Miami Heat‘s disgruntled star Jimmy Butler seemingly took a veiled shot at team president Pat Riley while talking to one of his Big Face Coffee employees.
“See, I gave you a compliment. That’s what bosses do, they build you up. They don’t break you down,” Butler told the employee in a video he posted on his Instagram story on January 10.
Butler is currently under a seven-game suspension for what the Heat said was “multiple instances of conduct detrimental to the team.”
The tension between Butler and the Heat started in the offseason when the six-time NBA All-Star did not receive a contract extension. Riley poured more gasoline into the fire when he publicly admonished Butler for talking trash to eventual NBA champion Boston Celtics and fierce rivals New York Knicks after the Heat were eliminated.
“If I was playing, Boston would be at home. New York damn sure would be [expletive] at home,” Butler said on May 4.
Two days later, on May 6, Heat president Pat Riley admonished Butler during his end-of-season press conference.
“For him to say that, I thought, is that Jimmy trolling or is that Jimmy [being] serious?” Riley told reporters. “If you’re not on the court, playing against Boston, or you’re not on the court playing against the New York Knicks, you should keep your mouth shut in your criticism of those teams.”
Riley dropped the bombshell at the time that they were not going to extend Butler before this season.
“We don’t have to do that for a year,” Riley said at the time. “And so, we have not discussed that internally right now, but we have to look at that, making that kind of commitment.”
From ‘No Shenanigan’ to Trade Demand
Things quickly escalated from there despite Butler telling reporters during the Heat’s media day that there would be “no shenanigans” this season after Riley’s public comments.
“I always want to hoop, always want to compete with my guys,” Butler told reporters at the time. “I hear [Riley].
Yet Butler’s usage rate went drastically down while he also missed 10 of the Heat’s first 32 games due to injuries.
His 21.2% usage rate this season is the lowest mark of his career since his third season in the NBA with the Chicago Bulls during the 2013-14 season.
Butler’s frustrations boiled over after scoring only nine points on six shots in the Heat’s 128-115 loss to the Indiana Pacers on January 2.
“I want to see me getting my joy back playing basketball,” Butler told reporters after the loss. “Wherever that may be, we’ll find out here pretty soon.”
Subsequently, ESPN reported that Butler made his trade demand official which the Heat acknowledged in their statement on his seven-game suspension.
‘Poo-Poo Platter’ Offers
Butler and the Heat are currently at a stalemate and have no real traction on a potential trade.
ESPN’s Brian Windhorst reported on “First Take” on January 7 that the Heat have received lowball offers for Butler.
“We have a big problem here,” Windhorst said. “Jimmy Butler isn’t going to extend with [just] any team, and so because teams know that, they’re offering the Heat right now the poo-poo platter. There is only one team that is ready to pay Jimmy Butler exactly what he wants, and that is the Phoenix Suns. And you know why that’s fascinating? Because of the [28] other teams that are out there that could trade for Jimmy Butler, the team that [Butler wants to go to], which is Phoenix, is the team that has the hardest time trading for him.”
DraftKings, one of the most popular US betting sites, has installed the Suns as +125 favorites to land Butler because of their strong mutual interest.
The Suns’ path to landing Butler is as complicated as it gets.
First, they need Bradley Beal to temporarily waive his no-trade clause. Second, they need to find a third team to help facilitate the trade since the Heat have already indicated that Beal’s massive contract — $110 million over the next two years after this season — is a non-starter, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania.
The Suns have only one first-round pick (2031) to incentivize whoever wants to pick up Beal’s massive contract and his no-trade clause.
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Heat’s Jimmy Butler Takes Veiled Shot at Pat Riley With ‘Boss’ Move