Erik Spoelstra: There's A Reason Why We Chased Jimmy Butler So Hard, Backed Up The Brink's Truck

[RealGM Wiretap]

Pat Riley and the Miami Heat made a bold sign-and-trade for Jimmy Butler last offseason a few months after nearly trading for him during the 18-19 season. Butler has helped elevate the Heat to playoff contenders again.

"There's a reason why we chased him so hard, and backed up the Brink's truck to get a max player," Erik Spoelstra said. "That was the idea: to have a guy that we believe can take us to a different level.

"That's what he's doing right now."

Butler allows the Heat offense to function without a traditional point guard in the starting lineup and also espouses all the principles of "Heat Culture".

Spoelstra even thinks about what would have happened had the Heat selected Butler in 2011 instead of Norris Cole.

"It felt like he should've been with us all along," Spoelstra said with a smile. "All along. I was joking about it with [Heat senior adviser] Chet Kammerer. ... I was saying, 'Man, looking back on it now, how great would Jimmy Butler have been drafting him after that first year with the Big Three?' Could've slotted him in with LeBron (James) be the point, Dwyane (Wade), Jimmy be your 3, CB (Chris Bosh), Shane (Battier) ... that team could've gone on."

"I'm just here to hoop," Butler said when asked if he thought about the future possibilities for the organization when he agreed to come to Miami. "I'll let Coach Pat, Coach Spo and everybody else in the front office deal with all of that.

"I just know that I wanted to be here, I am here, and whatever we do, if we stick with this team, our job is still to win. We're locked in right now, and we'll worry about the future when it gets here."

Via Brian Windhorst, Tim Bontemps/ESPN

[Killboard]

The reason is a 4th seed in the east.

[Hipster Doofus]

Why does Erica keep talkin about Butler every week? Bro, you made a trade, and you're doing slightly better than predicted because of it, sitting in 4th place in the East.

Let's talk when the honeymoon period is over, not on a week-to-week basis.

[Milo1661]

Why does Erica keep talkin about Butler every week? Bro, you made a trade, and you're doing slightly better than predicted because of it, sitting in 4th place in the East.

Let's talk when the honeymoon period is over, not on a week-to-week basis.

Sad Sixer fan

[Hipster Doofus]

Why does Erica keep talkin about Butler every week? Bro, you made a trade, and you're doing slightly better than predicted because of it, sitting in 4th place in the East.

Let's talk when the honeymoon period is over, not on a week-to-week basis.

Sad Sixer fan

Whatever makes you feel better.

[Cael]

Lol. Let's act like mans were lining up to sign in Miami or teams were lining up to give jimmy a 5 year max deal.

Shooting 26% from 3. They signed demar derozan with d.

[Scalabrine]

Lol. Let's act like mans were lining up to sign in Miami or teams were lining up to give jimmy a 5 year max deal.

Shooting 26% from 3. They signed demar derozan with d.

DeRozan with All NBA Defense is a Top 15-20 player.

[LascelleL]

Hand in glove fit right there. Butler is basically Pat Riley made Player

[Sam195]

Lol. Let's act like mans were lining up to sign in Miami or teams were lining up to give jimmy a 5 year max deal.

Shooting 26% from 3. They signed demar derozan with d.

Only Sixers could offer Butler the 5 year max since they owned his bird rights. If rumors are true Butler had a bunch of issues with Philly by the end of the season just like he had prior with end of his stints with the Bulls and Timberwolves. I think Worj or Windhorst said the Sixers did not offer Butler the full 5 year max where he would make more than like $45M the year he turns 35. I think they offered him the 4 year max with higher raises than he could get from another team as a ufa. Butler could have maximized his earnings by doing a 2+1 deal (3 year $100M) like Kawhi did with the Clippers and test free agency again in two seasons. However, since the Heat had salary cap issues they had to work a multi-team sign and trade to acquire him. In a sign and trade scenario the player being signed and traded has to agree to a contract that is at minimum 3 fully guaranteed seasons (no opt outs) that is why Butler had to do the 3+1 (4 year $141M deal). My guess is Butler will be looking to sign some kind of extension with the Heat in the 2021 summer to recoup most of the 5 year $190M max he would have gotten from Minnesota if he didn't burn his bridges there. Heat also have no state income tax in Florida.

[Sam195]

Hand in glove fit right there. Butler is basically Pat Riley made Player

The shots at Noris Cole and IT4 is classless. Cole is out of the league and IT4 lost the Brinks Truck with his injury and trades to Cleveland and the Lakers where he never fit in.

[Pickled Prunes]

Lol. Let's act like mans were lining up to sign in Miami or teams were lining up to give jimmy a 5 year max deal.

