Jimmy Butler says he needs to find joy in playing basketball again. When asked if he can find that joy in Miami, his answer was short: “Probably not.”
The relationship between Butler and the Miami Heat seems to have gotten worse recently. The Heat lost to Indiana 128-115 on Thursday night, with Butler scoring just nine points and not playing a single second in the fourth quarter for the second game in a row. He also didn’t play in the fourth quarter in the previous game against New Orleans.
“What do I want to see happen? I want to see me get my joy back from playing basketball, wherever that may be — we’ll find out here pretty soon,” Butler said.
“I want to get my joy back. I’m happy here, off the court, but I want to be back to somewhere dominant. I want to hoop and I want to help this team win. Right now, I’m not doing that.”
It’s unclear what will happen next for Butler and the Heat. The team doesn’t have practice on Friday and will host Utah on Saturday.
After Butler’s postgame comments on Thursday, ESPN reported that Butler has “indicated” to the Heat that he wants to be traded.
However, Butler hasn’t said anything publicly about wanting to leave. The network also reported on Christmas Day that Butler would prefer a trade by the Feb. 6 deadline. This has led the Heat to take the unusual step of saying they won’t trade him.
Thursday’s game was unusual for Butler. He spent most of his offensive possessions in the corner and only took six shots in 27 minutes of play, following a game where he took just five shots. Heat coach Erik Spoelstra tried to get Butler more involved by making him the point guard during parts of the third quarter, but it didn’t work.
“Obviously he’s frustrated, because he’s standing on the corner,” Heat captain Bam Adebayo said. “So, he’s got a lot of things going on in his corner. For us, we keep the main thing the main thing like our coach always tells us. We play to win and that’s what it’s all about.”
Butler said he was focused and did what was expected of him Thursday, adding, “or at least, what my job is now.”
“That’s not what I’m used to being,” Butler said. “I haven’t been that since my first, second, third year in the league, where I just went out there and played defense. I competed. I guarded. That’s what I’m doing now.”
Butler has not scored in double figures for three consecutive games, marking the first time that’s happened since November 2013. He was also scoreless against Oklahoma City on Dec. 20 after leaving the game early due to an ankle injury and illness.
Despite these struggles, Butler has still shown his elite skills. Less than a month ago, he scored 35 points, grabbed 19 rebounds, recorded 10 assists, and had four steals in a game against Detroit on Dec. 16.
But he’s also been held to 10 points or fewer six times this season, though he did leave two of those games early for injury or illness. “We tried to get him involved, I thought,” Heat guard Tyler Herro said after Thursday’s game.
Butler has been the top player for the Heat in their two trips to the NBA Finals. He was eligible for a two-year, $113 million contract extension starting last summer, but the Heat have not yet offered him a new deal.
Butler has a $52 million player option for next season or could leave Miami in free agency this summer, depending on whether he stays with the team after the trade deadline.
Coach Spoelstra has said multiple times that he wants Butler to remain in Miami and believes that the back-to-back nine-point games are partly due to Butler missing almost two weeks because of illness. Wednesday’s game was his first back after that break.
“It’s about being aggressive,” Spoelstra said before Butler’s postgame comments. “We’ve got to figure it out. I’ll figure it out. He’s got to figure it out, too. We’ve got to figure it out.”
Butler insisted he will keep competing.
“I’m going out there to compete to win, either way, whether I score nine points or 29 points,” Butler said. “I will compete. That’s one thing that I will say. You won’t say that I’m out there not playing hard. It may look like that because my usage is down and I don’t shoot the ball a lot, but we won’t sit here and say I don’t play hard.”
