Heat Insider Confirms Jimmy Butler Is About To Get Traded

Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat are preparing to head their separate ways.

Over the past few weeks there have been a lot of murmurs around the league about tension building between Butler and the Heat.

This was seemingly confirmed a few days ago, when Heat president Pat Riley called out Butler for trash-talking the Boston Celtics despite not being able to play in Miami’s first-round playoff series.

“For him to say that, I thought, ‘Is that Jimmy trolling or is that Jimmy serious?’” Riley said.

“If you’re not on the court playing against Boston, if you’re not on the court playing against the New York Knicks, you should keep your mouth shut in your criticism of those teams.”

Because of how brutal of a message Riley offered, many around the NBA began to wonder if Miami was legitimately considering moving on from Butler.

“He could have said that a little bit more politely,” Zach Lowe said this week.

“Like even if you’re tongue-in-cheek, you could have been like, you know, I just wish he wouldn’t have said anything. He wasn’t available. He was like, no, I’m going to hit him with the jab and then the right hook and be pretty blunt about it.

“That is that opened a lot of eyes around the NBA. Let’s put it that way. My phone was lighting up during the Riley press conference. They are maybe ground zero for the NBA offseason starting right now.”

On Friday, Heat insider Wes Golberg took things one step further:

The Heat are one of two teams that have been closely linked to a potential Kevin Durant trade this summer.

Butler could be a way to facilitate that deal and make it slightly more realistic to occur.

Will the Heat really end up trading Butler this summer? Time will tell.