In his first game back from a sprained ankle injury that sidelined him for straight games, Jimmy Butler had one of his best games of the season Monday.
Butler posted his first double-double of the season, finishing with 30 points, 10 rebounds and five assists, shooting 8-of-12 from the floor and 13-of-13 from the free-throw line. Butler looked engaged on both ends, helping the Miami Heat to a 16-point win over the struggling Philadelphia 76ers, his former team.
Joel Embiid had high praise for Butler, relative to the rest of his peers, after the game:
“I mean, Jimmy is Jimmy. He does everything,” Embiid told reporters Monday. “Scoring, passing the ball. Commanding while being on the floor. Both sides of the floor. One of the best players in the league. Probably top five. Probably the best, actually. Best player in the league. He’s hard. He’s hard to guard. You know, it takes the whole team.”
Embiid and Butler are friends, so this isn’t surprising. But let’s make one thing clear: Butler’s not currently in the same stratosphere as Nikola Jokic. One could argue he’s closer to being outside the top-20 than the best, even though that’s neither here nor there.
For the season, Butler’s averaging 17.7 points, 5.3 rebounds, 4.9 assists and 1.4 steals on 50.0 percent shooting. The Heat are at their best when Butler’s engaged on both sides of the floor, but that has been far from consistent since the start of last season, his worst year with the Heat.
We are only 13 games into a long, grueling 82-game season. But there’s been a steady drop-off in Butler’s game over the last calendar year. And it doesn’t help matters that he’s not gotten much help outside of Tyler Herro to begin the new season. Terry Rozier has been flat-out bad, while Bam Adebayo’s struggled to find his groove offensively through 13 games.
The 35-year-old looked excellent against Philadelphia, who’s barely struggled to get off the ground in part due to multiple injuries to their three-best players in Tyrese Maxey, Joel Embiid and Paul George. The Heat also have a five-day break before their next game against the Dallas Mavericks without Luka Doncic–a favorable opportunity to secure their second-straight home win for the first time this season.
Miami goes at Butler goes–but will his body allow him to consistently play at a high level? That remains to be seen, but let’s hope this extended break is exactly what Butler and the Heat need to re-fuel heading into another pivotal stretch.
***
To check out our other content, click here.
Follow Hot Hot Hoops on Twitter/X here!
Follow Hot Hot Hoops on Instagram here!
Subscribe to our YouTube channel here!
Three interesting trade options for Rozier posed by FANSIDED:
#1
Lakers get: Terry Rozier, Josh Richardson
Heat get: D’Angelo Russell, Gabe Vincent
#2
Memphis Grizzlies
Grizzlies get: Rozier
Heat get: Marcus Smart
#3
Washington Wizards
Wizards get: Rozier, Nikola Jovic
Heat get: Kyle Kuzma
OR
Wizards get: Rozier
Heat get: Malcolm Brogdon
https://allucanheat.com/3-teams-trade-for-terry-rozier-off-heat?utm_campaign=FanSided+Daily&utm_source=FanSided+Daily&utm_medium=email&sc=e0273490fd355e2c28bdb25751d41af65a4dd80936ff00a80be9866c97887955
Keshad Johnson and Isaiah Stevens are DOMINATING The Miami Heat G-League!! Sioux Falls Skyforce tearing it up. Can’t wait for Johnson, Stevens and Christopher to be called up to the big club.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CwWqxIcGw0
In other rookie center news: Donovan Clingan pulled down 19 rebounds in 26 minutes in 7-10 Portland’s win over 12-6 Houston.
Butler questionable due to illness, good grief! 4 days out, plays 1 game, out again. For those who argued vehemently about not trading him, this is a clear example of ‘be careful what you wish for’.
“No Country For Old Men.” Miami edition.
Warriors lost to Spurs and Rockets lost to Blazers. Boy would either team really love to have Butler in their playoff line-up and be willing to pay for it. If Miami threw in a couple of “fillers” like Bryant, Richardson, Burks, etc. I bet Houston would give up a couple of young players, a couple of first round draft picks and CASH so that Miami could stay under the apron and bring in a G league player or two.
We have to wait until December 15 for some of them to become available for trading. Hopefully we see some type of movement by then – Bryant to clear some space? The Heat have moved Keshad from the Skyforce – let’s see if he gets some minutes Sunday. He’s looked really good so far.
Holy cow! Speaking of Keshad, he had 34/8/3/2 earlier Saturday!! 13/1, 4/5 3s.
