The Jimmy Butler drama drags on in South Beach. Wednesday night, the Miami Heat suspended their saucy star two games for missing the flight to Milwaukee for Thursday night’s game against the Bucks.
This announcement came just nine days after Butler completed a seven-game suspension for what the franchise deemed an overt display of disloyalty, demonstrated by uninspired effort on the floor. Formally, they suspended him for “conduct detrimental to the team.”
This time around, the suspension statement echoed that charge while adding to it a “continued pattern of disregard of team rules” and “insubordinate” as well as detrimental conduct.
Already exasperated by media inquiries the first time, coach Erik Spoelstra conveyed similar matter-of-fact, can-we-drop-this-already sentiment in what he told reporters at Thursday’s shootaround.
“The point that I made to our team,” he said, “is get used to it. This is the NBA life. This is the life we chose.”
That’s not all Spoelstra had to say, but Bucks fans can apply his wisdom to the attitude that any kind of trade, for Jimmy or some other star, will require.
Miami Heat Are Focused on Winning Games, Not Jimmy Butler Operatics
Because of the suspension, Miami will be without Butler Thursday against Milwaukee and Saturday in Brooklyn. In the three games he played following the initial punishment, Butler scored 18, 8 and 13 points as the Heat went 1-2. He accounted for 2, 7 and 8 assists in that span.
Spoelstra did not want to discuss Butler before, and he doesn’t want to now. It is a mindset he has driven home to his players:
It takes a mental fortitude and commitment in terms of the task at hand. Nothing changes in terms of the task at hand. We have a game tonight, we have enough continuity, we know what our identity is at this point. You can make any excuse you want to, but we get to do what we love. We’ve had this happen all season long, so we know the exercise and what we need to do to make those adjustments.
It sounds a lot like his statement earlier this month, when he emphasized professionalism and preparing for the next game.
Admittedly, it wouldn’t make much sense for Spoelstra to wallow in off-court drama when the obvious goal is winning games–this game, right here and right now.
At 21-21, Miami sits 9th in the East in the thick of the play-in hunt. Since the OKC matchup in which Butler was injured (Dec. 20), they have played most nights without Butler, anyway–12 of 17, to be exact. Neither has the recent version of the six-time All Star really helped the team, as the Heat have gone 2-3 with him versus 6-6 without.
If both parties weren’t already screaming from the rooftops, this latest shenanigan signals all the more strongly that this marriage is doomed.
Give To Get: If the Milwaukee Bucks Want Butler, They’ll Have To Make a Painful Sacrifice
Not counting Butler’s injury-shortened versus the Thunder, he has gone five straight scoring under 20 and failed to reach double figures three times. Butler has appeared in 25 of 42 games this season averaging 17.0 PPG, his lowest since 2013-14 with Chicago.
Earning the “Playoff Jimmy” moniker, he has historically invested less energy in the regular season, but the idea is that, for the right team–one he actually wants to play for–he will perform at a level more closely aligned with his track record.
If the Bucks want Butler for themselves, they should internalize Spoelstra’s words to accept what must be done to get him. Namely, acquiring Butler or any other major piece would mean shipping off a member of the 2021 title core (we all know, Khris Middleton or Brook Lopez).
At the end of the day, winning rings is a business. In other words, “this is the NBA life, the life we chose”; Spoelstra’s statement applies to fans, too. Separating the goal of optimizing the present from players that have buoyed past success is a difficult but necessary task.
Of course, Spoelstra’s phrase is isn’t an exact match for Milwaukee’s situation. Though relegated to the bench, Middleton is not absent like Butler; rather, he is contributing, and contributing well of late. Given how noxious Butler has been in Miami, and with his known demands for a contract extension after this season, opposing front offices might fare better looking elsewhere.
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