There’s no doubt the Jimmy Butler-Heat relationship is over, it’s just a matter of how and when.
The Miami Heat will suspend Butler an additional two games for missing a team flight to Milwaukee Wednesday, according to multiple published reports.
This follows a seven-game suspension that concluded last week for what the Miami Heat called “conduct detrimental to the team.”
And perhaps missing the team flight Wednesday was much more calculated than a simple oversight, it may be Butler continuing to force Miami’s hand into facilitating a trade sooner than later to end the circus.
Ramona Shelburne of ESPN reported last week that one of the “letting Jimmy be Jimmy” items that allegedly helped sour the relationship in South Florida was that Butler would frequently flight privately and stay privately away from the team. Per Shelburne, “He was allowed to fly privately or stay at a different location than the team on road trips.”
It appears those special rules are over.
The relationship began to publicly sour last summer when Butler missed the Boston playoff series due to a knee injury and then a video surfaced of him basically saying it would have been different had he been on the floor. Team President Pat Riley subsequently said “If you’re not on the court, playing against Boston, or you’re not on the court playing against the New York Knicks, you should keep your mouth shut in your criticism of those teams.”
The real question is who is willing to trade for Butler. We keep hearing Phoenix. In fact Phoenix made a trade Tuesday when they acquired three first-round picks from the Utah Jazz in exchanged for their 2031 first-round pick, some felt that was a precursor to a JB trade. The first-round picks will be “draft capital” for Butler.
At the very least, it sounds like draft capital, first-rounders, will be a good portion of the collateral in a trade for Butler.
Butler will make $48.8 million (nine total games suspended will lessen that total number by a few million). Butler has a player option to be paid $52.4 million next season.
Everyone keeps saying Phoenix. Everyone keeps saying Jimmy wants to be in Phoenix. So far it hasn’t happened. Another long shot is Golden State. I think most people would agree Butler is probably not going to turn Golden State into a contender.
Jimmy wants out of Miami.