13/17*
I forgot to mention that. I was implying the trades could be made before the deadline in time for the playoffs. Highsmith, Burks, Bryant and Love can’t be traded until Dec 15th (in 3 weeks). Burks, Bryant and Richardson are on expiring contracts. Highsmith and Love have contracts through 2025-2026.
https://allucanheat.com/spoelstra-addresses-kel-el-ware-lack-of-playing-time
Of course, I don’t totally agree. Imo, he should be the primary backup at center for at least 10-15 minutes a game.
They should let him play for Sioux Falls whenever possible. Especially if there aren’t scheduling conflicts or they don’t expect to use him against certain teams.
https://www.espn.com/nba/team/schedule/_/name/mia
https://basketball.realgm.com/gleague/teams/Sioux-Falls-Skyforce/6/schedule
Chicken or egg, again. Is there better to improve him behind the scenes, and let him play when ready, or play him not ready yet, to become ready.
The first option doesn’t hurt teams success, the second one might. Spo is not the coach to risk that, no matter what fan base is thinking.
But of course, there is no good option behind Bam. Bryant is not much better then Ware, and playing small ball with Love or Jovic as centers cant be permanent solution.
So I m expecting Ware will play relatively soon much more then he was.
Heat can use him against Lively and Gafford today, so he can play a lot against Mavs.
Those are great centers, if he can give Heat 10 good minutes against them, it would be a great sign.
I agree. He should get playing time today. Lively and Gafford are not great centers. He should also get playing time against our next four opponents (Milwaukee, Charlotte, Toronto twice) before the following four, Boston, Lakers, Phoenix and Cleveland.
I was thinking the combination of those two is great, not as individuals.
But both are starting level players, and dangerous in different ways. Lively is Wares type of player, and Bam will have a lot of work with Gafford.
Good points. However, a team at 6-7 is not at this point what someone can call ‘successful’. So, playing Ware 10 minutes a game probably wouldn’t have changed the record much. I expect the team to look a little different by the all star break. But, then again, I’ve thought this for a year now and it hasn’t happened, so who knows?
Heat are still top 6 team in the east, with tough road trip behind, with their stars struggling. I wouldn’t say its a success neither, but I wonder if there is something more in this team.
Beating Dallas would be a good sign, and after that there is a 3-4 games with lesser teams. Positive score after those games would be very good.
In case anyone thinks Dallas will be a pushover on Sunday without Luka, think again. They beat Denver (with Jokic) in Denver tonight and Klay Thompson was 0-8 with 0 points.
A glitch in the matrix lol
Yeah, they lost 4 games in the roll for 8 point difference, and they still have positive record in the west. Top 5 team in the league, top 10 without Luka.
They are long and aggresive. Beat them would be a very good sign, but I don’t expect much. We have problems against such teams.
Seven of the next 10 games are at home. At 23 games, it’ll be just past the 1/4 of the season mark. If they go no worse than 6-4 and hopefully 7-3 AND they figure out how to get Ware in the rotation, it’ll be a step in the right direction. Choosing Ware at 15 was not the wrong decision. Hopefully sooner rather than later, we will see this is true. Jovic, UD, Butler, and the rest of us know Jovic is not a center. It’s trying to fit a round peg into a square hole. Ware has to be worked in during this period. The only good news is we’re, by default, currently in fifth place.
Also, I said after the draft and before the season began, that if anyone thought there was a better choice at 15 to speak up then rather than use astute 20-20 hindsight to second guess the pick. Yup, we coulda had Booker. Yup, we coulda had Brook or Love or Westbrook. And since McCain just scored 30, we can add him to the list.
Miami made the right decision selecting Ware at #15. Now they need to give him the chance to prove them right. He can start playing 10-15 minutes on the second team with Love, Jaquez, Burks (or Larsson) and Richardson (or Smith). I bet that group would not get beat on the boards and could outscore most opponents’ second units.
Disagree about rebounding. Ware is not a good rebounder, which is probably the main reason he doesn’t play much. But scoring would be probably a strong side of such unit.
You are wrong. Ware is a good rebounder. He isn’t getting consistent opportunities to prove it. Again, he could be in Sioux Falls playing alongside Johnson, Stevens, Christopher and the boys instead of riding the pine in Miami. How can he get experience and confidence if he doesn’t get to play? Last on the team in minutes (by a long way). WTF is that?
He played a lot in preseason games. that hole in his game was obvious back then. I didn’t see any improvement. True, he didn’t played much till then.
In his last year of college at Indiana, he averaged 16 points, 10 rebounds and 2 blocks, including 2 offensive rebounds per game.
I dont know about college, but I watched preparation games and all Heat games. I stand behind my words.
