Jimmy Butler Suspended Indefinitely By Heat After Walking Out Of Shootaround

[RealGM Wiretap]

The Miami Heat are suspending Jimmy Butler indefinitely. Butler has previously been suspended seven games and two games by the Heat for separate incidents.

Butler is seeking a trade from the Heat with the situation becoming increasingly contentious over the past two months. Butler was most recently suspended for missing a team flight to play at the Milwaukee Bucks.

On Monday morning, Butler walked out of shootaround after he was informed he would be coming off the bench with Haywood Highsmith being inserted into the starting lineup moving forward.

Via Shams Charania/ESPN

[njknicks]

This saga is turning into an episode of Ben Simmons 2.0 ( minus the injury & playoff performance )

Unprecedented for Miami given their strong culture, front-office & caliber of head coach.

How this unfolds will have an impact on Miami's ability to attract & retain talent.

[OogaBooga]

This saga is turning into an episode of Ben Simmons 2.0 ( minus the injury & playoff performance )

Unprecedented for Miami given their strong culture, front-office & caliber of head coach.

How this unfolds will have an impact on Miami's ability to attract & retain talent.

I feel like this makes Jimmy look more like an **** tbh. Just play basketball.

[beefman]

This saga is turning into an episode of Ben Simmons 2.0 ( minus the injury & playoff performance )

Unprecedented for Miami given their strong culture, front-office & caliber of head coach.

How this unfolds will have an impact on Miami's ability to attract & retain talent.

this goes to show you Heat culture is grossly overrated and mostly BS

[beefman]

I am loving this. I hope he screws up the team chemistry for years to come

[GMjobZK]

This saga is turning into an episode of Ben Simmons 2.0 ( minus the injury & playoff performance )

Unprecedented for Miami given their strong culture, front-office & caliber of head coach.

How this unfolds will have an impact on Miami's ability to attract & retain talent.

I feel like this makes Jimmy look more like an **** tbh. Just play basketball.

I couldn’t agree more

[Wildcat]

This saga is turning into an episode of Ben Simmons 2.0 ( minus the injury & playoff performance )

Unprecedented for Miami given their strong culture, front-office & caliber of head coach.

How this unfolds will have an impact on Miami's ability to attract & retain talent.

this goes to show you Heat culture is grossly overrated and mostly BS

While I do agree with you and I've always felt it was a marketing ploy, I think this makes Jimmy look far worse than it does Miami.

[tigerae]

This saga is turning into an episode of Ben Simmons 2.0 ( minus the injury & playoff performance )

Unprecedented for Miami given their strong culture, front-office & caliber of head coach.

How this unfolds will have an impact on Miami's ability to attract & retain talent.

this goes to show you Heat culture is grossly overrated and mostly BS

While I do agree with you and I've always felt it was a marketing ploy, I think this makes Jimmy look far worse than it does Miami.

Yeah. Considering Jimmy has had issues on basically every single team he played on and had a bad breakup, this only adds to that. People have been giving him a pass for the Wolves, Bulls and even the Sixers but now with the Heat, it just looks like a pattern with him.

[Wildcat]

this goes to show you Heat culture is grossly overrated and mostly BS

While I do agree with you and I've always felt it was a marketing ploy, I think this makes Jimmy look far worse than it does Miami.

Yeah. Considering Jimmy has had issues on basically every single team he played on and had a bad breakup, this only adds to that. People have been giving him a pass for the Wolves, Bulls and even the Sixers but now with the Heat, it just looks like a pattern with him.

Yep. Only organization I see stupid enough to fork over the contract he wants is Phoenix.

[Pickled Prunes]

This saga is turning into an episode of Ben Simmons 2.0 ( minus the injury & playoff performance )

Unprecedented for Miami given their strong culture, front-office & caliber of head coach.

How this unfolds will have an impact on Miami's ability to attract & retain talent.

this goes to show you Heat culture is grossly overrated and mostly BS

While I do agree with you and I've always felt it was a marketing ploy, I think this makes Jimmy look far worse than it does Miami.

Yeah, this is all on Jimmy. He's throwing a hissy fit, not the other way around. The only way MIA could have avoided this is by overpaying Jimmy on an extension. If Jimmy was worth what he's asking for teams would have lined up to acquire him. As it stands, it seems like the only team that wants Jimmy is PHX, and that is only because they would rather overpay Jimmy than overpay Beal.

[hyberx]

What a way to find a trade deal you want, Heat.

[psundeen]

Gotta give it to Jimmy, he knows how to put on a show!

[BigTex]

I can understand Butler wanting to reduce the return Miami can get in trading him. “Don’t give me an extension, see what you can get fir me now.”

[lonea]

This saga is turning into an episode of Ben Simmons 2.0 ( minus the injury & playoff performance )

Unprecedented for Miami given their strong culture, front-office & caliber of head coach.

