to Utah 131-128.
“Our guys were in the locker room getting ready to play and all of a sudden we’re saying goodbye,” Kerr said.
Butler’s breakup with the Heat brewed for months. The primary issue was money; he was eligible for the two-year, $113 million extension and the Heat never offered it, largely because he missed about 25% of the team’s games in his Miami tenure.
The relationship was broken beyond repair at the end. When Butler said he didn’t expect to find on-court joy with the Heat again in early January, he was suspended for seven games as the last straw on a list of what the team called detrimental conduct.
It kept getting worse: Butler was suspended three times in January alone, the second a two-game ban for missing a team flight, the last an indefinite one that followed him leaving shootaround early after learning he wasn’t going to start a Jan. 27 game against Orlando. That was the end.
“There was a lot said by everybody, except for me, to tell you the truth,” Butler said after his first game back following the first suspension. “We’ll let people keep talking. … The whole truth will come out.”
The Heat said Butler asked for a trade, which caused them to changed course from team president Pat Riley’s December vow not to trade him; when the first suspension was announced, the Heat said they were trying to make a trade happen.
He had one of the best statistical games in Heat history against Detroit on Dec. 16 — 35 points, 19 rebounds and 10 assists. It was never the same again. In his six appearances following that Detroit game, including one where he departed in the first quarter with illness, Butler averaged 9.5 points, 2.7 rebounds and 4.2 assists.
Despite his age and diminishing production, Jimmy Butler arrives in Golden State at a reasonable price.
Wiggins, who turns 30 later this month, played an integral role in Golden State’s 2021-22 championship run, averaging 18.3 points and 8.8 rebounds as the Warriors beat Boston 4-2 in the Finals.
The No. 1 pick in the 2014 draft, Wiggins has averaged 18.5 points in 11 seasons — first with Minnesota, then Golden State. He is someone that Kerr has raved about at times this season, and when Wiggins was good the Warriors were usually really good. Golden State was 8-3 this season when Wiggins scored at least 23 points.
“Wiggs is one of my favorite players I’ve ever coached,” Kerr said. “Just a beautiful soul, just a wonderful human being. And we don’t hang that (championship) banner in ’22 without him. Everything he brings every single day, the laughter, the smile, the joy, just a wonderful human being. And so, I’m going to miss him.”
Wiggins averaged 17.6 points and 4.6 rebounds in 43 appearances with the Warriors this season. He joins a Heat squad sitting sixth in the Eastern Conference at 25-24.
Butler joined Miami in 2019 to fill Dwyane Wade’s spot as the star of the team, the face of the franchise. He was an All-Star twice in Miami, helped the Heat to the NBA Finals in the bubble in 2020 and then as a No. 8 seed in 2023 and turned in some epic postseason performances. There have been 18 40-point games in Heat playoff history; Butler is responsible for eight of them, including a team-record 56 against Milwaukee in 2023.
The last time Butler spoke publicly as a Heat player was at a padel tournament on Jan. 25. “I love this city with everything that I have,” he said that day.
Two days later, he was suspended by the Heat for the third and final time.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
