South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Butler’s odometer sets up a conflict in ’21
Club walks a tightrope as they wait to pair him with a second star
MIAMI – As speculation increases on the way to the Feb. 6 NBA trading deadline, there is an assumption about Pat Riley and the Miami Heat that deserves additional scrutiny.
In almost all conjecture about the next potential blockbuster gambit is the ostensible given that Riley and the Heat will do nothing to impact what could stand as a motherload of cap cash in the 2021 offseason.
That is the summer when Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kawhi Leonard and other leading men could be on the free-agency market.
It certainly is the approach Riley and his cap crunchers took in advance of the 2010 offseason, when LeBron James and Chris Bosh were brought aboard alongside Dwyane Wade, a preceding period when the Heat, for one of the rare times during the Riley decades, operated beyond living in the moment.
The difference is that in 2010, Wade was 28, not long on NBA mileage after only a pair of extended playoff runs.
But now, as the Heat weigh the moment and the future, they are dealing with a 30-year-old leading man in Jimmy Butler who, by the 2021-22 season could be down to the final year on his contract, if he walks in his option year.
That means waiting to pair a high-mileage Butler (with those minutes again on the uptick lately) at age 32 with a second star.
To some, that star already is in development, in Bam Adebayo. But even now, the currently minted Eastern Conference Player of the Week hardly sets up as a scorer who consistently will land in the mid-20s. That’s just not his game. Nor should it be expected.
Which brings us to rumor speculation seemingly both raised and rebutted this week, when the New York Times’ Marc Stein indicated that New Orleans Pelicans guard Jrue Holiday could be had for the right price, and then when Pelicans Vice President David Griffin said there was no validity to the speculation.
Holiday is intriguing, a twoway presence who plays at an All-Star level at 29 and seemingly embodies Heat culture.
Of course, he also has a contract that runs into 2021-22, with a $27 million player option for that season.
And, so, is that where you draw the line?
Or does having such an elite running mate alongside Butler for this season, as well as next season trump the hopes of July 2021, especially when a potential supermax extension for Adebayo could eliminate that 2021 space, anyway?
Granted, the Heat may well stand pat, remain a project in development, one still capable of homecourt in the first round of the playoffs. And it could be that the 2021 vision is one of what comes next, after a two-year run with the current mix alongside Butler.
But if there is to be consideration of putting Justise Winslow, Tyler Herro, Derrick Jones Jr. or Kendrick Nunn into play, should it merely be for a two-year rental in mind, in the stratum of a DeMar DeRozan, LaMarcus
Aldridge, Steven Adams?
Or should it be getting Jimmy Butler the best possible sidekick before he turns 32, while this all is new and fresh and full of possibilities?
That Griffin said there is no Holiday deal to be made is what you say until there is a deal made, similar to what he got for Anthony Davis from the Los Angeles Lakers.
Based on recent games, the Heat’s greatest need would appear to be a defensive-minded, rebounding bulky big man.
But what has made Erik Spoelstra unique over his enduring tenure is the ability to find the best way to make talent work, just as it has been Pat Riley’s job to maximize that talent.
The Heat did all they could to try to entice Kevin Durant in 2016 and Gordon Hayward in 2017; the two still signed elsewhere.
That doesn’t mean the touch is gone. If anything, what the Heat did with Butler, getting him for less than he could have gotten elsewhere, showed that the Arison-Riley-Spoelstra triad touch is still there.
But the Heat also got Butler without an iota of cap space, while others, with oodles, were shut out.
For the right player (no, not Kevin Love), at the right price, with ample assets in hand, there is something to be said about living in the moment.
Living in Jimmy Butler’s moment.