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Ira Winderman: Heat now with a pause to take (needed) stock of Jimmy Butler

Ira Winderman, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
·4 min read

MIAMI – This moment was inevitable, whether it came during the play-in, playoffs or the offseason.

At some point, it felt as if a decision would have to be made on Jimmy Butler.

Then, Wednesday night in Philadelphia, came the crashing and crushing reality.

And, so, a crossroads, the intersection of the franchise revival and older and injured.

No, not necessarily an inflection point, with two more seasons remaining on Butler’s contract, but a point when you take stock after an uneven, absence-filled season.

At 34, Jimmy Butler on his best days arguably is still as impactful as any two-way player in the league. But, at 34, there haven’t been as many best days.

Perhaps a productive playoff run would have altered the perspective, but then came the MCL sprain that sidelined Butler from Friday night’s play-in game against the Chicago Bulls.

Already there has been an attempt to placate, to add a veteran of choice to augment. Such was the Kyle Lowry experience. It was an uneven ride that led to an exit ramp this season with Lowry, even as he now plays on with the 76ers in the playoffs.

There also has been the approach of surrounding with youth, which has worked well with those still in their formative years, Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Nikola Jovic willing to accede, play as subordinates. Jimmy Butler has been a positive for their growth.

But then comes the time when the youth seeks to do more, be more. That is where Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro stand now. The Butler-Adebayo chemistry has never quite had the flourish that Adebayo has created with others.

Herro’s game, meanwhile, had grown so similar to Butler’s shot profile that Erik Spoelstra had to subtly instead coax more 3-pointers from Herro, hardly Herro’s preferred mode.

With another run like last season’s to the NBA Finals, you keep it together and move on, age and injury put aside. Entering this season, any doubts had been answered with, “but three trips to the Eastern Conference finals in the last four years.”

Now Butler’s knee has quieted that narrative.

The injury, itself, had nothing to do with being injury prone, old, brittle. It came in a moment of power, force, aggression, all notable attributes for a player who has taken a career beating amid a heavy toll of minutes.

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Hard-nosed Jimmy Butler remains the best Jimmy Butler. Wednesday, he again was working his way to the foul line, even on the play he was injured.

Without that moment, who knows what would have followed, with the Heat arguably positioned at that moment for a playoff trip to New York, rather than Friday’s all-or-nothing shorthanded showdown in the play-in against the Bulls.

But unlike Dwyane Wade, who ended with the Heat as a supporting piece, willing to play off the bench, committed to the development of the Heat’s next wave, including Adebayo, that is not who Jimmy Butler is, or at least who he seems to be.

From his social media to the way he carries himself in the locker room and on the court, it all becomes an orbit around Jimmy. He is the leading man. Period. End of story.

He takes the 3-pointers at the close of two-point games because that is who he is. He will dominate the ball at closing time even alongside talent, because closing time is his time.

But when he moves past this knee injury, confidence assuredly unwavered, can he become part of a wheel of reinvention? Or is he solely an axis?

Jimmy Butler at 34 was as confident of playoff success as the Jimmy Butler who arrived to the Heat at 29, the one who immediately led the Heat to the NBA Finals.

But this feels different.

The knee injury ultimately stopped him in his tracks.

Now the Heat have to decide if getting him back on the track, putting the team back on the same track, is the path forward.

The pain was real as he writhed in the lane on Wednesday night at Wells Fargo Center. Next we find out how the potentially painful the ensuing decisions are handled in the executive suite at Kaseya Center.