Story of the Miami Heat’s season, they fail to continue their recent momentum in the win column Thursday night against the Indiana Pacers. They were handed a 128-115 loss courtesy to elite offensive production from the Pacers.
Miami put themselves in a double-digit hole within minutes of the opening period, and they never recovered. Indiana had a 28-point lead at one point during the game, dropping 38 points in the first quarter and 41 in the third. They shot 53% from the field and 43% from 3-point range on the night, led by Tyrese Halliburton’s 33 points, 15 assists and 5 rebounds.
The Pacers also got strong showings from their frontcourt duo of Pascal Siakam and Myles Turner. Siakam dropped a 18/11 double-double on 8 of 13 shooting, as Turner posted 21 points on over 50% from the field himself.
Ultimately, the pace of the Pacers offense was too much to overcome.
However, the Heat made a fourth quarter run to cut the lead down to 12. Rookie Kel’el Ware led Miami with a career outing of 25 points on an impressive 9 of 11 shooting overall.
Tyler Herro posted 17 points on 50% shooting as Bam Adebayo added an efficient 20 points and 8 rebounds. But no matter which way this game ended, the storyline completely shifted to a now disgruntled Jimmy Butler.
Heat star requests a trade postgame, indicating to the organization he is “open to playing anywhere but Miami.”
Over the last two games of this home back-to-back stretch, Butler had essentially quit on his team.
The Heat were outscored by 27 points in Butler’s minutes against the Pacers. And the body language looked just as bad as the result. It didn’t end there though, as the controversy hit its boiling point in the postgame press conference.
Not too long after these comments broke the internet, top insider Shams Charania reported Butler’s official trade request out of South Beach. Charania sited that he is now willing to play for any team in the league if it means he can leave the Heat.
“Butler does not plan to furnish the Heat with a list of favored destinations, sources told ESPN. He is open to playing anywhere other than Miami and feels he can make any team a contender — no matter where he is moved, sources said. He does plan to take part in all team activities and will plan to do whatever the Heat ask of him during this process, sources said.
Heat officials did not immediately return messages Thursday night.” (- Shams Charania)
This was more than just a Heat loss, it was the official end of an era. The fanbase should now brace themselves for the inevitable following another nasty divorce in Butler’s career.
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Time has come for Jimmy to go. I still say the beginning of the end was the Lowry acquisition. That was when Pat lost control. The other side of this is how incompetent Riley has become. He probably will still be paralyzed by his own inabilities as the time for him to stop pretending he can be an effective GM has also come. Just watch what a farce this will likely become.
Tried copy and paste from Warriors page, but had technical issues. Bottom line is many fans there were excited about the possibility
so what is the Warriors offer? Wiggins and Kuminga? I don’t hate it.
but I think I would rather get a second scorer to pair with Tyler. Can we get Brandon Ingram and Herb Jones from the Pellies?
Jonathan Kuminga (expiring contract), Andrew Wiggins (3 years with 2026-2027 player option), Moses Moody (4 year contract) to make a salary match work, and at least one future first-round draft pick, or two. 3:1 does not work for Miami unless they throw in a cheap contract like Larsson or Burks.
Brooklyn could offer Ben Simmons (expiring contract) and a cheap contract (like Noah Clowney) plus two 2025 first round draft picks (they have 4). The Heat could then package the draft picks and a player (or two) to a rebuilding team for a player that can help the team now.
I’m sure there will be many hypothetical scenarios in the next few days. Maybe we’ll know more by Saturday when the Heat plays the Jazz. I wonder if Robinson, Richardson and a draft pick would be enough to pry John Collins away from Ainge?
If we’re trading with Brooklyn I want Cam Johnson
just got injuried.
From GSW site.
The Golden State Warriors have been a team linked to Butler, and their fanbase has been reacting to his latest statement.
“I know a place where you’re welcome Jimmy… @Warriors,” a Golden State fan posted on X.
“He’s a warrior,” another fan wrote.
“Wiggins, Podz, GP2 and firsts buddy,” a Warriors fan wrote, proposing a trade package for Butler.
“Jimmy Butler III, welcome to San Francisco and the Golden State Warriors,” a fan added.
