NBA Trade Rumors: It's foolish for Miami Heat to close door on Jimmy Butler trade

NBA Trade Rumors: The Miami Heat would be making a huge mistake if they didn't consider trading Jimmy Butler.

Heading into the start of the NBA season, there may not be a "contender "whose future is more up in the air than the Miami Heat. After making a surprising run to the NBA Finals twice during the Jimmy Butler era, it's pretty safe to assume that the end is probably near. As Jimmy heads into what could end up being the final year of his contract with the Heat, there are big questions that need to be answered sooner rather than later regarding the future of both Jimmy and the Heat.

In an ideal world, those futures would continue to intersect moving forward. However, with how much Miami left to be desired last year and considering they didn't truly upgrade the roster heading into this season, it's hard to imagine how there's a world in which the Heat re-sign Jimmy not only to the contract number that he wants but also with the intention of building another championship-caliber roster around him.

There's a very real possibility that the window to build a championship contender around Jimmy has closed. Jimmy is 35 years old and with his injury history, there's a very good chance Father Time is already knocking on his door. His best playing days are likely already behind him. Because of that, instead of building around Jimmy, there's a very good chance this front office believes it may be time to build around Bam Adebayo.

Trading Jimmy Butler has to be on the table

If that does end up being the case, it would be foolish to close the door on the idea of trading Jimmy at some point this season. If the Heat quickly begins to realize that they can't win with this roster, it's going to be difficult to make tangible changes on the fly.

With how much money they have tied up in the likes of Tyler Herro, Terry Rozier, and Duncan Robinson, the Heat making a championship-level trade in-season seems extremely unlikely.

That's partly why it was so disappointing when they didn't make any upgrades to their roster during this past offseason. But if the Heat does believe changes are needed and that it could be time to pivot away from Jimmy, they'd be insane to just let him walk in free agency when they have a perfect opportunity to trade him at the deadline.