The first thing teams do when they are eliminated from the playoffs is figure out who will be returning for the next season. For the most part, no one is safe, as guys could hit free agency, get traded, or just get released outright. The Miami Heat are one of those squads charting their course for the offseason, and they are dealing with a Jimmy Butler-induced headache. After getting eliminated by the Boston Celtics, Pat Riley fired some warning shots at Butler, who was running his mouth throughout the series despite not being on the court for it.
Jimmy Butler's camp fires back at Pat Riley's comments
The words, “If you're not on the court playing … you should keep our mouth shut,” echoed around the world. It hit Heat fans the hardest. These were launched by Riley and directed at the team's best player in Butler.
Butler trolled the C's early in this series, making fun of Jaylen Brown's ‘Don't let us get one' comments from last year's postseason series after Miami won Game 2, and boldly complaining about all the praise for Boston during an in-game interview at Game 3 before declaring that the Heat would win the game and take a 2-1 series lead. They wound up not winning another game the rest of the way out.
While Riley isn't happy with Butler's actions during their lone playoff series this year, Butler's agent, Bernie Lee, has backed up his client. He did this while dispelling the narrative that Butler is never on the court after he was forced to sit out this entire series vs. the C's after he suffered a sprained MCL in Miami's Play-In Tournament contest against the Philadelphia 76ers.
“Taking issue in games in which he plays is just not reality. This past season, we had a conversation at the start of the year… The priority that was in place was to be able to participate in every game he was physically able to participate in. I can tell you that he lived up to that commitment,” Lee declared.
He even further hammered the point about his star always being there for the Heat.
“Jimmy missed 22 games this past year, a mix of personal reasons and injury. If there was a game that was on the schedule that Jimmy was healthy enough to participate in, he did that. He played in a number of back-to-backs. It was the utmost priority to him to do everything he can to be available,” he added.
Jimmy Butler's availability for the Heat
Riley and the Heat have Butler under contract for at least one more season before he has a player option for the 2025-26 campaign. He can exercise that option as soon as next season, but the cap hit he brings to the team is quite large. The Heat will have to stomach a cap hit of nearly $49 million next season on just Butler.
Butler averaged the most minutes per game of his career this past season (34 minutes per game) since his stint with the Minnesota Timberwolves back in the 2017-18 season (36.7 minutes per game). This was also one of his three 60-game seasons in the past half a decade. It could be helpful in his case about staying on the floor for the Heat. While there is growing concern about his age and rivals like the Celtics getting stronger, there is still optimism that he will stay in South Beach moving forward.
“I have too much respect for both what Jimmy’s accomplished in his career and what he’s built to negotiate publicly. I have way too much respect for the franchise that currently employs him to be doing that. So we’re going to go away, we’re going to do our business, and that’s whatever it’s going to be,” he concluded.
Will Butler's relationship with Riley affect his upcoming extension?
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