The Heat will suspend Jimmy Butler for their upcoming two-game road trip, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
Charania reports that Butler missed a team flight on Wednesday for tomorrow’s game at Milwaukee. He was planning to fly separately and join his teammates tonight, but Heat officials told him to stay home. The suspension will also cover Saturday’s game at Brooklyn.
A “timing element” was involved in Butler being late for the flight, according to Ira Winderman of The Sun Sentinel (Twitter link). The Heat canceled a practice and left for Milwaukee earlier than originally scheduled.
Butler just returned on Friday from a seven-game suspension imposed before the start of the last road trip. He appeared in three games, all at home, and drew a mixed reaction from Miami fans.
The latest suspension comes as the Heat are trying to work out a trade to get Butler off their roster and avoid further escalating an already-tense situation. He has been asking to be traded for several weeks and reportedly “tripled down” on that request during recent meetings with president of basketball operations Pat Riley and team owner Micky Arison.
The Suns appear to be the front-runners to acquire Butler, and their prospects may have improved after they picked up three tradable first-round picks in a deal with Utah on Tuesday. However, at least one more team will have to get involved in order for Butler to wind up in Phoenix, so it may take time to work out the details.
The first suspension cost Butler roughly $2.35MM in lost salary, although the players union is contesting it. The latest suspension will add more than $671K to that figure.
So trade him and end this saga! Either you miss him or you don’t!
I say keep suspending him, let him pout. Let him come off the books clean and clear and pick up some picks in the sign and trade. Dude chose to be a team killer and ruin this season. Good for him. He accomplished the goal. Why reward him for his efforts?
Riley is playing hardball now…
Riley created this problem to begin with.
Oh my God, just trade this bum
More and more suspensions are my prediction
Thanks Captain
Tied to the whip post. Tired to the weapon pose. Oh, lord I feel like I’m dying.
Given your track record he’s more likely going to be traded before this suspension is up…
However I agree with you as no sane team would take Butler…
C’mon Jimmy it could be worse, you could be a Laker.
Jimmy is a team cancer and every team he’s ever been on isn’t doing very good right now and don’t look like a real championship contender anytime soon. The other 26 teams are realizing that. Miami is the only one of the 4 that has any hope really and that’s cause of a HOF coach who gets value from scrubs.
Ok but Jimmy got Miami to a finals.
As telegraphed.
I figured this is what MIA was up to. It’s going to keep happening as long as Butler is on the team, and sneezes in the wrong direction. The owners made the decision not to pay him to sit out. But that doesn’t mean the team wants him on the court either. Suspensions are the only way to satisfy both.
he purposely missed a team flight and decided he would “meet up with the team later”.. if this isn’t suspension worthy, wtf is?
Uh they changed the flight time. He probably already had a massage scheduled. Stop picking on him.
Whether that warrants a suspension depends on the CBA, then team rules, then precedent, course of dealing, motives, context, etc. All of it is beside the point right now, as that determination will likely be the subject of an arbitration later.
The point is incidents like this were inevitable as soon as MIA took the unusual step of requiring JB to rejoin the team. That step, clearly, wasn’t done with the idea that he would recommit to the team, but that the team’s financial case would be better if they could use the suspension tool again vs just claiming breach of contract.
@Never Remember: “He probably already had a massage scheduled. Stop picking on him.”
Then cancel the massage. He has a ridiculous amount of money and can afford a cancelation fee. Clown excuses.
@jeremyn your bloodthirst to hate a player proves you dont know ball and its all emotional for you. Grow up.
Kettle calling the pot black lol
Get ya popcorn…
Unless the Suns manage to find more teams willing to throw away first rounders because they have too many this is going to take a while…
Miami should trade him for those 3 1sts and laugh at Phoenix when they lose in the 1st or 2nd round and Jimmy walks. Miami will take 3 late 1sts and make rotation players out of them instead of waiting 6 years and hoping for a lottery win.
But can they get all 3?
And are they really worth taking on Beals contract?
I think if Riley gets a first and flotsom on short contracts from anywhere else he takes it…
Miami isn’t taking on Beal. They have zero interest. Miami also isn’t getting three 1st round picks. Phoenix got those picks yo sweeten the deal for other teams. This is gonna end up being a 4 or 5 team trade. Butler probably ends up in Milwaukee.
Where does Beal end up going?
This sounds more like we’ve got a trade that will likely happen in a few days.
Im really not sure what Pat Riley expected. His lack of understanding how his own players operate is fascinating.
Did he think Jimmy was going to be full of smiles and joy after suspending him for 7 games? Riley needs to go. Clearly not capable of adjusting his style for the betterment of the Miami Heat.
Been holding onto this one because it’s offensive and in poor taste but if he really wanted out of Miami he could just go the Meyers Leonard route. (This is a joke)
I’m guessing he didn’t have the team’s approval to fly separately?
Trade him for a third round pick and be done with this guy!
No mas Jimmy
Just my evaluation
It doesn’t matter what Jimmy Butler does these days, his trade value is still much higher than Beal + 3 Firsts
Let’s say Butler is 1 dollar, Beal + 3 Firsts = 50 cents
Free Jimmy! The Heat look like a laughingstock here.
how… how do you comprehend what you just said reading that he SKIPPED A TEAM FLIGHT AND SAID HE WOULD MEET UP WITH THE TEAM LATER?!
Quit yelling dude. It says in the article that they cancelled a practice and changed the time of a team flight. Maybe he had plans he couldn’t change at the last last minute. He’s got an ongoing dispute with his ex GF about child support going on right now as well. Who knows maybe he a mediation appointment?
@jeremyn He didnt do any of that, he had it approved and now Miami is backstabbing him. You are clueless man
Too true, too true my friend!!!
If El Don agrees with your take it confirms it’s dumb af.
Lol
Yawn ……. call me when he’s traded
Send him to Siberia!
So the team had plans to catch a flight at a certain time then they cancel a practice and leave early. They didn’t think to check if the players had other plans or appointments that would interfere with an earlier flight? Now they’re going to suspend him two more games. Yeah, that makes sense. NBPA will fight this one as well.
me thinks players other plans and appts would of been to be at practice at said time. when said time came for practice to begin with players present, staff makes decision to leave early. just a thought.
Agreed, doesn’t mean you didn’t have plans after practice before the original flight.
yeah, definitely don’t know the itinerary.
I just can’t believe someone will take Beal …..
I’m going to have to SEE IT …….
This guy needs to GROW THE HELL UP already!
No excuse for missing the team flight
Except he already requested this, and now Pat Riley is stabbing him in the back.
I was at all of the last 3 games, and didn’t appreciate how he played throughout most of it. Last night, I forgot he was there
This is the antithesis of everything Jimmy Butler ever was, and it’s sad, and makes me appreciate Tyler Herro for proving me wrong this year, in how he has handled himself, after being challenged exponentially harder than Butler was by Riley.
Please don’t make another bad trade, like the rozier trade….I’d rather lose him for nothing
Like. Miami now has a good young core with Bam and Tyler along with Jaime and Jovic. They actually could lose Jimmy for nothing and not have it interfere with their future team building.