After missing the Miami Heat’s five-game playoff run last spring with a knee injury, Jimmy Butler says his goal for the 2024-25 season is to play as much as possible.
“I want to play as many games as possible,” Butler said after the Heat’s Saturday practice, per Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald. “I’ll leave it at that. I don’t need to put a number on the amount of games that I play.
“I know the more games that I play, the more opportunities that my squad has of winning. I do know that.”
Butler last played an 82-game NBA season for the Chicago Bulls in 2012-13. He has been limited to 64 games or fewer each year since his 2019 trade to the Heat, including his most recent 60-game campaign in 2023-24.
He is currently set to play the 2024-25 season on a $48.8 million salary, with a $52.4 million player option available in June.
Shams Charania of ESPN reported in June that Butler plans to decline that option, and Chiang previously said he expects Butler to instead seek a two-year maximum extension in free agency.
Following Saturday’s practice, Butler said it wasn’t his next contract that was motivating him to play in as many games as he could this fall.
“If we’re being brutally honest, no matter what, nothing I do now is going to get me paid anymore money,” Butler said, per Chiang. “Even though I don’t care about the money. All-NBA, dah, dah, dah, dah, none of that is going to matter. I’m at a point right now that I got more than enough money. I’m just here to win.”
Butler recently said on the Netflix documentary series Starting 5 that grieving the loss of his father, who died during the 2023-24 season, impacted his perspective on the importance of both basketball and money.
After not making a preseason appearance with the Heat last fall, Butler on Tuesday played in the Heat’s preseason opener against the Charlotte Hornets. The Heat star recorded 11 points on 3-of-6 shooting while playing 16 minutes in the road loss.
His availability could be even more important to the Heat this fall given that Tyler Herro and Jaime Jaquez Jr. sat out the first game of the preseason with groin injuries.
Per Chiang, both rotation players joined Friday’s practice and could see preseason action against the New Orleans Pelicans on Sunday, but should they be limited heading into the regular season Butler’s offense will be even more important for Miami.
