Jimmy Butler Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Rockets Notes: Butler, Coaching Search, Lue, JVG, Cassell

September 29th, 2020 at 9:20am CST by Luke Adams

Before he committed to the Heat during last year’s free agency period, Jimmy Butler was a prime target for the Rockets, who attempted to go all-in for him on two separate occasions, as Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle details.

Houston’s first run at Butler came during the 2018/19 league year, when he was being shopped by the Timberwolves. At the time, the Rockets were willing to offer a package that included four first-round picks, but Minnesota ultimately preferred a Philadelphia offer headlined by two affordable veterans who were ready to contribute immediately (Robert Covington and Dario Saric).

Still convinced that Butler could be the player that helped push the team over the top, Rockets GM Daryl Morey was prepared to renew his push for him during 2019’s free agent period. According to Feigen, the club was lining up trades to move Clint Capela and Eric Gordon in order to create the cap flexibility necessary to land Butler. However, despite the fact that he’s from the Houston area and is close with James Harden, Butler decided early in free agency that he wanted to head to Miami, closing the door on the Rockets’ pursuit.

Here’s more on the Rockets, with a focus on their head coaching search:

While the Rockets have interest in Doc Rivers, they’re also preparing to schedule meetings with several other candidates for their head coaching job. According to Feigen, Houston had planned to begin scheduling those interviews by this Wednesday and Thursday, and the club’s list of candidates is expected to include Tyronn Lue, Jeff Van Gundy, Kenny Atkinson, Wes Unseld Jr., Stephen Silas, and perhaps Sam Cassell.
Lue and Van Gundy were the first two candidates identified as possibilities for the Clippers, but it sounds like both coaches are high on Houston’s list as well. According to Marc Stein of The New York Times (Twitter links), Morey wanted to hire Van Gundy in 2016 and owner Tilman Fertitta is believed to be a JVG fan, while Lue has also “received support” for the Rockets’ job.
Kelly Iko of The Athletic explores whether Lue or Cassell would be good fits as the Rockets’ head coach, expressing a belief that Cassell may actually check a lot of the boxes on Houston’s list.

Heat Notes: Adebayo, Riley, Heat Culture

September 26th, 2020 at 4:17pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Heat aren’t saying how much Bam Adebayo‘s aching left wrist and forearm are affecting him, but he turned in a sub-par performance Friday night as the Celtics stayed alive in the Eastern Conference Finals, writes Manny Navarro of The Athletic. Afterward, the All-Star center told reporters he accepts responsibility for Miami’s failure to close out the series.

“I’ll put that game on me,” he said. “It’s not my teammates’ fault. It’s not my coaches’ fault. It’s me. I missed too many shots I should have made. … I wasn’t being the defensive anchor I should’ve been. I don’t think I was communicating fast enough. I feel like I was a step behind today. I wasn’t a difference-maker today. I didn’t get us into fast enough triggers. That’s on me.”

Adebayo posted 13 points, eight rebounds and eight assists, but allowed 1.65 points per possession as the screen defender on direct pick-and-roll plays, which is well above his average. Adebayo’s teammates stuck up for him afterward, and Navarro notes that poor 3-point shooting had a lot to do with the loss.

“That’s not on Bam. He should not say that,” responded Goran Dragic. “We know it’s not like that. It’s not on nobody. It’s on us together as a team. We should do a better job as a team. Everybody looked terrible in the third quarter. We didn’t defend. We didn’t do our job.”

There’s more Heat news to pass along:

Kentucky’s John Calipari, who coached Adebayo in college, tells Marc Stein of The New York Times that the 23-year-old has been able to create his own position in the NBA. “He’s a point-center. Tell me the last one,” Calipari said. “And I mean truly a point-center. Not a big guy who can pass. He can bounce it and get by you. He can make bang-bang plays like a point guard. He can do Eurosteps. And he’s still going to rebound and block shots.”
As the Heat near the one-year anniversary of the start of training camp, Ira Winderman of The Sun-Sentinel looks back at comments from team president Pat Riley to see how they panned out. Of particular interest are his predictions for Tyler Herro and Kendrick Nunn and his excitement over acquiring Jimmy Butler. “The fact that Jimmy Butler wanted to come and play in Miami, that was enough for me,” Riley said last September. “We’re going to find out how he meshes with our team. We’ll see what his impact on winning is. That’s what I’m encouraged about. I embrace all the qualities he has.”
Nick Friedell of ESPN asked several players to explain the “Heat culture” philosophy that defines the organization. “You had to go through something in life that put a chip on your shoulder,” said veteran forward Udonis Haslem. “And that’s built grit inside you that you’re willing to go through extreme circumstances to get where you’re trying to go.”

