NBA Rumors: Heat Eye Cap Space for Star 2026 Free Agent amid Jimmy Butler Trade Buzz

As the saga between Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat continues to play out publicly, there is at least some clarity on what the Heat are looking for in a potential trade involving the six-time All-Star.

Per ESPN's Tim Bontemps and Brian Windhorst, one of the primary objectives for the Heat is to avoid taking back long-term money so they can position themselves to land a star player in the 2026 free-agent class.

The list of players who could potentially hit free agency in the summer of 2026 includes Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jaren Jackson Jr. and De'Aaron Fox.

Luka Dončić, Trae Young and Damian Lillard are among the players who could become free agents if they decline their player options.

It seems highly unlikely all of those players will make it to free agency. Gilgeous-Alexander is in an incredible position as the MVP frontrunner on an Oklahoma City Thunder team that's already loaded and still has as much future draft capital as any team in the NBA.

Free agency has largely dried up in the NBA in recent years because superstar players have figured out they can take a max deal now and then figure things out later if they become unhappy in their current situation.

Since the summer of 2019 when Durant, Butler, Kawhi Leonard and Kyrie Irving all signed with new teams, there have only been two All-Star-level players who switched clubs via free agency (Jalen Brunson in 2022 and Paul George in 2024).

George, 34, doesn't even look like an All-Star at this point in his career. His 35.5 percent success rate from three-point range this season is his worst since he was a rookie.

Bontemps did note there is "at least a possibility" of some marquee players opting to test the free-agent market in 2026 because of the new television money that will be coming into the NBA, which will help boost the salary cap.

The NBA and NBPA did agree to a deal in the new collective bargaining agreement that includes a smoothing of the cap to ease in new television money in order to avoid the situation from 2016 that allowed the Golden State Warriors to sign Durant.

Miami has had good luck in free agency when it tries to play in the deep end of that pool. The most obvious example was in 2010 when LeBron James and Chris Bosh decided to team up with Dwyane Wade. Butler was also a free agent signing in the summer of 2019.

The Heat currently have $273.5 million in allocations for the 2026-27 season, but that figure includes cap holds for Butler ($54.3 million), Terry Rozier ($40 million) and Duncan Robinson ($29.8 million) that don't figure to be a problem when the time comes to account for the cap.