Heat Notes: Butler, Spoelstra, Johnson, Stevens, Rozier

Although his contract situation is the leading factor (he wanted an extension and the Heat haven’t offered one), another part of the reason Jimmy Butler prefers a trade out of Miami is that he’s been hoping the team would be able to acquire more impact players, but it has been unable to do so, according to Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter video link).

“Over the last three years, Jimmy Butler has wanted the Heat to go get him some help in that roster,” Charania said. “They just have not been able to land players. They’ve gone after Kevin Durant, Damian Lillard, Kyrie Irving. They have not been able to land that next big fish with Jimmy Butler.

“The writing, in a lot of ways, is on the wall, for the Heat and for Jimmy Butler.”

Charania, who first reported that the Heat were willing to entertain offers for the star forward earlier this season, reiterated that Miami doesn’t feel any urgency to move Butler, which has been confirmed by multiple local reporters, including Anthony Chiang and Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald. Head coach Erik Spoelstra responded to the latest reports on Thursday, as Chiang and Jackson relay.

“That’s just the deal,” Spoelstra said. “You have to compartmentalize in this business. We want Jimmy here. There’s no ifs, ands or buts about it. And it’s just unfortunate that you have to control or deal with a lot of the noise on the outside. In terms of this morning, this was a pretty focused group coming off of the last game that we came [to Orlando, when the Heat blew a 22-point fourth-quarter lead].”

ESPN and The Miami Herald have reported that Butler hasn’t formally requested a trade, but he’s not happy with his situation and is prepared to leave while still being professional. When asked directly if Butler has asked him to be moved, Spoelstra declined to answer.

“That’s all I’m going to talk about it,” Spoelstra said. “The more any of us talk about it, the more fuel it gets. It’s just really unfortunate that it just continues to build momentum outside of our building.”

Here’s more on the Heat:

• All-Star center and team captain Bam Adebayo also addressed the Butler rumors, per Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel. “You go out there and you win games,” Adebayo said. “That’s how you keep the distractions out. You go out there and win games, do it together. Like I said, they’ll handle everything behind closed doors. Obviously, you have the business side of it. So at the end of the day, we’re all a family, we’re all in a brotherhood. So we’ll worry about the basketball games that we have to play.”
• Dru Smith, who is on a two-way contract, was on track to be promoted to a standard deal before sustaining a torn left Achilles tendon, which will sideline him for the remainder of the season. In the wake of the devastating news, the Heat instead converted rookie forward Keshad Johnson‘s two-way contract into a standard deal. Johnson’s two-way spot was filled by Isaiah Stevens, with both signings officially completed today. “It’s well earned, we’re really happy for them,” Spoelstra said of Johnson and Stevens, per The Herald. “We congratulate them on that.”
• Will Terry Rozier be able to step up in Smith’s absence? Winderman ponders that question in a subscriber-only mailbag.