Southeast Notes: Graham, Capela, Butler, Magic

September 25th, 2020 at 9:33am CST by Luke Adams

Hornets guard Devonte’ Graham enjoyed a breakout 2019/20 campaign, boosting his scoring average from 4.7 PPG to 18.2 PPG to go along with 7.5 APG and a .373 3PT% on 9.3 attempts per game. However, the former second-round pick wasn’t a finalist for the league’s Most Improved Player award, finishing fifth in voting.

“Obviously, I was upset about it. I’m pretty much over it now,” Graham said on Thursday following the Hornets’ group workout, per Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer. “I just know the people who really watch and are around basketball know.”

Having initially signed a three-year, $4.07MM contract with the Hornets after being drafted 34th overall in 2018, Graham will be entering a contract year in 2020/21 and said on Thursday that he’s open to discussing an extension with the team this offseason, according to Bonnell.

Because he’s a minimum-salary player, the Hornets guard would be eligible for a starting salary worth up to 120% of the league’s estimated average salary. If the cap stays at the same level in ’20/21 that it did in ’19/20, that would translate to a maximum extension of $51.4MM over four years.

Here’s more from around the Southeast:

Having been fully cleared after battling a foot injury for the second half of the 2019/20 season, Hawks center Clint Capela has been able to participate in drills and mini-scrimmages at the team’s in-market bubble camp, writes Chris Kirschner of The Athletic. Head coach Lloyd Pierce is excited about how Capela will be able to help Atlanta on the glass. “Defensive rebounding has been a big issue for us,” Pierce said. “He just knows how to do it. He knows how to hold off a guy with one arm and get (the ball) with the other. Just really simple things that you can’t teach. … He showed a couple of those possessions where you instantly look down there, and you’re like, ‘We’ll be all right there.'”
With the Heat one win away from returning to the NBA Finals, head coach Erik Spoelstra looked back this week on the team’s meeting with Jimmy Butler in free agency last summer, discussing how the two sides immediately connected, as Barry Jackson and Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald detail. “We have the same shared values about competition. It works for us. We don’t have to apologize for it,” Spoelstra said. “Times he’s been criticized for it, who cares? Just really grateful we got him.”
The coronavirus pandemic has slowed construction of the Magic‘s new practice facility, according to Josh Robbins of The Athletic, who says that team officials are now hopeful the project will be completed by December 1, 2021. The original target date was September 2021.

Timberwolves Notes: Butler, D-Lo, Layman, Gershon

September 24th, 2020 at 6:36pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Observing the 2020 postseason ascent of one-time Timberwolves All-Star Jimmy Butler has allowed Patrick Reusse of the Minnesota Star Tribune to glean some perspective on Butler’s old team.

Reusse opines that former Timberwolves coach Tom Thibodeau‘s instincts were correct in making his 2017 trade with the Bulls to acquire Butler — but that the team erred in signing 2014 No. 1 pick Andrew Wiggins to a his full five-year, $148MM maximum contract extension. When it became clear that this meant Butler would not be able to get the kind of maximum extension he desired, he forced his way out of Minnesota.

There’s more out of the Gopher State:

Point guard-turned-assistant coach Pablo Prigioni could be the key to improving the play of Wolves star point guard D’Angelo Russell, according to Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic. Prigioni was also a part of the Nets coaching staff when Russell made his lone All-Star appearance for Brooklyn.
Wolves forward Jake Layman recently discussed the team’s in-market group practices, which commenced this week. “It has been great,” Layman said, per a team tweet. “I think going over those little things really builds the chemistry on and off the court and that has translated well to playing our 3-on-3 drill and 5-on-5.”
As we previously relayed, the Wolves ahead of the 2020 draft will add 247 Sports analyst Josh Gershon to their front office. He will serve as a consultant for the team’s draft preparation and player personnel.

