The Miami Heat have been one of the teams to watch this season, but not necessarily for their play on the court. Most are waiting to see if they will trade star Jimmy Butler. His name has frequently come up in trade rumors, but a new report by ESPN's Bobby Marks may throw cold water on those rumors.
Marks believes that the Heat may not trade Butler this season, and if true, that would be a bad call on their part. The Heat passing up on a chance to trade Butler would be a big mistake for several reasons.
One reason is that Butler will be an unrestricted free agent after this season. While few teams can afford to sign him without working out a sign-and-trade with the Heat, they risk losing him for nothing.
The Miami Heat should look to trade Jimmy Butler this season, while they still can.
Miami had prioritized getting back rotation players for Butler as opposed to young players, salary fillers, and picks. That would make sense since most of the teams that would have interest in him have either already recently made the playoffs or are hoping to make it this year. That means that they probably would have to trade rotation players to match salaries with Butler anyway.
With Miami already having pieces in place, such as Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro, that they use to retool around, passing up on the opportunity to swap Butler out doesn't make a lot of sense. And while the Heat don't seem to value first-round picks as much as other teams, perhaps they should.
Were they to miss the playoffs, they would be able to keep their lottery-protected pick away from Oklahoma City and give themselves a top-14 pick. Even if they can stay in the playoff race after a potential Butler trade, they could still receive another first in a deal for one of their best players.
The alternative to holding onto Butler is to keep him through the remainder of the season and have potentially one last run with him. They are currently sixth in the Eastern Conference, and if they can hold onto that spot, they can avoid the play-in tournament altogether.
In theory, that would at least give them a decent chance to advance to the second round. However, that would potentially result in them having to face the New York Knicks without home court. The Heat had had bigger upsets.
Nevertheless, between keeping Butler through the trade deadline only to potentially be bounced in the first round and trading Butler for the biggest return possible, the Heat shouldn't hesitate to move him if the right deal came along.