ESPN News Services
Jan 4, 2025, 03:47 PM ET
MIAMI -- As Jimmy Butler is set to serve out the first game of his team-issued suspension Saturday against the Utah Jazz, the Miami Heat are looking to move forward, with team captain Bam Adebayo saying the group is "focused on who's with us now."
Butler was suspended seven games over what the Heat called conduct detrimental to the team; Miami has said it is listening to trade offers.
"It's disappointing when you see the organization and a player going head-to-head like that," Adebayo said Saturday after the team's shootaround practice. "But the rest of us got to figure out how to win games."
Butler has not commented publicly on the suspension. The National Basketball Players Association spoke out on Butler's behalf hours after the Heat announced the suspension Friday, saying it believes the team's actions are "excessive and inappropriate." The suspension could cost Butler about $2.4 million of his $48.8 million salary this season.
"It's none of our business," Adebayo said. "It's for Jimmy and for the management to handle."
How it gets handled from here, and on what time frame, is anyone's guess.
Trading Butler will be a challenge in this new NBA world, with the rules of the collective bargaining agreement limiting the ways teams can acquire players. It's possible, but it's far from certain. And the Heat simply letting Butler leave as a free agent this summer -- Butler has a player option for next season -- also remains a possibility, as it could open up some other avenues for Miami to acquire new players.
"It sucks to see that he won't be around," Heat guard Terry Rozier said.
Butler averaged 21.7 points, 6.2 rebounds and 5.7 assists in 380 games with the Heat, including playoffs. Entering Saturday, since Butler joined the Heat, they've won 59.7% of their games when he played (227-153); they've won 49.2% of their games when he hasn't (58-60).
He became eligible last summer for a two-year, $113 million extension. The deal was never offered by the Heat, in part because Butler has missed about one-quarter of the team's games during his Miami tenure.
It was only natural that such a big sum of money not being offered was going to lead to problems. And the tension boiled over this week. Butler didn't play in the fourth quarters of Miami games on Wednesday and Thursday; he spent some offensive possessions simply standing in the corner, almost as if he had no role.
"I feel like he came to work, he tried to perform, and it just didn't go his way," Adebayo said. "I feel like he didn't want to be in the corner. But like I said, we develop a system where we play around everybody, and we just had to figure out how to incorporate him. But after what happened yesterday, we're focused on who's with us now."
After the second of those games earlier in the week, Butler said "probably not" when asked if he thought he could find on-court joy again in Miami.
Saying those two words might have been his last official act as a member of the Heat. Earlier this season, Miami said it had no interest in trading Butler. Hearing him say he doesn't want to be on the team anymore evidently changes things.
"It's hard to not see him around," Heat forward Nikola Jovic said.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
