Jimmy Butler’s relationship with the Heat has run its course

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The Miami Heat don’t want to extend Jimmy Butler.

Jimmy Butler feels he’s worth an extension or a trade from the Miami Heat.

And what’s more, there are still wounds yet to be healed from Pat Riley to Jimmy Butler, and all this has come to a head over the last few days.

Sounds simple enough, right?

Butler has communicated to the Heat he would like a change of scenery, sources told Yahoo Sports. His first choice in all of this was to stay with the Heat with a contract extension in hand, but Riley has given no indication he’s willing to do that.

The matter of Riley calling out Butler following last season’s finish, basically telling him to “shut up and play,” hasn’t sat well with Butler — along with the insinuation from Heat officials Butler didn’t play hard against New Orleans on Wednesday in his first game back from an illness.

“I want to see me getting my joy back playing basketball,” Butler told reporters after Thursday night’s game against Indiana in which he exited with 1:54 left in the third and didn’t return.

”Wherever that may be, we’ll find out here pretty soon. I’m happy here off the court, but I want to be back to somewhat dominant, I want to hoop and I want to help this team win, and right now I’m not doing it.”

Does this mean the Heat will sit Butler and try to move him? Or sit him to show him who’s boss in Pat Riley’s world? Either way, this is getting a bit ugly and it doesn’t have to be.

Butler is averaging 17.6 points, 5.5 rebounds and 4.7 assists in 22 games this season, shooting a career high 55.2 percent from the field on just 10.5 attempts per game.

His six-year stint with Miami is his longest since his first six seasons as a Chicago Bull, and he’s had stops in Minnesota and Philadelphia in between.

Neither party is good with the warm and fuzzy feelings, but this is a relationship business — and Butler has carried undermanned teams to two trips to the NBA Finals and was a hair short of a third in 2022.

In his last two playoff runs, a 39-game sample size, Butler has averaged 27.1 points, 6.8 rebounds, 5.3 assists and 1.9 steals on 48-35-82 splits. Of course he’s…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/jimmy-butlers-relationship-with-the-heat-has-run-its-course-170222954.html

Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2025-01-03 17:02:00

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