Jimmy Butler is headed to the Golden State Warriors, Andrew Wiggins to Miami Heat, AP source says
Jimmy Butler is headed to the Golden State Warriors, Andrew Wiggins to Miami Heat, AP source says
Jimmy Butler got what he wanted. He’s being traded out of Miami and got a new contract in the process.
The Heat and the Golden State Warriors have agreed on a deal that sends Butler to the Bay Area, a person with knowledge of the talks said Wednesday. Butler helped carry the Heat to the NBA Finals twice, long before a hostile breakup that saw him suspended three times by the team in January.
Golden State is making it happen by moving Andrew Wiggins, Dennis Schroder, Kyle Anderson, Lindy Waters and first-round draft compensation out in the deal, said the person, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the trade has not gotten league approval.
Wiggins and Anderson are headed to Miami; it’s unclear if Anderson will be staying with the Heat. Schroder is getting moved to Utah — where the Warriors, coincidentally, were Wednesday night — and Josh Richardson is heading from Miami to Detroit along with Waters. Also on the move: P.J. Tucker, who was just traded to Utah and now is set to return to Miami, where he played in 2021-22.
“My brother, man. I’m going to miss him, for sure,” said Heat forward Nikola Jovic, who looked up to Butler. “I think a lot of guys here will. He’s someone who did a lot for this franchise.”
The Heat will get a protected first-rounder from Golden State; for now, that is a pick in this year’s draft though that could change based on final terms. And ESPN reported that Butler has already agreed on a two-year extension with the Warriors, one that would be worth around $113 million.
“I’m really happy that he got what he wanted,” Jovic said. “That bag’s kinda really big.”
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.
With the Warriors, he joins Stephen Curry and Draymond Green — two players who were part of all four recent Golden State championship teams and have hopes of getting back to title contention again.
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.
Butler is averaging 17 points per game this season. 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.
Wiggins, the No. 1 pick in the 2014 draft, 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.”
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.
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AP Sports Writer Janie McCauley in San Francisco and Associated Press Writer John Coon in Salt Lake City contributed to this report.
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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba
By TIM REYNOLDS
AP Basketball Writer