Other fans shared photoshopped images of Butler wearing a Warriors jersey alongside Steph Curry. While not all Warriors fans are in favor of adding Butler to the mix, many are intrigued by the idea of he and Curry joining forces in Golden State.
MINNESOTA 2.0
Thank God! About time he quit beating around the bush. He did this to himself.
I’m sorry to see the Butler era end, but he did it to himself. He has no one to blame but himself.
Now Pat needs to leverage this situation into the very best deal he can get. He has 4 weeks to do it. At minimum, he should be able to get a good young player or two and a first round pick or two.
In case you missed the interview with Jimmy as well as Butler and Spoelstra, here you go.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxg_xF6z4Xs
Yes, it is Minnesota, and Philly revisited. Only worse now as Butler’s ability and work ethic has declined but his ego has not.
For Heat fans, this is good news, as this forces us to face reality. If only we had a GM who could make the best of this, we would be fine. But, not sure that is the case anymore as, like Jimmy, Riley’s ability and work ethic have also declined while his ego remains stubbornly high.
Of all the posts I’ve seen on HHH about Jimmy’s trade request, this one by SunMan is on point. Charles Barkley hits the nail on the head with his comments here… watch
Well, this is a sad way for things to end with Jimmy Butler.
I’ve been saying for years that he is a top-5 player in Heat history. Not sure if this pushes him out of the top-5, but he’s 5th at best behind Wade, LeBron, Zo, and Bosh. Shaq ended pretty poorly as well. I love Udonis and Tim Hardaway and Goran and Chalmers, but none of those guys were as good as Jimmy.
Otherwise, I’m not sad to see him go. He’s been a drain on the franchise ever since the Dame trade fell through. I wish him the best. More importantly, I hope we get something good back for him. I’d settle for Brandon Ingram or Cam Johnson
For those who blame Pat Riley, this should make you feel validated from Nic Rohloff of Chat Sports, who I enjoy listening to (usually, haha).
https://youtu.be/Z_sl86fNiHc?si=iVBLi48cibPudbm5
I’m sure some people will blame Pat Riley. The fact is, he had a great 4-year run with Jimmy Butler. But his big mistake was letting it go on for a year and a half too long.
I agree. But in the interest of fairness, I wanted to post this clip from a site I like even though it doesn’t reflect my own views.
I do blame Riley. I find his career arc as a GM mirrors Jimmy’s as a player, both are now on the downside. If I had to choose, I would say Jimmy has more left.
Jimmy is about 9 rings short of Riley’s career
True on the rings. But, the Pat apologism has to stop somewhere. A lot of players were great once, not anymore. Same is true of Pat at his job. From now on, just evaluate Pat on what he does, not his past. I mean, he is still being paid to be GM.
I continue to say, look at the list of Pat acquisitions over the last four years, even the years where we did great because Jimmy carried us. Look at the names. It’s very revealing, You can’t live in the past forever.
Who can forget Bradley, Harkness, Dedmon, Yurtseven, Zeller. Or Okpala, Morris, ORob, Tucker, Bryant, Burks, JRich., Mills. Or the biggest mistake, Kyle Lowry. Not a huge supporting cast there for Jimmy.
all the above players were dollar store players.the lowry deal with the $$ he gave plus losing precious goran was terrible deal 30,he could just not get jimmy another star this team needed.bam is just an average player and ty until this year was average to.jimmy was so dam good in playoffs covered up for teams flaws.
So damn good. No one carried a team more, although Bam played great those years too.
And, I left out a few names that kind of worked out, but only somewhat, like Oladipo, Crowder, and Love. And Leonard, although people like me shouldn’t play video games with him. Only Rozier truly gave us a lift, and that was not a home run by any means.
And we lost Vincent and Precious, two players who could help us now. One other player I left out who somewhat helped was KellyO. What we didn’t have, beyond Jimmy and Bam, was talented two way players. We always had offense or defense, never both. Oladipo could have been that had he not got injured.
The end of an era. But all recent roads were leading to this. Now we will see exactly what his value is.
Well, a short era, but still a notable one. As Oregoner pointed out, Butler had the best years of his career here. If he hadn’t pushed the team to sign his friend (3 years, $85 million), the Heat might’ve looked different/stronger the last two years.
thanks for the shoutout