He is not a good rebounder for his size.
I thought Ware was the best fit for Miami, although I was very big on drafting Zach Edey, if he was still available. I also thought Ware would be getting more playing time than he has, considering how well he played in the Summer League and during preseason.
He needs experience playing and learning. Hard to do that at end of bench playing fewer minutes than anyone else on the team, by a lot. Second round pick Larsson and habitual benchwarmer Bryant are getting more than twice as many minutes as Ware. WTF? What a waste!
See 2024-2025 season stats below. Note minutes.
https://www.espn.com/nba/team/stats/_/name/mia/table/game/sort/avgMinutes/dir/desc
Jimmy needs to perform first before he can help his buddy. But that “wish” for Embiid in a Heat jersey for me is gone. Just can’t stay healthy.
Embiid’s time has come and gone. He is now developing an attitude to go with his physical issues. That sounds like a personal problem that Miami does not need. The Heat doesn’t want or need other teams’ head cases infecting it’s players or culture.
in the playoffs over the years hes def been one of the best players.its not his fault they didnt win.when u have midgets guarding ad and jovic and the front office thinks its ok u dont deserve to win the champ.not winning a chip is more on riley than anyone else.
The Heat has also had bad luck with injuries in the playoffs. In 2020 it was Bam and Dragic. Last year it was Jimmy. The year before it was Herro. Shit happens. They did pretty well despite the odds, the stacked teams and the injuries. Give credit where credit is due. Three championships in Miami, five in L.A. Riley must have been doing something right. Wait to render your final judgement until we see how 2024-2025 and Ware’s game develop. There will be plenty of time to bitch later if it doesn’t turn out well.
Interesting articles on Highsmith’s improvement and Heat’s new starting line-up. Now they need to find a way to incorporate Ware and Love on second unit.
https://allucanheat.com/numbers-miami-heat-role-player-deserves-bigger-role?utm_campaign=FanSided+Daily&utm_source=FanSided+Daily&utm_medium=email&sc=e0273490fd355e2c28bdb25751d41af65a4dd80936ff00a80be9866c97887955
https://allucanheat.com/5-things-miami-heat-spoelstra-new-starting-lineup?utm_campaign=FanSided+Daily&utm_source=FanSided+Daily&utm_medium=email&sc=e0273490fd355e2c28bdb25751d41af65a4dd80936ff00a80be9866c97887955
From talk about a possible Rookie of the Year candidate to a bench warmer! Ware needs playing time now!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0Oa1EBhs30
If Miami had selected Dalton Knecht instead, they could have traded Butler. Either play Ware or admit Riley screwed up by drafting him instead of Knecht, Jared McCain or someone else.
PLAY WARE, SEND HIM TO SIOUX FALLS OR TRADE HIM. HE IS DOING NO ONE ANY GOOD SITTING ON THE BENCH!!!
what does love give u.from a wife yes from a player no.play ware dummies with the power forward,love is blocking a potential very good big or more like riley and spobot are
Ware and Love would work well together because they both rebound well and Love could pull defenders out of the paint to protect against his 3. It would give Ware more space to operate and better chances to grab offensive boards.
Washington shopping Kyle Kuzma. Miami needs to strike while the iron is hot!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joBchTfBrTQ
kk little on the soft side. likem more rugged or at least over 7ft.ware can we find one of those.hmm dont have to look to far
If Butler is traded later for a good point guard and assets and if Ware is ready to start next to Bam, Kuzma could slide into the SF spot.
He’s kissing up to Butler hoping he pulls some strings to convince Riley to trade for him like he did Lowry. We all know how that turned out. Embiid is damaged goods that will never attain his full potential. He will also never stack up to Jokic. “The Process” will never be realized and Daryl Morey is a total loser everywhere he goes!
I’d rather the Heat trade for Dame than Embiid. And Dame is overpaid and half washed. But at at least that guy wants to win
Don’t need either one. Dame plays no defense and can’t rebound. We already have Herro. Heat could use someone like Portis.
agree that Herro has been better than Dame this year. I’m just saying, if I was forced to chose, there are few max salary players I would want less than Embiid
When a guy that plays 60 games per season and has never made it past the second round of the playoffs tells you something, take it with a grain of salt
Whatever Embiid is smoking, please pass some over here. Or maybe it’s the pain medication he’s taking for his ongoing injury situation. Oh, and that injury prone career is exactly why I would not consider giving up our best (younger) players for him in any trade. When he’s healthy, he is a force to be reckoned with, but his injury history speaks for itself.
He has never been past the second round. “The Process” (2014-2014 RIP).