3 Ways the Heat's offseason could have played out if they traded Jimmy Butler

The Miami Heat will run it back with much of the same core, but it wasn’t long ago that it looked like they were nearly forced into a major shakeup.

Zoom back to May. Heat president Pat Riley used his annual end-of-season media session to publicly challenge Jimmy Butler. For his part, Butler’s camp made it clear through media leaks that he sought a maximum contract extension from the Heat or any other team.

That never happened. The only landing spot with maximum cap space was the Philadelphia 76ers, and they used it to sign Paul George. Butler decided it best to kick contract talks to next summer and play out this season in what amounts to a contract year. If he comes back in “killer mode,” Butler will position himself for one last big contract for his career.

But what if the alternative happened? What if Butler held out for a long-term contract extension and the Heat were forced to pivot?

What would a torn-down and rebuilt Heat team have looked like?

It depends on where they would have traded Butler, but it doesn’t stop there. 

Scenario 1: Butler is traded to Philadelphia

In this hypothetical universe, let's assume George re-signed with the Clippers, leaving the 76ers with max cap space to use on a star player. 

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Sixers were prepared to offer Butler a maximum contract extension in a sign-and-trade. Philadelphia had the space to absorb Butler’s contract without sending other contracts back to Miami.

Such a deal would have given Miami a fair amount of cap space and ducked the luxury tax altogether. It would have unlocked the non-taxpayer mid-level exception and allowed them to take more salary back in separate trades.

Re-signing their own free agents like Caleb Martin would have been easier. Naji Marshall, Derrick Jones Jr. and De’Anthony Melton signed for close to the MLE. Perhaps the Heat could have been involved with them. Other free agents like DeMar DeRozan, Klay Thompson and Jonas Valanciunas switched teams via sign-and-trade, which the Heat could have executed with that much space below the tax.

More likely than not, the Heat would have gotten draft capital back from Philadelphia, including the 16th pick in June’s draft. The 76ers used that pick on Jared McCain. McCain was on Miami’s board, so let’s assume he would have been the Heat’s second pick after taking Kel’el Ware at 15.

The Heat could have shopped the new draft capital and other players to land a star to replace Butler, but that became less of an option when Donovan Mitchell re-signed with Cleveland. No other stars became available.

It’s unlikely the Heat would have tied up future cap space in an aging vet like DeRozan. Rather, they would have maintained financial flexibility for next season. 

So the Heat’s roster would have looked something like:

PG: Terry Rozier / Jared McCain

SG: Tyler Herro / Duncan Robinson / Josh Richardson

SF: Jaime Jaquez Jr. / Haywood Highsmith / Pelle Larsson

PF: Nikola Jovic / Kevin Love

C: Bam Adebayo / Kel’el Ware

That would leave three open roster spots. Maybe the Heat don’t sign Alec Burks or Thomas Bryant. Maybe they do. They’d still have the three two-way spots currently occupied by Dru Smith, Keshad Johnson and Josh Christopher.