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Jimmy Butler is reportedly available to be traded, and the Miami Heat star may manage to return to his home state of Texas. But one former player says it would be better for Butler to land with the Dallas Mavericks instead of the Houston Rockets if he were to be traded.
Chandler Parsons, who played 10 seasons in the NBA, including two with the Mavericks, said Dallas would be a better spot for 35-year-old Butler even with the Rockets' impressive play this year.
“I love the Rockets move, but they have something good going. I don't like to shake it up when something's good going,” Parsons said on FanDuel TV's ‘Run It Back'. “And when you look at a team like this, [if] Jimmy Butler goes to the Rockets, I think he thinks he's the number one option. And I think that's not the best situation for Jimmy Butler right now. To me, it's Dallas. You go there, and there's a pecking order. It's known; this is Luka's team and then there's Kyrie, and then there's Jimmy Butler. And weaknesses for their team is defense, so I think he can provide them a lot of things, fill a lot of holes that they don't have quite yet.”
Is a Mavericks trade for Heat star Jimmy Butler even possible?
The problem with a potential Mavericks trade for Butler, as Parsons went on to mention, is that Dallas would have to part with one or multiple key pieces in exchange for Butler.
Thanks to the signing of Klay Thompson over the offseason, Dallas is hard-capped at the $178.1 million first apron, meaning it cannot exceed that cap figure for the entirety of the season. Currently, the Mavericks sit about $526,000 below the first apron, meaning any trade for Butler would effectively have to match outgoing salaries with the $48.8 million Butler is making this season.
To reach that figure would involve packaging multiple players, including possibly Klay Thompson ($15.9 million), PJ Washington (15.5 million), Daniel Gafford ($13.4 million), Maxi Kleber ($11 million), or Naji Marshall ($8.6 million). Neither Marshall nor Thompson can be traded until Dec. 15 since they each signed deals with Dallas in the offseason.
Whether Dallas is a realistic destination or not, it would appear Butler's time in Miami is coming to an end. While he can pick up a $52.4 million player option during the summer, the relationship between the Heat and Butler seems more strained than ever despite two NBA Finals appearances since Butler arrived in 2019.
After the Heat's first-round playoff loss to the Boston Celtics, Butler, who missed the series due to a sprained MCL, said the Celtics “would be at home” had he played. Shortly thereafter, Pat Riley, the Heat's chief decisionmaker and former head coach, did not hold back in his criticism of Butler's comments.
“I thought, ‘Is that Jimmy trolling or is that Jimmy serious?' If you're not on the court playing against Boston or on the court playing against the New York Knicks, you should keep your mouth shut on the criticism of those teams,” Riley said after the season.
At that time, Riley also seemed to place an emphasis on night-to-night availability for the Heat's players. Since joining the Heat, he has never played 65 games in a single season. Butler has played in 17 of Miami's 22 games so far this season, putting him on pace for 63 games, three more than he played last season.
