When the question is Jimmy Butler, NBA sources are replying with head shakes and shoulder shrugs.
“I don’t know how this gets worked out,” one league source told Heavy Sports. “And I only know of a few teams that want to come anywhere near this.”
So the Miami star — the degree to which Butler remains that is under debate in front offices — remains away from the club under suspension while the Heat are on a six-game road trip. And as he tries to shoot his way out of a fourth town, our discussions even yielded some talk about a road not taken (or even adequately paved) to Boston many years ago.
But putting aside history for a moment to deal with current events, Butler is saying he doesn’t believe he can find his joy with the Heat. Miami is offering a timeout, suspending him seven games for “multiple instances of conduct detrimental to the team over the course of the season and particularly the last several weeks.”
So now what?
“It’s more difficult than people think,” said one team’s head of basketball operations. “First of all, Jimmy’s 35 and doesn’t have much value. And then the team that would like him the most is probably Phoenix, because they’re so bad and they have the worst contract in (Bradley) Beal. Other than that, I don’t know of any teams that would want to take on Jimmy Butler, other than teams that just want to dump contracts — and Miami won’t go for that. I just don’t know how it’s going to work.
“But all this stuff with Jimmy — all the stuff in Miami and Minnesota and Chicago and Philly — all of it is because he wants to get paid. That’s where he’s at right now. He wants to be paid for what he’s done for Miami.”
Jimmy Butler Out of Touch With Reality
Butler is making nearly $48 million this season (though some of that will go away even after the Players Association finishes with its grievance), and he has a player option for $52,413,394 next year. He’s said he would appreciate an extension.
But, according to some, Butler doesn’t appreciate his present reality.
“You’d have to say Jimmy’s been good for Miami overall, but he’s also been very difficult,” said a league source. “I think it’s just reached an end. It’s like he’s in charge; he doesn’t play all the time, and he’s had injuries that always seem to come up. He’s not as good as it was.
“He got a lot of mileage out of being a leader, a go-to guy, a big game player, but he wasn’t there night in and night out.”
That has appeared to disturb Pat Riley, the high priest of the Heat.
“With Jimmy and Pat — or with any relationship — there’s always last straws,” said one opposing executive with reason to track the situation. “And I don’t think the last straw was what Jimmy said to the media.
“I really believe (the Heat) had discussions (with other teams) about Jimmy before Pat said, ‘We’re not trading Jimmy Butler.’ At the very least, they went through every single team and what was realistic — like, there’s only a handful of teams that are trying to win right now and that Jimmy would want to go to.
“And Miami looked at everything and basically said they weren’t doing any of that crap. So Pat says they’re not trading him, and Jimmy says what he says. So maybe now Jimmy will be open to more teams that he’d be willing to go to.”
But those teams would still have to find deal that works for both teams — and likely more clubs would have to be involved to make the numbers work.
Don’t Count the Celtics In
The Celtics don’t figure to be a party to any of this, but they have some Jimmy-quest experience. They were in pursuit of Butler at least twice in the last several years, though nothing ever got very far.
The most prominent flirtation, according to sources, came when Boston was hot after the Chicago version in 2016. But the Bulls requested the Celts’ first round draft pick in that year and the next.
Picks that came to be known as Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum.
Said one agent with a vested interest in the Celtic maneuverings at the time, “I think that might have had a chance if Chicago had just asked for one pick, but I think they made it easy for Boston to say no by asking for so much.”
Butler couldn’t bring that kind of return then, and he certainly can’t now. The real question is whether the Heat and one or more clubs can execute the salary cap gymnastics required to make everyone happy.
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This article was originally published on Heavy Sports
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