Atlantic Notes: Celtics, Nets, Knicks, Raptors

September 24th, 2020 at 9:29am CST by Luke Adams

If the Celtics are unable to come back from a 3-1 deficit to knock off the Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals, they may not be able to help looking back on a pair of 50-50 outcomes from past drafts that didn’t go in their favor.

As Sam Amick of The Athletic details, the first of those draft-day coin flips came in 2011, when the Celtics owned the 27th overall pick and had narrowed down their choice to JaJuan Johnson or Jimmy Butler. Boston selected Johnson, allowing Butler to fall to Chicago at No. 30. Today, Johnson is eight years removed from playing in his last NBA game, while Butler is on the verge of eliminating the C’s from the postseason (albeit after changing teams three times).

Meanwhile, Game 4 star Tyler Herro, who established a new career high on Wednesday with 37 points, was selected by the Heat in the 2019 draft at No. 13, one pick ahead of the Celtics at No. 14. Those draft slots were as a result of a three-team tiebreaker for the Nos. 12-14 selections, after Charlotte, Miami, and Sacramento all finished the season with identical records. The Hornets won the tiebreaker and claimed the No. 12 pick, while the Heat got No. 13. The C’s, who owned the Kings’ pick, ended up at No. 14.

As A. Sherrod Blakely of NBC Sports Boston writes, there was a “collective moan” among the Celtics’ brass after the Heat selected Herro at No. 13 a year ago, since the C’s had their eye on the Kentucky sharpshooter. They would have had a shot to draft him if they’d had better luck in that draft tiebreaker.

Here’s more from around the Atlantic:

Brian Lewis of The New York Post questions whether the Nets really need to make a trade for a third star, suggesting that the missing piece for the roster may instead be a tough wing defender who could be signed using the mid-level exception. Lewis points to veteran forward Andre Roberson as one possibility, assuming he’s fully healthy.
David Nurse, a life/skills coach for a number of NBA players, believes that the Knicks will benefit from new assistant coach Johnnie Bryant‘s player development abilities, as Ian Begley of SNY.tv relays. “He focuses on the details and the specifics for each player,” Nurse said on Begley’s podcast, The Putback. “Player development gets thrown out there as a buzzword, like culture. No one really knows what it means. Most (people think of it as) being just rebounding for players, shooting spot shots. But that’s not player development. Johnnie realizes it’s about the details with helping these players that he works with, focusing on their strengths.”
Blake Murphy and Eric Koreen of The Athletic explore a few Raptors offseason topics, including how much the team’s initial offer to free agent guard Fred VanVleet should be worth, while Doug Smith of The Toronto Star says that president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri and GM Bobby Webster will earn their money during this offseason of uncertainty.

Heat Notes: Butler, UD, Wade, Riley

September 23rd, 2020 at 5:04pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Heat All-Star wing Jimmy Butler has emerged as the leader of a team two games away from the NBA Finals this season. His departures from his prior three teams painted a different picture of his personality.

In a revealing piece, ESPN’s Nick Friedell takes a look at Butler through the eyes of teammates, coaches, front office executives, and team owners past and present, navigating historic quotes that cover Jimmy’s debut in the league all the way through his current standing as one of its premiere players.

There’s more out of South Beach today:

Butler’s uniqueness as a team-first All-Star has made scoring a lesser priority for him. Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel examines whether Butler can be a dominant scorer for the Heat, especially in the first halves of games, in the rest of the postseason.
Veteran Heat power forward Udonis Haslem credits the father of teammate Jae Crowder, Corey, with his 17-season NBA career. After going undrafted in 2002, Haslem headed to France, where he linked up with the elder Crowder as both played for French club Chalon-sur-Saône. After Haslem began dominating team practices, he found encouragement from Crowder to try again at the next level. “That’s when I told him, ‘You’ve got to get to the NBA,’” Corey Crowder said.
As Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald recaps, former Heat All-Star Dwyane Wade spoke on 790 The Ticket’s Tobin & Leroy Show about the Heat’s youth movement this season and the future of longtime Heat mastermind Pat Riley, who is 75. “I think [Riley’s] going to be around [well after this season],” Wade said. “His office is going to still be his office. Even if he’s not in that position, he’s still going to come into practice everyday. This is his life. This is what he loves. This is him. I don’t see him going anywhere.”