How this unfolds will have an impact on Miami's ability to attract & retain talent.

I feel like this makes Jimmy look more like an **** tbh. Just play basketball.

Not really. Jimmy literally took the heat to two finals. Heat should have just paid that man.

[lonea]

this goes to show you Heat culture is grossly overrated and mostly BS

While I do agree with you and I've always felt it was a marketing ploy, I think this makes Jimmy look far worse than it does Miami.

Yeah. Considering Jimmy has had issues on basically every single team he played on and had a bad breakup, this only adds to that. People have been giving him a pass for the Wolves, Bulls and even the Sixers but now with the Heat, it just looks like a pattern with him.

LOL... Both the Wolves and Sixers f'ed up by not resigning him.

Wolves stuck with Towns and now he's in NY and now stuck with Gobert.

Sixers got Harris for 4 years and accomplished nothing.

[Luv those Knicks]

I am loving this. I hope he screws up the team chemistry for years to come

I confess, after Butler beat my Knicks in the playoffs 2 years ago, I'm watching this with a kind of train-wreck fascination but as someone who's never liked the heat, that's understandable from a fan perspective.

And it is similar to, but not quite as far gone as the Ben Simmons situation. I felt with Ben, he was genuinely unhappy in Philly and Ben had struggled with depression, so in that instance, I thought that Ben was acting in what he thought was his best interest, and it wasn't a money play, as Ben was losing money, not trying to set up a payday. Butler is trying to manipulate the situation, partly to get an extension, partly to join a winner, so I have much less sympathy for him than Ben. He's getting paid $50 million a year to play a game. He should play.

But I wonder if Miami is partly to blame too. Trying to get a better return in trade, they may have hurt their position, not helped it.

[Pickled Prunes]

I am loving this. I hope he screws up the team chemistry for years to come

I confess, after Butler beat my Knicks in the playoffs 2 years ago, I'm watching this with a kind of train-wreck fascination but as someone who's never liked the heat, that's understandable from a fan perspective.

And it is similar to, but not quite as far gone as the Ben Simmons situation. I felt with Ben, he was genuinely unhappy in Philly and Ben had struggled with depression, so in that instance, I thought that Ben was acting in what he thought was his best interest, and it wasn't a money play, as Ben was losing money, not trying to set up a payday. Butler is trying to manipulate the situation, partly to get an extension, partly to join a winner, so I have much less sympathy for him than Ben. He's getting paid $50 million a year to play a game. He should play.

But I wonder if Miami is partly to blame too. Trying to get a better return in trade, they may have hurt their position, not helped it.

MIA didn't want to trade him at all. It blows my mind that someone being paid the maximum amount of money allowed, to play a game no less, would fail to honor their contract because they want more money promised 18 months from now. MIA shares no blame. Jimmy signed the contract... he needed to honor it. (Obviously too late for that now.)

[Luv those Knicks]

MIA didn't want to trade him at all. It blows my mind that someone being paid the maximum amount of money allowed, to play a game no less, would fail to honor their contract because they want more money promised 18 months from now. MIA shares no blame. Jimmy signed the contract... he needed to honor it. (Obviously too late for that now.)

It's hard to disagree with you. He signed a contract and he's being paid a ton of money. He should honor that. Miami might have wanted to explore a trade in the off-season, not now and the returns might not have appealed to them at all.

Still, the Knick fan in me wants to find a way to blame the heat for this in some way, and I can't help but wonder if they should have handled it better. Jimmy did get them a title and to the finals a 2nd time. He gave them a lot. Now they're eager to suspend him multiple games. I don't know that Miami comes out smelling like roses over this either. But I think their side is more understandable. I still think that a team should try to work things out with a player, especially a player that's given that team a lot.

[puja21]

This saga is turning into an episode of Ben Simmons 2.0 ( minus the injury & playoff performance )

Unprecedented for Miami given their strong culture, front-office & caliber of head coach.

How this unfolds will have an impact on Miami's ability to attract & retain talent.

this goes to show you Heat culture is grossly overrated and mostly BS

Awful take, coming from a diehard Celtics fan going back to mid 80s.

When he joined the team, Butler himself described heat culture as “holding everyone accountable”

This is what is happening now.

A fraud hypocrite is being held accountable & can’t handle it— is melting down.

He’ll be working on his statue in China soon

[Billl]

I really don't get the people who don't think this makes Miami look petty and mismanaged. There is no universe where starting Haywood Highsmith over Jimmy Butler is a basketball decision. If you want Jimmy to show up and play out his contract, fine. Play him. If you want to sit him while you look for a trade, sit him. You don't bench him for a scrub and pretend it's about anything other than trying to put Jimmy "in his place".