Jimmy Butler’s Latest Suspension Could Impact His Free Agency

Jimmy Butler’s recent hat trick of suspensions has cost him more than 10% of his annual salary—at least for now. 

The Heat suspended their star player for the third time Monday. Butler reportedly walked out of shootaround after he was told he was being benched for Haywood Highsmith.

The suspension was indefinite, meaning Butler may have played his final game with the Heat with the Feb. 6 trade deadline looming.

Butler asked for a trade out of Miami on Jan. 2 and was suspended for the first time a day later. The seven-game suspension for “conduct detrimental to the team” cost him $336,543 per game and $2,355,798 in total. The National Basketball Players Association filed a grievance against the Heat for Butler’s suspension. 

He returned for three games from Jan. 17–21 and averaged 13 points per game in that stretch and attempted fewer shots than his average, implying he may not have been playing at full effort. The Heat went 1–2 in those games. He was suspended for the second time Thursday for two more games after he missed a team flight to Milwaukee. The second suspension cost Butler $336,543 per game and $673,086 total. 

Butler’s latest suspension will cost him $532,737 per game and $2,663,685 total for the five games before the trade deadline, assuming he’s dealt. The latest suspension is for Butler “intentionally withholding services,” which is a stricter punishment than “conduct detrimental to the team.” Suspensions for “intentionally withholding” cost players $200,000 more per game.

In total, Butler’s suspensions have cost him $5,692,569 of his $48.8 million salary for the season. 

The “withholding services” aspect of Butler’s latest fine could have implications for his free agency, should the situation stretch into the offseason. If Butler isn’t traded, his pending free agency could be frozen. 

“There is a clause in the CBA for withholding services,” Bobby Marks, the ESPN analyst and former Nets assistant GM, told Front Office Sports. “If you withheld services for more than 30 days and you’re going to be a free agent, free agency is basically paused for you. I’m not sure that will happen with Butler because he has a player option and could just opt into that.”

There is recent precedent for a disgruntled player recouping lost salary through a union grievance, which would likely head to arbitration or a settlement.

Ben Simmons was in a similar situation in 2022. The Sixers suspended Simmons for conduct detrimental and withheld $20 million in salary while Simmons demanded a trade and refused to play; the guard said he was struggling with back and mental health issues before he was traded to the Nets, where his back issues have persisted. Simmons and Philadelphia settled in August 2022, four months after he and the union filed a grievance against the team. Neither side disclosed the financial terms of the settlement.

From November 2021 to February 2022 when he was traded, the Sixers deducted $360,000 per game from Simmons’s $33 million salary because half of it had already been advanced to him in the offseason. That didn’t leave enough money in each paycheck to cover per-game deductions. 

Butler’s and Simmons’s situations aren’t identical. Butler has played 25 of Miami’s 45 games this season and briefly returned from suspension. 

“Ben went through it,” Marks says. “It’s not to this extent, I would say, and he was able to get a good chunk of it back.” Marks explained that in these situations, teams still have to deposit money in a specially earmarked union account. “It’s a process though, it’s almost a year. The money stays in escrow. You can’t do anything with it,” he said.

Butler’s preference is to be traded to the Suns, but the team’s $400 million payroll (including the luxury tax bill), lack of draft assets, the new CBA, and Bradley Beal’s no-trade clause have all been obstacles to getting a deal done so far.