There’s a realistic chance the Miami Heat don’t move star Jimmy Butler prior to the Feb. 6 trade deadline.

The most likely reason would be if the Heat’s front office and team president Pat Riley cannot find a return package they’re satisfied with. In this scenario, the six-time All-Star could either opt out of his player option and hit free agency or opt in and once again pressure the front office to explore deals.

Regardless, the Heat won’t want to waste what could be Butler’s final season in Miami. This means making win-now moves at the trade deadline in hopes of competing for a championship the final time in the Butler era.

FanSided predicted the Heat could complete the following deal with the Chicago Bulls, landing a two-time All-Star.

Heat receive: Nikola Vucevic, Talen Horton-Tucker

Bulls receive: Duncan Robinson, Josh Richardson, 2031 second-round pick

Would the Bulls be willing to give up Vucevic for such a low asking price? Likely so, considering their desperation to move off his three-year, $60 million contract.

The Heat agree to this trade because of Vucevic’s potential fit alongside Bam Adebayo. This deal allows Adebayo to fully shift to power forward, embracing his inner Draymond Green.

MORE HEAT NEWS

‘If I’m A Superstar, I Ain’t Coming To Heat Culture’ — NBA Legend Blasts Pat Riley

NBA Insider Suggests Jimmy Butler Might Make Bold Call About His Heat Future

Anthony Pasciolla works as a contributing writer to Miami Heat On SI. He can be reached at ampasciolla@gmail.com or follow him on X @AnthonyPasci.

Former Georgia starting quarterback Carson Beck announced Friday he would be transferring to Miami, the abrupt move coming after he suffered an elbow injury during the SEC Championship game in December and was replaced with backup Gunnar Stockton for the College Football Playoff.

Beck’s NFL Draft stock also took a sharp hit after his injury, adding more incentive to find a new college home to revamp his professional prospects. Miami will be the lucky recipient of his services (conveniently where his girlfriend, basketball star Hanna Cavinder, attends) but it’s going to cost them a pretty penny.

According to The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman, Beck is set to make over $3 million from the school’s NIL collective. That’s double what previous quarterback Cam Ward made in 2024 ($1.6 million) and he was even voted a Heisman Trophy finalist.

For a quarterback like Beck to reportedly receive so much cash from the same school that benefitted from Ward and didn’t pay him nearly as much is almost shameful. Beck has just two years as a starter for the Dawgs and no national title game appearances to show for it. Ward may have come up short of the CFP this season but his abilities individually exceed Beck’s by a long shot.

Ward racked up 8,048 passing yards in 2023 and 2024 compared to Beck’s 7,426. He also was responsible for 64 touchdowns through the air in that same span, 12 more than Beck. It can also be argued Ward did all of that with significantly inferior supporting casts at Washington State and Miami than Beck had in Athens.

What has Beck proven besides being a big name that might attract other talented individuals to Miami? Even in that respect, the transfer window is nearly up and most top players have already committed elsewhere. In fact, the two top wide receivers in the portal – USC’s Zachariah and Zion Branch – committed to Georgia on Jan. 5, before Beck entered the portal himself.

While the dynamics of college athletics and being paid to play are constantly evolving, it doesn’t look like Beck got his fair market value in the transfer portal. It’s certainly been inflated in order to coax him to Coral Gables. Either that or Ward got shafted when he was looking for his new home prior to the 2024 season.

The Deacs took care of business on the road today with an 88-78 win over the Miami Hurricanes, avoiding what would have been a catastrophic loss to a team that has now lost 12 of their last 13 games. Wake had several chances to push the lead out and win this game in blowout fashion, but it’s hard to complain about a double-digit ACC road win.

On offense, the Deacs pretty much did whatever they wanted in this one. The Canes tried to play small ball for basically the entire game, and Wake was completely dominant inside with a whopping 50 points in the paint. When the Deacs weren’t getting layups down low, it was Cameron Hildreth torching them from distance—Hildreth finished the game with a game high 31 points and made 6 of his 8 3-point attempts. If the Deacs can get that version of Hildreth to show up in their remaining games, they should have no problem competing for the top of the ACC.

On defense, the Deacs struggled a little more. Miami’s small ball lineup diced up Wake’s 1-3-1 zone with what seemed like a million 3-pointers. Whenever the Deacs got the lead up to 13-14 points, Miami would hit a 3 and get it back to 10 points—Wake just never could find the kill shot to put this one out of reach. One reason for that was Wake’s inability to rebound out of the zone, even against Miami’s small ball lineup. The Canes finished the game with 17 offensive rebounds and 16 second chance points, which is definitely something that the Deacs must address as they approach the toughest portion of their schedule.

Down the stretch, Hunter Sallis took the game over for Wake Forest, scoring 15 of his 22 points on 6-7 shooting in the 2nd half. Despite Miami never going away, it really never felt like the outcome of the game was in jeopardy. Even when the Canes were throwing in 3-pointers, there was never a doubt that the Deacs could just get the ball down low and answer immediately—Miami seemingly had no interest in playing any defense in this game. That’s not really surprising, as the Canes have a 300+ ranked defense on KenPom on the season.

The Deacs have two Quad 3 games remaining before a string of nine straight Quad 1 and 2 games that will show us exactly what this team is made of. As long as Wake avoids any mishaps over the next 2 games, they have a chance to play themselves right into an NCAA Tournament spot.

Go Deacs!