All good things come to an end. That’s what happened with Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat, despite the six-time All-Star elevating the franchise into heights nobody thought was conceivable for five-and-a-half seasons.
After a two-month–no, seven-month-long–contract dispute, the Heat traded the disgruntled, “joyless” 35-year-old to the Golden State Warriors this week in exchange for Andrew Wiggins, Davion Mitchell, Kyle Anderson and a 2025 top-10 protected first-round pick.
Now that the dust has settled, stories are coming out about the fallout between Butler and the Heat. In ESPN’s story Friday, one fascinating anecdote regarding Butler’s thoughts on Wiggins, his former Timberwolves teammate for two seasons (2017-19), was revealed from a 2019 meeting between Butler and Heat president Riley when Butler signed.
“Miami liked Golden State’s concept, which centered on Andrew Wiggins and the Warriors’ 2025 first-round pick, which right now would land in the lottery. Wiggins was the kind of young, athletic, small forward the Heat would need to replace Butler,” the report read.“There was an irony to this. When Butler first came to the Heat in summer 2019, Butler was in Riley’s office celebrating the signing of the four-year, $142 million deal that landed him in Miami. The two men cracked open a bottle of Screaming Eagle cabernet from Riley’s personally curated wine cellar inside the Heat offices. Riley was telling stories, and he asked Butler who was his most talented teammate. Butler answered quickly: Wiggins, the 2014 No. 1 pick and his teammate with the Timberwolves.
“Riley was surprised, those who were in the room remembered, and joked that Butler might need to be cut off from any more wine. But Butler insisted. Wiggins’ talent was incredible. Five years later, they were traded for each other.
“Wiggins has gone on to become an All-Star and NBA champion, though his previous two seasons left the Warriors looking for an upgrade. From the Heat’s perspective, he didn’t need the ball as much as Butler, which Miami believed would make for a seamless transition on a team that has been led offensively this season by first-time All-Star Tyler Herro.“
While the article does not specify whether Butler meant from just his Minnesota tenure to his entire eight-year career up to that point, one could assume it was for the latter. And he played with plenty of talented teammates, including Derrick Rose, Joel Embiid and Karl-Anthony Towns, to name a few.
Wiggins, 29, was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft and won the Rookie of the Year in 2015. Though his true two-way potential wasn’t unlocked until he arrived in Golden State midway through the 2019-20 season.
His counting numbers may have popped, but he was the second-most-important player on their Finals run in 2021-22, where he was consistently defending the opposing team’s top player while being a tertiary option on 54.4 percent true shooting.
The new Heat forward is still very gifted athletically with good size (6-foot-7, 7-foot wingspan). He’s been around 40 percent on spot-up 3s in four of the last five seasons while being an above-average rebounder and shot-blocker for his position.
Wiggins now enters a situation beneficial for him–he knows how to excel in a limited role. He’ll likely be a second- or third-option offensively with coveted versatility defensively, where he will help the Heat shore up arguably their biggest weakness at the point-of-attack. He’s the perfect ancillary role player, and it’s quite ironic and humorous how Butler’s comments may have resonated with the rest of the Heat front office.
***
To check out our other content, click here.
Follow Hot Hot Hoops on Twitter/X here!
Follow Hot Hot Hoops on Instagram here!
Subscribe to our YouTube channel here!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_9upEnBi-A
Great take on the new players by Nic Rohloff
an area that sunman and pat needed to address was backup c.vucevic should have been looked into sun sun and pat got us 2 needed areas a true pg and a good 2way sf.ty is a turnover machine at pg and terrys a score first guard.i think the wrong mitchell can help us as much or more than wiggy.2 great additions and spobot needs to have them start asap.mitch ty wiggy bam ware not a bad 5 maybe top 10 in nba?
Here’s a blast from the past. Remember Kendrick Nunn from Miami’s 2020 Finals team? The last we saw of him in U.S. was in G League. He finally decided to play in Europe instead of waiting for a possible NBA contract. Pick up video at about 8:50 mark. Unbelievable! I’m very happy for Kendrick.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rs4zphWIUeQ
laker trade gets rescinded thats bad for lebron.that dallas team looking real good.okc team to beat in west.tatum couldnt miss tonight.knicks d is awful.that cornette guy is one big mofo hes a great backup.this pritchard dude one heckuva player hes like herro alot.cant wait to see the newbys so tired of social experiment
Interesting news.
We took it too far. Ty is an unbelievable athlete, with a rare level of coordination and talent. Nico has a great shot and also can bull his way into the paint using his size. He is also a fairly good ball handler for a big. And both play reasonable defense. Pelle has shown flashes and it remains to be seen what we have but he appears to be an athlete too as you can tell by his defensive work. If I were GM, I would only have those three on my team, even though there may be a place in the league for the others. Then again, I would not have HH, or Burks either. And maybe not Slo Mo, but we shall see how he looks.
I strongly agree with your first line.
Spanning the globe with HFL. Excellent.
That Laker trade is brutal for them since it’s after the trade deadline. They will definitely be buyout market shoppers at center.
thought of chris shenkle with that post wide world of sports.alex len bought already
Have you seen what Portland is doing?. They are on quite a run.
I have been waiting for a win streak/breakout like that for a season and a half now. Why can’t we have what they have man
Because we didn’t stink for 20 years! 😆
Maybe we’ll be able to start a winning streak later this month. The way the team has been playing, it may be tough to start one in next three games before the all-star break against Boston (at home), OKC and Dallas (on the road).
bost okc dallas yikes .cleve the 4th game
That didn’t age well as they were winning their game last night when I wrote above but they lost.,Still, I think they won like seven in a row before that.
Yup 8-2 in last 10, although they lost tonight to T’Wolves. Houston has lost 6 straight and dropped to 5th place in the West. They are the ones who should have traded for Butler. They have veterans and a ton of young players and draft picks they could have packaged in a trade to Miami. Now they may not make it out of the first round. Oh well, it’s their loss.
Still not a good team.
Anyone watching our old friend in warrior’s debut? 😁😜
That’s great! Miami needs for Warriors to make top 10 in West (at least the play-in round) so Heat can get their 2025 top 10 protected draft pick. Warriors are currently tied for #9 in West, 1/2 game ahead of #11 Sacramento.
I was out, but checked the highlights. Good for him.