NBA Rumors: The Miami Heat's post-Jimmy master plan for 2026 is likely destined to blow up in their face once again.
As the Miami Heat continues to scour the trade market for the right deal for Jimmy Butler, it appears there's a very high probability that the perfect offer is ever going to come across the table. Ultimately, the Heat must decide how badly they want to trade Jimmy before the deadline. With the way things are trending, I'd say there's a solid chance Miami keeps Jimmy through the season and allows him to walk in free agency.
If the Heat were willing to go down that path, they'd have to hope Jimmy doesn't opt into the final year of his contract. Either way, there's a risk on both sides of that decision-making process. If one thing is clear, it's that the Heat desire flexibility in whether they trade Jimmy or not. Specifically, the recent reporting seems to suggest the Heat is planning to clear the deck to completely rebuild the team around Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro during the 2026 offseason.
The summer of 2026 for the Miami Heat
During that summer, the only players projected to be on the books for the Heat are Bam and Herro. Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kel'el Ware, and Pelle Larsson have cheap team options and Nikola Jovic will be a restricted free agent. But aside from that, the Heat should have plenty of flexibility to reload the roster.
Of course, there's only one problem with that. Free agency in the NBA is not necessarily what it used to be as it was when the Heat successfully pulled off such a feat during the summer of 2010. Looking at the top projected free agents of 2026, it's unlikely that many of them will even hit the market. Sure, in theory, it would be great if the likes of Trae Young, Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and De'Aaron Fox hit the open market but there's probably a greater chance that each of those players ends up re-signing with their respective teams or getting traded to preferred landing spot before that.
The "trade demand" in the NBA has essentially become the new free agency for the top players in the league. The Heat has seen this play out over the past few years with the likes of Kevin Durant, Bradley Beal, James Harden, and Damian Lillard. One of the bigger reasons why the Heat has faltered on those attempts to land a superstar via trade is because of how the team has mismanaged their (draft) assets over the last few years.
Even now, the Heat's ability to trade future draft picks, which is the currency to land star players in today's game, is complicated because of bad trades they've made in the past. The Heat can try to get the fan base excited about the possibility of adding a superstar player in 2026 because of all the financial flexibility they're going to have but it does seem like an outdated plan that is almost certainly going to blow up in the team's face once again.