The Golden State Warriors are still reeling from their heartbreaking 115-113 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Christmas Day when they received bad news.
Miami Heat president Pat Riley is standing pat on the Jimmy Butler situation, dousing the Warriors’ burning desire to land a secondary star next to Stephen Curry with cold water.
“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.
Riley’s definitive statement quelled the Butler trade rumors, which dominated the past two weeks.
On Christmas, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that Butler “prefers a trade out of Miami ahead of the Feb. 6 deadline.”
Charania doubled down on his latest report on the developing situation in Miami involving Butler on the “NBA Countdown,” citing things began to unravel in the offseason when the Heat did not offer their franchise a star contract extension.
“They bypassed that did not extend him, and they lean more into their young, rising core — Bam Adebayo, an All-Star, and Tyler Herro,” Charania said. “And over the last three years, Jimmy Butler has wanted the Heat to go get him some help in that roster. They just have not been able to land that player. They’ve gone after Kevin Durant, Damian Lillard and Kyrie Irving. They have not been able to land that next big fish with Jimmy Butler. The writing, in a lot of ways, is on the wall for the Heat and for Jimmy Butler.”
Warriors Favored to Land Jimmy Butler
The Warriors’ interest in Butler dates back to the offseason when he did not get an extension from the Heat, according to The Athletic’s Sam Amick.
“Jimmy Butler’s going to be a free agent next summer, didn’t get an extension done,” Amick said on “The TK Show” podcast on September 12. “The Warriors, as you know, have an interest there and I think probably [they] made a couple of calls during the summer.”
According to Charania, the Warriors and the Phoenix Suns are atop the short list of Butler’s preferred next win-now teams if the Heat are going to trade him. The two Texas teams — Houston Rockets and Dallas Mavericks — are also on Butler’s list, but both teams have shown no interest to trade for him.
The Warriors have the cleanest path to trading for Butler with different combinations of draft picks, young players such as Jonathan Kuminga and Brandin Podziemski and midsize contracts, including their newest acquisition Dennis Schröder, to work around with.
Joe Lacob’s Patience Wearing Thin
The Warriors have been aggressively pursuing another star to pair with Curry in their bid to extend their championship window.
After their failed pursuits of LeBron James, Paul George and Lauri Markkanen in the offseason, could they finally land one in Butler?
They traded for Schröder with the hopes they could get back the winning chemistry they lost when De’Anthony Melton suffered a season-ending ACL injury.
“Trades are hard. I’ve made this comment before,” Warriors owner Joe Lacob told Tim Kawakami of The San Francisco Standard on December 15. “This one (Schröder trade) was available for us at the right time, and hopefully another one, might be two. … Obviously, if we keep losing, I’m going to want to … do something else.”
Since then, the Warriors have lost three of their last four games. They are 2-6 over their last eight games, which pulled them down to 10th place in the Western Conference with a 15-14 record as Steve Kerr continues to search for the right combinations to right the ship.
Butler could help them. But Riley isn’t keen on helping them.