Southeast Notes: Wizards, Magic, Chealey, Butler

September 22nd, 2020 at 8:01pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

The Wizards will have several options available to them to improve their roster this offseason. In the second installment of a two-part chat, David Aldridge and Fred Katz of The Athletic discuss the many paths towards improvement the team could take.

Aldridge posits that some teams may be looking to sell off late first-round picks for cash considerations, and suggests Wizards GM Tommy Sheppard look into procuring one, while Katz discusses the possibility of using the team’s mid-level exception to add a veteran big man. The Wizards, who finished with the ninth seed during the NBA’s summer restart in Orlando, will have the Nos. 9 and 37 picks in this year’s draft at their disposal.

There’s more out of the NBA’s Southeast Division:

The Magic departed the league’s Disney campus after a 4-1 first round defeat to the Bucks. Now, Josh Robbins of The Athletic assesses the rise or fall of Orlando players’ “stocks” around the league. Potential free agents Gary Clark and James Ennis are both assessed to be on the ascent.
Hornets guard Joe Chealey will not partake in the team’s training camp this month after suffering a lower leg injury, the team tweeted.
Heat All-Star wing Jimmy Butler has taken just 14, 11 and 13 field goal attempts in the first three games of Miami’s Eastern Conference Finals series with the Celtics. Despite the Heat’s 2-1 lead, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald wonders if Butler needs to correct his relative passivity on offense. “No matter how many shots I take, no matter how many points I score, our job is to win,” Butler said after a Heat practice Tuesday. Butler’s signing as a free agent in 2019 and the improvement of Bam Adebayo have helped push the Heat to the brink of their first NBA Finals appearance since 2014.

Heat Notes: Iguodala, Dragic, Spoelstra, Rotation

September 18th, 2020 at 6:14pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Heat list reserve forward Andre Iguodala as probable for Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald relays. Iguodala missed the second half of Game 2 on Thursday with tightness in his back. He’s averaging 3.6 PPG and 2.5 RPG in 19.1 MPG during the postseason.

We have more on the Heat:

Point guard Goran Dragic, who will be an unrestricted free agent after the season, has sparkled in the playoffs after the club tried to trade him last offseason, according to Michael Lee of The Athletic. Team president Pat Riley wanted to ship Dragic to Dallas in the Jimmy Butler sign-and-trade but the Mavericks weren’t interested.
Dwyane Wade believes Erik Spoelstra doesn’t receive enough accolades for his coaching accomplishments, Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald writes. “He will not get enough credit for the Big 3 era because people think if you put talent together, you’re just going to win,” Wade said. “That is not true. We had an unbelievable general to lead us to those championships and the success we had, and he’s continuing it.”
Spoelstra has identified his top six players and is rolling with them, Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel notes. While Spoelstra used 10 players on Thursday, six of them played at least 32 minutes. That’s not unusual in the postseason, Winderman declares in his latest mailbag.
A fiery halftime locker room got the Heat refocused during halftime of Game 2, Winderman writes in a separate story.

Heat Notes: Butler, Adebayo, Robinson, ECF Schedule

September 18th, 2020 at 12:59pm CST by Arthur Hill

Jimmy Butler has been a difference maker since coming to Miami, and he proved in Thursday’s Game 2 that it doesn’t have to be with scoring, writes Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today. Butler shot just 4-of-11 from the field and was limited to 14 points, but he played a huge role on defense as the Heat held the Celtics to 41 points in the second half and just seven in the game’s final 4:25.

“That was winning basketball tonight from Jimmy Butler,” coach Erik Spoelstra said. “It’s not about the final line. … Jimmy did so many things in that second half that impacted winning on both ends of the floor. Either the average fan sees it or they don’t, but we don’t care.”

After a bumpy relationship with teammates and management in both Chicago and Minnesota, Butler has been a seamless fit with Miami, which emphasizes both peak conditioning and unfiltered communication. The “Heat culture” played a huge role in Butler’s desire to join the team when he hit free agency last summer.

