The Jimmy Butler Dilemma || 7 Substack Writers Talk It All
Edition #218
Well, the Jimmy Butler controversy is certainly too big of news to just not write about.
But, instead of me just giving my musings on it, why don’t we get NBA Substack to look into this? Without further ado, I asked 6 of my favorite basketball writers on Substack (not including myself) to write a paragraph about what they think about the Jimmy Butler Dilemma. This is going to be an awesome, must-read, and you don’t want to miss our takes.
So, why don’t we start now?
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It is sometimes said that the NBA is one big soap opera, and the Jimmy Butler/Miami Heat saga is certainly straight out of "Days Of Our Lives". Between Butler's polarizing persona and the headstrong leadership of an organization obsessed with its vaunted Culture, this divorce was always destined to turn ugly sooner or later. Now, "later" has finally arrived. I'm not sure where Butler lands -- even in a drama-filled season, his stats still suggest he could be a championship difference-maker -- but from the standpoint of pure spectacle, I have my popcorn out and I'm glued to the melodrama just like everyone else.
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Lots of people have talked about whether Jimmy Butler is right or wrong in his quest to force his way out of Miami, with some saying his attitude about the situation shows he really doesn't care about winning and others saying it indicates the opposite. I'm not going to get into that here, but the main takeaway I see is this: Pat Riley made a major mistake. It's not common for the franchise's legendary president to make a major mistake, yet he had the writing on the wall. Reports trickled out last offseason that Jimmy would not extend with the Heat, which was only made worse by Riley saying Jimmy should have kept his mouth shut post-playoffs and indicating that the Heat didn't really need him to win. With his contract expiring after this season, the reasonable thing to do would have been to trade him last offseason and retool for the upcoming one, as the Heat likely already knew that Jimmy was going to stand pat (no pun intended). Now, with less leverage than ever, the Heat are likely going to settle for a worse package than they would have last summer, which could have originally yielded a player like Dejounte Murray or, alternatively, a swath of draft picks to retool this roster, since we all know how good the Heat's scouting department is. Regardless of who's right here, Pat Riley seems to have missed his chance.
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This whole thing has been so predictable.
Of course, Jimmy Butler would be mad that the Heat didn’t give him a max extension the second he asked for one. Despite protestations to the contrary, Butler has always been all about the money.
Butler may have misplayed his hand by not performing to his best this season. Teams have to think about both a player’s entrance and exit, and why wouldn’t they expect Butler to do the same shenanigans in a year or two? And Miami definitely misplayed theirs by not trading Jimmy Buckets the second they decided he wasn’t worth the scratch. They invited this upon themselves.
Although the process tires, I’m still excited for the outcome: while I don’t think Pat Riley would trade Butler somewhere he doesn’t want to be for an inferior offer, I absolutely believe Riley is petty enough to use unattractiveness as a tiebreaker. The Heat have a long history of treating their players well; their reputation will stand intact. Few could blame them for just a liiiittle bit of spite, right?
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The Jimmy Butler situation
Butler and the Heat organization are both to blame for this sour ending. But for this, I’ll be on Jimmy’s defense. He took a team that probably wasn’t expected to make a deep playoff run to the Finals twice. Even though they didn't win, it shows that Butler can get the maximum out of any situation. I always consider him one of the best floor raisers in the league, meaning he can take an underachieving roster and they end up overachieving. Being on a team with a bunch of journeymen, undrafted or second-round players, Butler didn’t have much to work with outside of Tyler Herro and Bam Adebayo.
Pat Riley missed out on getting stars during these last few seasons, most recently Damian Lillard, who was under the impression he would be in a Heat uniform this season. You need stars to win in this league. Is Jimmy wrong for how he is going about all this? Yes. But does he not deserve to get more out of his team and also get paid? I would like to think so.
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With Jimmy Butler and Pat Riley seeming to see who can puff their chests out further, I feel like they are ironically making both of their respective situations worse. Jimmy's value to other teams is seeming less and less appealing, since he's demonstrated a lack of reliability both in the short term (on the court) and the long term (what will he do if he doesn't get pandered to in every moment?). For the Heat, it makes it so that they'll get less back from their franchise player, and Pat Riley's public criticism of Butler and petty retribution only negatively impacts the Heat's image as a rational organization.
As a Suns fan, I know that Mat Ishbia would have no qualms with taking Jimmy in and paying him his money, but we know that Bradley Beal holds the keys to any trade involving his albatross contract for the next few years. I'm wondering, though, if anyone else is wanting to take this situation on, which could make February 7th in South Beach very awkward if no one decides to pull the trigger and Jimmy doesn't find a new home.
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Full transparency, I have kind of loved the 24-hour drama factory that the NBA has become over the last decade. It makes sense—I grew up loving WWE—so imbuing sports fandom with drama only deepens the experience for me. With the proliferation of social media and the much broader reporting around organizations, I have enjoyed getting to see much further behind the curtain. From Woj Bombs to Sham Wows, I relish the drama and intrigue.
That being said, I am officially over the Jimmy Butler drama. Like a wrestling character that has long since run its course, this whole bit has gotten repetitive and stale. Jimmy Butler is the NBA’s Goldust, replete with the ever-changing visage and a penchant for rubbing people the wrong way.
I love watching Jimmy Butler play basketball, but at this point—and really, far too often in general—the Butler basketball experience is hampered by his antics and general need to get his way. The bit has been worked to death, and I’m ready to move on to a new central character.
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Okay, if I’m being real, I’ve kind of had enough of this Jimmy Butler stuff. I thought it was interesting for a few days, especially because this is a star in my mind. A six-time All-Star, an Eastern Conference finals MVP, and the leader of two teams that went to the NBA Finals. Also, Butler has an awesome background story to get to the NBA.
But, the Heat are in the play-in picture and have a good shot of making the playoffs (contender). Walking out of practice just because your team isn’t starting you is a very sadistic thing. Don’t get me wrong, I love Jimmy Butler, but what he’s doing is impacting the game in general, and that’s wrong. Some blame has to be put on Pat Riley, though. He could’ve gotten an incredibly good package sometime back. Now? He’s going to have to settle for less.
I’m honestly hoping for this whole conundrum to be over, so we can focus on good stuff. We can focus on real rumors, instead of blasphemy. Please trade Jimmy Butler ASAP. He wants to get his joy back playing basketball. We, as basketball fans, want to get our joy back by listening to real rumors.
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