Shooting 26% from 3. They signed demar derozan with d.

DeRozan with All NBA Defense is a Top 15-20 player.

Actually a great comp... I'll take e DeRozan all day long. Attitude and availability are the key factors here. And apparently DeRozan doesn't need to shoot 3pts; his TS% is 8th amongst SF's. It's funny that people forgot that he is really good.

[Dr Huge Pecs]

Lol. Let's act like mans were lining up to sign in Miami or teams were lining up to give jimmy a 5 year max deal.

Shooting 26% from 3. They signed demar derozan with d.

DeRozan with All NBA Defense is a Top 15-20 player.

Actually a great comp... I'll take e DeRozan all day long. Attitude and availability are the key factors here. And apparently DeRozan doesn't need to shoot 3pts; his TS% is 8th amongst SF's. It's funny that people forgot that he is really good.

Heat will beat philly in playoffs if they meet up.

Philly has punk kids on twitter all day "leading" the team.

The heat never tanked, kept their philosophy and has a team built around a guy who only cares about winning, like the coach and the president. Philly will never get past round 2 with their core. Boston toronto miami are all better...id even take indy at full strength over philly.

Some orgs. cant handle jimmy...their loss...see Minnesota

[Heat3]

I’ve never seen such a salty group of fans for player that was only there for half a season

[mplsfonz23]

Why does Erica keep talkin about Butler every week? Bro, you made a trade, and you're doing slightly better than predicted because of it, sitting in 4th place in the East.

Let's talk when the honeymoon period is over, not on a week-to-week basis.

It's kind of like this time last year when Sixer fans thought Wolves fans were bitter. Not trolling you, but all the Philly fans laughed at us when we told them about the destruction he caused while here. Then he turned on Simo and Embiid, now you see the cancer he is.
And you are right, wait until they hit some rough times, he will turn on the Miami FO and players for not being him.

[rzzzzz]

Jimmy, a talented coach, and savvy GM are a considerable combination.

[D21]

Lol. Let's act like mans were lining up to sign in Miami or teams were lining up to give jimmy a 5 year max deal.

Shooting 26% from 3. They signed demar derozan with d.

DeRozan with All NBA Defense is a Top 15-20 player.

Actually a great comp... I'll take e DeRozan all day long. Attitude and availability are the key factors here. And apparently DeRozan doesn't need to shoot 3pts; his TS% is 8th amongst SF's. It's funny that people forgot that he is really good.

Don't forget that TS% doesn't mean anything if the player kills the team defense, and it's exactly what DeRozan has made almost every year, except one season in TOR... the only one he sots more 3pts !

Except this season, he had a bad impact, the team was loosing points on opponents if he was on the floor (negative +/-, negative On/Off Net...)
You could also watch the games and see that they were loosing points when he was on the floor, and dominating when he was on the bench.

And he did the same last season with SAS :
offense on 100 poss. from 113pts with him to 116pts without him
defense on 100 poss. from 113pts with him to 111pts without him

The year ? (except the last games where he was better)
on 100 poss, offense doesn't change at 112pts, but defense goes from 116pts with him to 106pts without him !
TS% or every other offensive stats doesn't mean anything alone when talking about guys like DeRozan

[Pickled Prunes]

DeRozan with All NBA Defense is a Top 15-20 player.

Actually a great comp... I'll take e DeRozan all day long. Attitude and availability are the key factors here. And apparently DeRozan doesn't need to shoot 3pts; his TS% is 8th amongst SF's. It's funny that people forgot that he is really good.

Don't forget that TS% doesn't mean anything if the player kills the team defense, and it's exactly what DeRozan has made almost every year, except one season in TOR... the only one he sots more 3pts !

Except this season, he had a bad impact, the team was loosing points on opponents if he was on the floor (negative +/-, negative On/Off Net...)
You could also watch the games and see that they were loosing points when he was on the floor, and dominating when he was on the bench.

And he did the same last season with SAS :
offense on 100 poss. from 113pts with him to 116pts without him
defense on 100 poss. from 113pts with him to 111pts without him

The year ? (except the last games where he was better)
on 100 poss, offense doesn't change at 112pts, but defense goes from 116pts with him to 106pts without him !
TS% or every other offensive stats doesn't mean anything alone when talking about guys like DeRozan

TS% was brought up because the biggest knock on DeRozan right now is that he doesn't shoot 3's. His shot selection has been stellar and his TS% this season is more than 5% higher than in any other year of his career.

And your right, Jimmy is a better defender... that's why I said it was a great comp.

[Pickled Prunes]

DeRozan with All NBA Defense is a Top 15-20 player.

