Jimmy Butler made some thinly veiled comments recently about his desire to trade to the Miami Heat, but he’s now made it official as Shams Charania and ESPN’s Brian Windhorst. report that Butler has “indicated to the Heat that he wants the team to trade him” and that he is “open to playing somewhere other than Miami.”
According to ESPN, Butler will not provide a list of destinations because he believes he can make any team a contender and, notably, he says he will participate in all team activities and “do everything that the Heat will ask him” while the teams work toward a resolution.
“Participate” is, however, a rather vague term. When Butler wanted to leave Minnesota, his idea of participating in team activities was essentially to burn the Timberwolves organization to ashes by teaming up with the backups in a now infamous and dramatic melee to drive the starters off the court.
On Thursday, Butler “participated” in Miami’s 128-115 loss to the Indiana Pacers by scoring nine points on six shots while spending a lot of time standing in the corner like the disinterested kid who doesn’t want to participate in the visiting team. museum that his parents forced. it’s up to him to continue.
Afterward, Butler was asked a handful of questions ranging from his sudden lack of offensive involvement to whether, at point blank range, there was any chance of repairing what had been broken between him and the Heat. His responses, even before the ESPN report was released, spoke for themselves.
Journalist: What did you think of your performance and your concentration tonight?
Butler: “I felt good. I was focused. I felt like I did my job well. At least that’s what my job is now.”
Journalist: When you say what your job is NOWWe’re not used to seeing you stay in one corner for long periods like this. Is it a team approach that made you this way? And for you to be the best version of yourself, can this be your role and can you thrive to the best of your abilities?
Butler: “That can be my role here. But it’s not what I’m used to. I haven’t been like that since my first, second, third year in the league where I just went out there and I I just played defense. I competed. I tried not to let my man score.
Journalist: (Heat) coach (Eric Spoelstra) was here saying he wanted to get you more to this point and get you more activated, is that something you’re ready for?
Butler: “That’s not going to help matters.”
Journalist: What will solve the problem? What do you want to happen to resolve this problem?
Butler: “I want to see myself get my joy back in playing basketball. Wherever that is, we’ll find out here pretty soon. But I want to get my joy back. I’m happy here…off the court. But I want to get back to a dominant place, I want to help this team win and right now, I’m not doing that.
Journalist: Can you find your joy (in Miami) on the field?
Butler: “Probably not.”
So Butler clearly wants out of Miami. Again, we didn’t really need the report to know this, but now the veil has been completely lifted and all attention will turn to whether Pat Riley cares what Butler wants.
Remember, Riley recently stop the idea of Heat Trading Butler in a released statement, which ended with the following: “Therefore, we are going to make it clear: we are not trading Jimmy Butler.”
The ESPN report states that “Riley and Heat owner Micky Arison met with Butler’s representatives in recent days to try to resolve the rift between the parties, without success,” and that Butler has not recovered. of Riley’s public spanking for saying the Heat would do it. I would have beaten the Celtics in their first round playoff series if he had been healthy.
“If you’re not playing on the field, you should keep your mouth shut,” Riley said at the time.
The report also states that Miami had already engaged in preliminary discussions with several teams regarding a Butler trade before the official request came in, but that none of those discussions progressed and that the Heat showed “no urgency.” to move Butler. We’ll see if this lack of urgency persists if and when Butler starts turning up the pressure, so to speak.
We know Butler can do things very uncomfortable if he doesn’t get what he wants. He launched this process very seriously on Thursday, both on the field and in the press room. Now the question is whether the Heat will begin their process of becoming the latest team to bow at the feet of a superstar trade demand.
