2024-25 Regular Season Thread Vol. 3

[MiamiLoyal926]

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No way lmao

Not surprised… he is so good! We need to keep him from getting poached… these other teams probably are seeing that and blowing up Riley’s phone!

[3ammy3uck3ts]

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We know.

[AirP.]

Why is Phoenix ready to pay Butler?

Kendrick Perkins on the Road Trippin' podcast said KD wants Butler and KD is only under contract for one more year so he's flexing some of his power to try get the franchise to go get Butler. He did this in Brooklyn to get Kyrie and eventually Harden and now he's trying to do it in Phoenix.

Spoiler:

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He’s a moron

How did it work out for him the first time

Had they all been healthy it could have been great.
Also, to pair with KD and Booker, give me Butler every day over Beal, a 3rd high volume score isn't what Phoenix needs.

[3ammy3uck3ts]

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Get on your hands and knees and apologize to The Godfather. We’ll get Fox this summer you’ll opt out and stay for the vet minimum and we’ll win the championship.

[AirP.]

Why is Phoenix ready to pay Butler?

Kendrick Perkins on the Road Trippin' podcast said KD wants Butler and KD is only under contract for one more year so he's flexing some of his power to try get the franchise to go get Butler. He did this in Brooklyn to get Kyrie and eventually Harden and now he's trying to do it in Phoenix.

Spoiler:

Watch on YouTube

Phoenix has a real dumb owner. He trying to make a team of my favorite five and losing

Maybe so, but right now the owner went all in with KD and that first 1/2 season with him was a waste since they couldn't make other real moves to put better fitting players around KD and Booker. I kinda get the Beal move since it was so cheap asset wise, but they really needed to hit on some very cheap talent and they really haven't at this point, Ayton and now Nurkic aren't the defensive center they needed which is a pretty big issue.

Butler is just a better fit than Beal for KD and Booker, if this acquisition fails it's quite possible Phoenix will have to trade KD for probably a lot less than they gave up for him and they really can't tank, they don't own their picks. They have to try to push forward or figure something out really quick.

Personally, I'd talk to KD to consider moving Booker to not only get Butler but other assets (since Booker is more valuable than Beal) to make more moves and let Beal take Booker's spot as the #2 high volume scorer. Phoenix is in a bad spot.

[powerball1373]

Always the boogey-man of giving the next star player "the ick"

Gotta love it lol

We must be the ickiest franchise in the NBA at this point

Agree 100%. That's why it was so nonsensical when some Heat fans were saying that about the Blazers and Dame. The next mfkr not gonna give a chit about how we handle this situation.

[oreon]

I think they judged it perfectly and utilized it. They needed to move Butler's money to make their pivot in the summer of 2025 or 2026 and now they're not the bad guys to do it. I don't like how Riley did it but I can't say it wasn't a near perfect play to get this to where it is now. Riley's calculated in his talks to the public, he knew exactly what he was doing.

Nah. They misjudged it. If it was just to move his contract, they could have done a trade in the summer. Riley didn't want to pay Butler but still wanted to compete. He wanted to force Butler to opt in because the options this summer for Butler were pretty bare. Or at worst have do a sign and trade. Riley wanted best of both worlds, go for it in the playoffs without extending Butler.
I don't know how he expected Butler to play ball publicly with his money on the line. If he knew Butler was going to go nuclear he would have moved in the summer. Right now is just an awful position for the Heat to be in. They have little leverage to get much back for him and bringing him back to the team may make that locker room toxic

If the FO decided to move his contract this summer a good portion of the fanbase would have been upset, some wanted him to retire as a Heat player, some thought he had more good years left and some said pay him. I really think Miami's FO was 99% good with letting Butler walk for nothing this summer to get well under the tax but they still would have looked bad if he had a good year, Butler forcing his way out was the only way the FO could look good to nearly everyone in this situation. Who knows, maybe Miami ends up with a stealth tank that doesn't really get noticed, there's currently only 10 teams with less wins then Miami, they have a real shot to get one of the better picks in a good draft.

Majority of the fanbase knew this team couldn't compete. No matter what they did most fans would have been asking questions of the
FO. But if they traded him this summer it would have gone down better. Jimmy would have still been beloved by pretty much all the fanbase. And the FO would have gotten some decents assets for him for which they could pivot for a pursuit of DeA'aron Fox. This chaos is not what they expected. They thought they could get to the end of the season and make a decision then. They didn't think Jimmy would make it ugly in Miami. There's no scenario where this is good for them. None. Its ugly and they look absolutely incompetent. If it wasn't Pat Riley running the show SAS and the media would be calling for GM's head. But Riley has too much respect for people to go at him.