Actually a great comp... I'll take e DeRozan all day long. Attitude and availability are the key factors here. And apparently DeRozan doesn't need to shoot 3pts; his TS% is 8th amongst SF's. It's funny that people forgot that he is really good.

Heat will beat philly in playoffs if they meet up.

Philly has punk kids on twitter all day "leading" the team.

The heat never tanked, kept their philosophy and has a team built around a guy who only cares about winning, like the coach and the president. Philly will never get past round 2 with their core. Boston toronto miami are all better...id even take indy at full strength over philly.

Some orgs. cant handle jimmy...their loss...see Minnesota

They might; they are a good team and PHI is poorly constructed.

PHI kids are on Twitter and we're in here.... so?

Yeah, I'd take the field over PHI too, but BOS, TOR, IND and MIA are not definitively better than PHI today. I like BOS two years from now over all those teams. I think the "Process" has proven to be less effective than PHI hoped for. They need to win soon, before it crumbles. But they are certainly dangerous when healthy.

[D21]

Actually a great comp... I'll take e DeRozan all day long. Attitude and availability are the key factors here. And apparently DeRozan doesn't need to shoot 3pts; his TS% is 8th amongst SF's. It's funny that people forgot that he is really good.

Don't forget that TS% doesn't mean anything if the player kills the team defense, and it's exactly what DeRozan has made almost every year, except one season in TOR... the only one he sots more 3pts !

Except this season, he had a bad impact, the team was loosing points on opponents if he was on the floor (negative +/-, negative On/Off Net...)
You could also watch the games and see that they were loosing points when he was on the floor, and dominating when he was on the bench.

And he did the same last season with SAS :
offense on 100 poss. from 113pts with him to 116pts without him
defense on 100 poss. from 113pts with him to 111pts without him

The year ? (except the last games where he was better)
on 100 poss, offense doesn't change at 112pts, but defense goes from 116pts with him to 106pts without him !
TS% or every other offensive stats doesn't mean anything alone when talking about guys like DeRozan

TS% was brought up because the biggest knock on DeRozan right now is that he doesn't shoot 3's. His shot selection has been stellar and his TS% this season is more than 5% higher than in any other year of his career.

And your right, Jimmy is a better defender... that's why I said it was a great comp.

Right, the problem with DeRozan, that no media talk about, is that he had his best impact on his team the only season he shots more 3pts than ever. Even if it was not a high percentage, it was creating spacing that the four other guys benefited

[Pickled Prunes]

Don't forget that TS% doesn't mean anything if the player kills the team defense, and it's exactly what DeRozan has made almost every year, except one season in TOR... the only one he sots more 3pts !

Except this season, he had a bad impact, the team was loosing points on opponents if he was on the floor (negative +/-, negative On/Off Net...)
You could also watch the games and see that they were loosing points when he was on the floor, and dominating when he was on the bench.

And he did the same last season with SAS :
offense on 100 poss. from 113pts with him to 116pts without him
defense on 100 poss. from 113pts with him to 111pts without him

The year ? (except the last games where he was better)
on 100 poss, offense doesn't change at 112pts, but defense goes from 116pts with him to 106pts without him !
TS% or every other offensive stats doesn't mean anything alone when talking about guys like DeRozan

TS% was brought up because the biggest knock on DeRozan right now is that he doesn't shoot 3's. His shot selection has been stellar and his TS% this season is more than 5% higher than in any other year of his career.

And your right, Jimmy is a better defender... that's why I said it was a great comp.

Right, the problem with DeRozan, that no media talk about, is that he had his best impact on his team the only season he shots more 3pts than ever. Even if it was not a high percentage, it was creating spacing that the four other guys benefited

I disagree. DeRozan's assists went up with the trade and SAS lead the NBA in 3pt% in 18/19, largely because their two/only real threats pulled defenses in. They have fallen down to 7th this season, but that is almost entirely because they lost Bertans. But either way, that's a coach/gm problem. The GM assembles a group of players that complement each other on the court and the coach implements a game plan that gets the most out of those players. DeRozan is a highly skilled offensive player and; it's Pop's job to put him in a position to succeed, which he largely has.

I think people get confused about the narrative a bit and think that TOR traded DeRozan for Kawhi and the rest was history. Look at the playoff roster turnover from '18 to '19. TOR added Kawhi, Green and Gasol while seeing major development from guys like Siakam, VanVleet, and even Powell. Not to mention some incredible injury luck vs. the GSW. The 2019 team was drastically better up and down the roster.

It's impossible to compare that to the SAS roster that DeRozan got traded to. That roster is pretty rough after the first two guys. I'm not really sure who the 3rd best player is on SAS right now: Murray, Forbes White, Mills? Who knows? That squad making the playoffs in the West last season was almost as impressive as TOR winning it all..... I said almost!