Extension for Butler a priority for offseason
The final part of a threepart series addressing important offseason questions facing the Heat, with the NBA Draft set for Thursday and free agency opening Monday.
Beyond the draft and free agency questions in the coming days and months, the Heat will also need to address Jimmy Butler’s future with the team this summer.
Although Butler is one of five players from the Heat’s season-ending roster who have guaranteed salaries for 2021-22 and is under contract through 2022-23, he’s eligible for an extension this offseason.
Butler, who turns 32 on Sept. 14, will seek a maximum four-year extension that’s expected to be worth about $181 million from the Heat, and there’s optimism that a new contract will be agreed upon when he becomes eligible to sign the deal starting on Aug. 6, according to a league source.
The four-year, $141 million contract that Butler signed to join the Heat during free agency in
2019 includes a guaranteed $36 million salary for next season and a $37.7 million player option in 2022-23. An extension would replace his 2022-23 option and begin that season.
A four-year max extension would include salaries of $40.5 million for 2022-23 (nearly a $3 million increase from the player option in Butler’s current contract for 202223), $43.8 million for 2023-24, $47 million for 2024-25 and $50.3 million for 2025-26 when he will be 36, according to a breakdown from ESPN analyst and former Nets executive Bobby Marks.
The Heat’s window to sign Butler to an extension closes on Oct. 18 if the team adds three more seasons to his contract and closes on June 30 if the extension is for four seasons, according to Marks.
When asked in early June about the possibility of signing Butler to a four-year max extension this offseason, Heat president Pat Riley was noncommittal but said: “Somewhere along the line, you know when you have great players, AllNBA players, All-Defensive players, players like Jimmy that are high level and very impactful players for you that you’re going to have to pay them what their market value is.”
A four-year max extension would align with the one Heat center Bam Adebayo signed last offseason, as both contracts would end in 2025-26. Adebayo’s five-year, $163 million max contract extension is set to pay him $37.1 million in 2025-26, when Butler’s salary will be $50.3 million if he received the max.
While Butler’s extension would not impact the Heat’s salary cap situation this offseason because the new deal would not begin until 2022-23, there are future cap implications to consider. If the Heat hypothetically signs guard Kyle Lowry to a three-year,
$90 million deal in free agency this offseason, the Heat could have three players making more than $30 million in 2023-24 in
Adebayo, Butler and Lowry.
Butler is coming off arguably the best regular season of his NBA career, averaging 21.5 points on a career-best 49.7 percent shooting and career highs in rebounds (6.9), assists (7.1) and steals (2.1). And he was an essential part of Miami’s winning formula, as the Heat finished the regular season with a 7-13 record in games that Butler missed and a 33-19 record when he played.
Butler has played for four different teams in his 10 NBA seasons. But a max extension or anything close to it could keep him in Miami for the rest of his NBA career.
NEW HEAT SUMMER LEAGUE COACH
The Heat is turning to assistant coach Malik Allen to lead its summer league team this year.
After Eric Glass served as the Heat’s summer league head coach in 2018 and 2019, Allen will fill that role this year when the Heat opens summer league play in the third annual California Classic on Aug. 3 against the Los Angeles Lakers. There was no summer league action last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
It’s still unclear who will be on the Heat’s summer league team this year, with Miami’s young trio of Precious Achiuwa, KZ Okpala and Gabe Vincent currently playing for Nigeria in the Tokyo Olympics. There’s a chance Achiuwa, Okpala and Vincent could be back in Las Vegas to take part in summer league with the Heat if Nigeria does not advance past group play, which concludes Aug. 1.