The roller coaster that has become the relationship between the Miami Heat and Jimmy Butler has yet another twist as the mercurial star reportedly reiterated his desire to be traded in a meeting with Heat president Pat Riley last week, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania.
Butler also informed Riley that he has no plans to sign a new deal with the team, but will pick up his $52.6 million player option for next season only as a means to the trade out of Miami he ultimately desires. The six-time NBA All-Star is currently still on a team-imposed -game suspension for “detrimental conduct, which ends on Thursday. Heat owner Micker Arison and Butler are expected to have a pow-wow later this week.
Whether the Jimmy Butler saga ends in a trade before the February 6 trade deadline the team sending him away until a deal is found, or dealing him in the offseason, it is a case study of one of the issues plaguing the NBA.. That issue, which does not get brought up enough is that this is arguably the most unlikeable crop of players to populate the Association in quite some time. It adds to the perception that so many of today’s players are coddled, overpaid crybabies who lack the fortitude to work through tough situations and will enact any self-serving means at their disposal to extricate themselves from a situation that is not 100% to their liking. Be it Anthony Davis openly quitting on the Pelicans until he and Klutch Sports forced their way to the Lakers, James Harden burning bridges to force his departure from Houston, Brooklyn, and Philadelphia, or Paul George forcing his way to the Clippers, there is a growing distaste amongst more of the remaining NBA for such machinations.
The leverage that upper-echelon players in the league wield, affords them such a degree of leverage that many times, the players can dictate the team or they wish to be traded to and as has been the case all too often, franchises will capitulate to these demands, at times agreeing to trades that may not be in their nest interests. Should achieving this objective require cultivating chaos to make the environment so untenable that the ballclub will hasten a trade to close the chapter on that now dysfunctional relationship? With his very public demands, It appears the Butler ordeal is taking some pages out of this playbook, however, this course of action may not play out how Butler hopes, as with Pat Riley at the helm, the Miami Heat is not a franchise that can be bullied.
Although the Heat announced they would listen to offers for their disgruntled star player at this juncture there have not been any offers substantial enough to move beyond the tire-kicking phase. Butler himself, in part, is to blame for his lukewarm trade market. While he cannot do anything about his age, 35, his lack of availability cannot be overlooked. In these 6 seasons in Miami, Butler has missed on average, 22.5 games per year, with the most contests he has appeared in being 64 in the 2022-23 season. There. There is also the perception that Butler does not take the regular season seriously, cruising through the first 82, only really starting to play in the postseason. Additionally, the fact that Butler’s departure from nearly every one of his stops during his NBA has been tinged with acrimony may give teams some reservations about bringing in the, at times, volatile 5-time All-NBA performer.
