The Rockets don’t need Jimmy Butler. At all.
According to the oddsmakers at the DraftKings Sportsbook, the Houston Rockets are a +900 to land Jimmy Butler in a trade with the Miami Heat. Rockets fans should be excited right? Yes, fans, you should be excited, because just days ago they were the favorites to land the 35-year-old, who is making $48 million this season and has a player option next season worth $52 million. I’ll be happy to see the odds get much higher by the day.
If I’m being too subtle, let me be clearer. I don’t think the Rockets should touch Jimmy Butler with a 10-foot adjustable basketball goal from Walmart, much less invite him into the Rockets new $75 million dollar practice facility or the house that Steve Francis built. Is Jimmy Butler’s career 18 points-per-game worth the inevitable meltdown when he’s no longer happy here? Is it worth giving up any of their young core that may be poised to be better scorers and defenders? Those questions were rhetorical… No, his 18 points-per-game are not worth it.
Jimmy Butler is a very good basketball player. Much of what he brings to the table is the exact stuff that Ime Udoka wants in a player. Toughness, defense, professionalism. Only that last part has gone out the window in four separate places, once Jimmy felt he was being slighted in some way. Shall we revisit?
Chicago Bulls
Butler played for the team that drafted him for six seasons before being traded because the Bulls refused to pay him a max contract. Why did they refuse to give him a max contract? You could say that it was because in his first six seasons, he was merely a 15-point per game scorer, but in his last three seasons, he averaged just over 21 points per game on 45 percent shooting, including 35 percent from three, and he has gained the reputation of a fierce defender and competitor.
Why wouldn’t a team think such a player is worthy of a max contract? It could be that his second and third seasons were not great and perhaps the team wasn’t convinced of who Jimmy Butler was as a player. However, three seasons was plenty of evidence of who he had become, on top of the fact that in his last two seasons, he increased his level of play in the postseason.
The fact of the matter is that Jimmy Butler believed that he was “Himmy” Butler, and word around the league was that he was turned off by the idea of the Bulls being “Derrick Rose’s team.” You know, the youngest player to ever win league MVP? Yeah, that Derrick Rose. We all know that injuries eventually caught up with Rose, but the idea that anyone would not revel in the opportunity to play with someone that talented should have been a red flag for his next team, but they learned.
Minnesota Timberwolves
In 2017, Jimmy Butler was traded to the Timberwolves for Zach Lavine, and in his first season, he helped lead the Wolves to their first playoff appearance in 13 years. The celebrations were fierce, and short. Our beloved Rockets bounced them from the playoffs in five games. Jimmy Butler did not play well in that series outside of Game 3. In the elimination game, he scored eight points.
Immediately into the off-season, Butler began expressing his discontent with his contract situation. Once again, he wanted a max-contract and the Timberwolves were not inclined to do so, at least not as quickly as Butler wanted them to. So he immediately did what any person in his situation would do. Go to the media and begin trashing the organization and his teammates, particularly Karl-Anthony Towns. After refusing to go to training camp, the story is when he finally showed up, he chose to run with the second team to prove his point, began “challenging teammates” — aka calling them “bums” — and yelling at coaches and front office executives to trade him. The Timberwolves obliged.
Philadelphia 76ers
After playing just 10 games for the Wolves in 2018-2019, Jimmy Butler was traded to the 76ers, who at the time felt that adding Butler was the final piece needed to complete “The Process.” Jimmy Butler did for the 76ers what he had done most of his career. Averaged 18 points-per-game, 5.3 rebounds, 4 assists, and played really hard, especially on the defensive end of the floor. It was good enough to get the team to the Eastern Conference semi-finals, where they were eliminated in Game 7 on the infamous Kawhi Leonard buzzer beater that bounced on the rim four times before going in for the win.
Jimmy Butler was finally a free agent, and the 76ers had just barely been defeated by the eventual NBA Champions. Surely the Sixers would be the team to offer Butler a max-deal, right? Wrong. The 76ers instead chose to pay the combination of Tobias Harris, Josh Richardson, and Al Horford, and sent Butler to Miami. Which brings us to where we are now.
Miami Heat
Finally, Jimmy Butler landed on a team that wanted to pay him. The Miami Heat acquired him in a sign-and-trade and inked him to a four-year $142-million-dollar contract. In 2023, they gave him a max-veteran extension of $146 million. That’s right, the Miami Heat were willing to pay Jimmy Butler over a quarter of a billion dollars to play basketball. For this, he was grateful and vowed he would retire in Miami and have his jersey hung in the rafters someday… right?
Of course not! Jimmy Butler is currently serving a seven-game suspension for “conduct detrimental to the team”, a phrase that has been attributed to him on more than one occasion. Jimmy Butler has made it known to the team that he wants to be traded, and the suspension comes as a signal from Pat Riley that despite what Mr. 18-points-a-game believes about himself, he isn’t 29 as he was the first time he tried to pull this stunt, and he doesn’t run the Miami Heat.
This stand-off will eventually reach a breaking point, and the Miami Heat will likely trade him for the best deal they can get. But if you are a Houston Rockets fan, why on earth would you want to bring Jimmy Butler onto a team that is beginning to gel, has promising young talent, and good veteran leadership? I’ll answer that for you. You should not want Jimmy Butler anywhere near this team.
Conclusion
The Houston Rockets are young, deep, talented, and currently reside in the second seed in the better conference in the NBA. Their arrow is pointing up. Eventually, a move is probably inevitable, but for what reason does it need to be made right now? So that the Rockets can have a “name” on the roster? So that they will get more appearances on all the debate shows? None of that matters. What matters is continuing to build on the culture that Ime Udoka has established and keeping the team cancer free, figuratively. Well, keeping them cancer free literally should be a priority as well I suppose, but you catch my drift. The Rockets do not need Jimmy Butler.