Butler not content with runner-up finish last season
Jimmy Butler’s goals are simple this season: lead Miami back to the Finals and win the title. ‘I haven’t won anything worth saying I’ve won,’ he said.
Jimmy Butler is as happy as he has ever been in the NBA entering his second season with the Miami Heat, but he’s not content.
“Nope. Still not content,” Butler said Tuesday, with the Heat off from practice Wednesday. “I haven’t won anything worth saying I’ve won. I think I have a long way to go. My team has a long way to go. So whenever I win it, then you can ask me that question next year.”
Just two months after falling two wins short of an NBA championship, Butler’s expectations for himself entering the season are simple. It’s to get back to the NBA Finals, and to win the title this time.
“To win. That’s it, to win,” Butler said of the expectations he holds for himself. “I know that I’m capable of it. I know with the guys that they put around me that I’m capable of it. Now I’ve just got to go out and do my part, make sure that I get better. Make sure that I’m making everybody around me better, and win. That’s it.”
“I know that I can make that happen. I know with the group of guys that we have, that we can make this happen. So, that’s it. That’s what I expect of myself, everybody else, the coaches, the organization, is to win,” Butler said.
Butler did not play in Monday’s preseason opening loss to the New Orleans Pelicans, and Heat coach Erik Spoelstra has yet to say whether Butler will play in Miami’s second and final preseason game Friday against the Toronto Raptors in Tampa. Along with Butler, the Heat also rested veterans Goran Dragic and Andre Iguodala on Monday.
But Butler doesn’t need to step on the court for a preseason game to know the type of players he has around him. Miami returns 13 players from last season’s roster that advanced to the Finals, and added veterans Avery Bradley and Moe Harkless along with drafting big man Precious Achiuwa in the first round this offseason.
“I would like to think that we got some decent players on this team, where we shouldn’t be able to sneak up on anybody,” Butler said. “We’ve got guys that can play. We’ve got guys that can guard, that can pass, obviously can put the ball in the bucket. I don’t think we should sneak up on anybody. I don’t think last year you could say that we were sneaking up on anybody.
“We’ve got individuals that can play. I don’t give a damn. Bam [Adebayo] is learning he better not give a damn either. We’re going to compete. We ain’t sneaking up on anybody. Everybody is gonna know when they go up against the Heat what they’re going up against.”
Since the Heat acquired Butler, 31, in the summer of 2019, the goal has been to build a team around him that’s ready to compete for a championship immediately.
Some didn’t believe last season’s Heat roster was ready to meet those expectations, but that group became the first team seeded fifth or lower to play in the Finals since 1999. While there were already championship expectations within the organization, last season’s deep playoff run changed the way many view Miami and its current place in the Eastern Conference hierarchy.
“For me as the head coach, you always want to be a part of special groups and experiences and create memories for a team,” Spoelstra said. “And we feel a great responsibility that when you get somebody like Jimmy, we have to put together a team that is ready to compete right now. It’s not about pushing this thing down the line.”
That comment from Spoelstra could be taken by some as a call for the Heat to trade its youth for an established star.
Disgruntled superstar guard James Harden, who has asked the Houston Rockets to trade him, reportedly has the Heat on his list of preferred destinations along with the Brooklyn Nets, Philadelphia 76ers and Milwaukee Bucks. The Heat checked in with the Rockets on Harden recently, but it was a quick exploratory call, according to a league source.
Miami’s primary target in 2021 free agency will not be a free agent in 2021, as two-time reigning MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo announced Tuesday he will sign a five-year, $228 million supermax extension with the Bucks. But there are sure to be other stars who will be linked to the Heat in the coming months.
Or Spoelstra could just be referring to the core of the Heat roster returning that was good enough to win the East last season.
“We’re just in here competing. Everybody is fine,” Butler said of the Heat’s preseason attitude. “Like we don’t know if we’re going to be on the team tomorrow. And that’s the way that they love it here. That’s the way that we love it. We’re going to keep doing it that way. But I’m just here to compete. I’m here to help win.”
Butler is also in Miami to help make his teammates, whoever they are, better.
“I think it’s all about confidence,” Butler said. “Guys are consistently gaining that, each and every day, from the work that they’ve put in, the film that they’re watching, and just trying to model their game and anything else from people on this team. It’s great to have guys like Andre and [Udonis Haslem], Bam, [Kelly Olynyk], a little bit of myself, to model the way that you approach the game after, real professional-like, all business, and just having that drive, that will to win. I’m telling you, guys have that confidence. They’re gaining more and more of that every day. And that’s what we need from them.”
ROSTER MOVES
The Heat announced Wednesday that it waived guard Breein Tyree and forward Paul Eboua.
Both Tyree and Eboua were on Exhibit 10 contracts with Miami, which includes an invitation to training camp. Exhibit 10 deals do not count against the salary cap or luxury tax and can be converted to two-way contracts.
But with Tyree and Eboua waived, the competition for Miami’s final two-way contract is down to its two remaining Exhibit 10 players: wings BJ Johnson and Max Strus. The Heat can also opt to fill the two-way spot with an outside player.
Johnson went scoreless in seven minutes of action in Monday’s preseason opener, while Strus finished with 11 points on 4-of-13 shooting, eight rebounds and four assists in 24 minutes.
Guard Gabe Vincent is already signed to the
Heat’s other two-way contract.
Rather than being limited to spending up to 45 days with their NBA teams, two-way players will be eligible to be active for up to 50 of their team’s 72 NBA games during this season that’s beginning amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
While NBA teams are allowed to carry up to 20 players on their rosters during the preseason, the Heat’s roster is down to 18 players after waiving Tyree and Eboua. Miami must make at least one more roster move to get to the regular-season maximum of 17 players (15 signed to standard contracts and two signed to two-way contracts) by Saturday at 5:30 p.m.