Did Pat Riley make a worse mistake than Nico Harison when trading Jimmy Butler? Although it has been a few years since he played at a professional level, Theo Pinson managed to generate a lot of attention by comparing Riley’s trade with Butler to Harrison’s trade involving Luka Dončić.
While the majority may claim that the Dončić trade for Anthony Davis is the worst, Pinson has viewed this from another angle.
Theo Pinson Opines That the Jimmy Butler Trade Was Worse Than the Luka Dončić Trade
Some fans will remember that Pinson briefly played in the league but was best known for his tenure with the Brooklyn Nets and Dallas Mavericks. While his playing days might be behind him, Pinson has attempted to remain relevant and even owns a basketball podcast.
With the perfect platform to share his opinions, Pinson revealed quite an interesting opinion, to say the least. Pinson boldly claimed that Pat Riley’s decision to trade Jimmy Butler was worse than Harrison’s decision to move on from Dončić.
Theo Pinson says Pat Riley made a worse trade than Nico Harrison 😳
“That is a worse trade than Dallas and the Lakers, by far… Jimmy Butler was Heat culture. Regardless of what the f*** you thought he was doing off the court, that motherf***** brought a toughness. He brought a… pic.twitter.com/iSyoItqHDZ
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) March 18, 2025
“Imma be honest with y’all. It’s not f****** close…Ray, it’s not f****** close. Quote me on this. The Miami Heat is worse…That is a worse trade than Dallas and the Lakers by far. Dallas is just getting cooked by injuries. The Heat are healthy. Jimmy Butler was Heat culture, regardless of what the f*** you thought he was doing off the court.
Pinson continued with passion, “That m*****f***** brought a toughness. He brought a mentality. He had leadership, Bro. I swear to god, it did not matter what seed the Miami Heat were. If they got in the playoffs, any team that played them, they were going to have to buckle the f*** up ’cause it’s going to be a dogfight.”
Although Pinosn attempted to defend his stance quite well, most of the NBA community did not agree with him on this opinion. After all, Dončić is yet to hit his prime and is considered a generational talent. Giving him up for Davis is still considered by many to be the stupider move.
That’s cap. Luka is a generational player. Butler is an aging vet. Heat were never getting back the value of Jimmy Butler
— 𝙃𝙀𝘼𝙏 𝙉𝘼𝙏𝙄𝙊𝙉 (@HeatvsHaters) March 18, 2025
The most critical point that Pinson forgot to discuss was that Butler was unhappy with the Heat and publicly made it clear that he did not want to be a part of the team.
Therefore, Riley and the upper management had no choice but to trade Butler and simply found the best package available. On the other hand, Harrison and the Mavs showed no reason to the outside world that they were looking to move on from their franchise superstar.
The Mavs made it to the Finals last season, but they might not make it to the playoffs. Although some NBA experts claim that the potential combination of Davis and Kyrie Irving could turn the Mavs into title contenders, there is a massive gap between those theories and reality.