Jimmy Butler has been making some pretty veiled comments lately about his desire to be traded from the Miami Heat, but now he’s made it official like ESPN’s Shams Charania and 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 anywhere other than Miami.”
According to ESPN, Butler will not provide a list of destinations because he feels he can turn any team into a contender and, in particular, says he will participate in all team activities and “do whatever the Heat ask of him” as the teams work to achieve it. a resolution.
However, “participate” is a rather vague term. When Butler wanted out of Minnesota, his idea of participating in team activities was to basically burn down the Timberwolves organization by teaming up with the reserves in a now-infamous and dramatic fight to get 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 considerable amount of time standing in the corner like the disinterested kid who doesn’t want to participate in the walkthrough. the museum that his parents forced him to. him to continue.
Afterward, Butler was asked a handful of questions ranging from his sudden lack of offensive involvement to whether, point-blank, there’s any chance of fixing whatever was broken between him and the Heat. Their responses, even before the ESPN report was published, spoke for themselves.
Reporter: How did you feel about your performance and concentration tonight?
Butler: “I felt great. I was focused. I felt like I did my job well. At least what my job is now.”
Reporter: When you say what your job is nowwe’re not used to seeing you standing in a corner for long periods like that. Is that a team approach that has gotten you that way? And for you to be your best self, can that be your role and can you thrive to the best of your ability?
Butler: “It may be my role here. But it’s not what I’m used to. I haven’t been since my first, second, third year in the league, where I just went out and played defense. I compete. Protected. I tried to not let my man will score. That’s what I’m doing now.”
Reporter: [Heat] Coach [Eric Spoelstra] He was here saying that he wants to get you more at that point and activate you more. Is that something you’re open to?
Butler: “That’s not going to fix it.”
Reporter: What will solve it? What do you want to happen to solve it?
Butler: “I want to see myself get my joy back for playing basketball. Wherever it is, we’ll find out here very 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 to win and right now I’m not doing that.
Reporter: Can you get your joy back? [in Miami] on the court?
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 be on whether Pat Riley gives a damn about what Butler wants.
Remember, Riley recently Ruling out idea of Heat trading Butler in an actual released statement, which concluded with the following: “Therefore, we will make it clear that we are not trading Jimmy Butler.”
The ESPN report indicates that “Riley and Heat owner Micky Arison have met with Butler’s representation in recent days attempting to resolve the rift between the parties without success,” and that Butler is not over Riley basically telling him. publicly spanked for saying the Heat would do it. If he had been healthy, he would have beaten the Celtics in their first-round playoff series.
“If you’re not playing on the court, you’ve got to keep your mouth shut,” Riley said at the time.
The report also states that Miami had already engaged in preliminary talks with several teams about a Butler trade before the official demand came, but that none of those talks progressed and the Heat showed “no urgency” in moving Butler. We’ll see if that lack of urgency remains the case when Butler starts turning up the heat, so to speak.
We know Butler is capable of doing things. very uncomfortable if he doesn’t get his way. He began that process in complete seriousness on Thursday, both on the court and in the press room. Now the question is whether the Heat will begin their process of becoming the latest team to bow out of the demand for a superstar trade.