“We look each other in the eye and tell each other when it’s BS,” Butler said. “Spo is going to do it. I’m going to do it. Jae (Crowder) is going to do it. Tyler (Herro) is going to do it. Duncan (Robinson), all the way down the line. … We know when we’re not playing the way that we’re supposed to be playing. And as bad as it sounds, it’s like a switch. It just turns on, and oh, there we go right there. I’m telling you, straight-face communication, move on and get it done.”

There’s more Heat news to pass along:

With Miami trailing by 13 points at halftime Thursday, Spoelstra challenged Bam Adebayo to be “All-Defensive team Bam,” according to Manny Navarro of The Athletic. Adebayo responded not only with better defense, but with 15 third-quarter points to help lead the comeback. He’s an emerging star at age 23 and has become a greater pick-and-roll weapon in the postseason. “Bam is set up for how the league is moving forward: big, athletic, can do multiple things,” Celtics forward Jaylen Brown said. “Really carved out a space for himself in this league.”
With shooters being a priority throughout the NBA, Rob Mahoney of The Ringer examines how the Heat were able to find Robinson as an undrafted free agent. After signing a summer league deal with Miami in 2018, Robinson blossomed as a scorer this season, pouring in 13.5 PPG and shooting .446 from 3-point range.
Andre Iguodala sat out the second half of Game 2 with a “tight back,” tweets Ira Winderman of The Sun-Sentinel.
Competition from other sports has affected the schedule for the Eastern Conference Finals, tweets Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald. The every-other-day rotation would normally have Game 4 on Monday, but it has been pushed back to Wednesday to avoid going head-to-head with Monday Night Football. A potential Game 7 may be September 29 or 30, but ESPN has seven baseball playoff series on those dates.

Heat Notes: Roster, Haslem, ECF

September 17th, 2020 at 6:36pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Zach Lowe of ESPN tracks the Heat‘s impressive front office maneuvering that took them from the lottery in 2015 back to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2020, despite having traded away a number of their draft picks during that time. Lowe applauds the team’s savvy drafting of All-Star Bam Adebayo and potential future All-Star shooting specialist Tyler Herro in the 2017 and 2019 drafts, respectively.

“The doubt was whether [Adebayo] could really do much on offense,” said Heat senior adviser of basketball operations Chet Kammerer. “I just felt like, with his love for the game and his work ethic, he’s going to be OK in that area.”

The Heat also hit on three undrafted free agent role players in point guard Kendrick Nunn this season, shooting guard Duncan Robinson last year, and forward Derrick Jones Jr. in 2017 after a brief stint with the Suns. Miami was apparently one of two contenders for Dorian Finney-Smith after the 2016 draft, but lost out to the Mavericks.

Of course, All-Star Jimmy Butler was the key addition this offseason. During the 2016/17 “Three Alphas” Bulls season – when Dwyane Wade teamed up with Butler and Rajon Rondo in Chicago – Wade and Butler discussed just how special the much-ballyhooed “Heat culture” really was. That conversation apparently set the stage for Butler prioritizing the Heat above all other suitors in free agency during the summer of 2019, despite Miami lacking any room to sign a maximum-salaried free agent. Miami made a four-team sign-and-trade for the team’s now-top star.

There’s more out of South Beach:

The Heat’s playoff-ready roster, comprised by acquiring key under-regarded prospects and never fully bottoming out, is also examined by HoopsHype’s Frank Urbina in another quality piece.
17-season Heat lifer Udonis Haslem, a crucial role player for each of Miami’s three titles, remains noncommittal on whether or not 2019/20 will prove to be his final season as a player, per Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated. “There is a value and a need for me here,” Haslem said. “It doesn’t have to be the way that everybody thinks it should be. If I have to put on a suit and stand on the sideline, just because everybody else thinks I should. I found value in this locker room, and I’ve been able to move the needle and help us win games, and that’s what it’s all about.”
Ahead of the first game of the Heat’s Eastern Conference Finals series against the Celtics, we asked you who you expected to advance to the NBA Finals from Eastern Conference. As of this writing, the third-seeded Celtics have received 54% of over 1,300 votes.