MIAMI (AP) — Jimmy Butler is back from suspension. Again.
Butler is expected to be available to play for the Miami Heat against the Orlando Magic on Monday night, after completing his second suspension of the month. He was suspended for Miami's most recent two games after missing a team flight to Milwaukee last week.
Butler has missed 14 of Miami's last 19 games entering Monday, including nine of the last 12 because of the suspensions — the first a seven-game ban for conduct that the team deemed detrimental, followed by the two-game suspension.
How Butler gets used Monday, and going forward, is up to the Heat and coach Erik Spoelstra. Butler hasn't come off the bench in a game since Jan. 27, 2017 — exactly eight years ago Monday in a game ironically, against Miami, when he and then-Chicago teammate Dwyane Wade criticized how the Bulls were playing.
Including playoffs, Butler has started in each of his last 560 appearances.
“It kind of feels normal now at this point," Heat guard Tyler Herro said Monday morning at shootaround when asked what it's like to have Butler available again after a suspension. "Kind of is what it is, but nothing’s guaranteed. We’ve just got to be ready to roll with whatever cards we’re dealt tonight. We’ve just got to be ready to go.”
Butler wants a trade, and Miami is trying to comply. But moving Butler and his $48.8 million salary this season is likely going to be more complicated that it would have been in past seasons, largely because of the league's aprons — salary levels installed as part of the new collective bargaining agreement that restrict the ways bigger-spending teams can make certain moves.
It has been a saga that has lasted now for nearly two months and figures to come to a head — one way or another — over the next week and a half. The NBA's trade deadline is Feb. 6, which means Monday could be one of the final times Butler plays a home game in Miami.
The Heat next play at home on Wednesday against Cleveland. After that, they leave for a four-game road trip to San Antonio, Chicago, Philadelphia and Brooklyn — that Nets game getting played on Feb. 7, one day after the deadline.
Butler has said repeatedly throughout this process that he still loves Miami, in the off-the-court sense.
“I love this city with everything that I have,” he said this weekend while appearing at a padel tournament that he co-chaired.
The issue, for him, is with the team. Butler became eligible last summer for a two-year, $113 million extension that the Heat have not offered him. Heat president Pat Riley said after last season that the team had reservations about such a deal since Butler has missed about one of every four Miami games since he joined the team.
Butler entered the season saying he was not upset about the extension not getting done. It appears that stance changed in recent weeks, and the team announced earlier this month that Butler asked for a trade — something he cannot do publicly by league rule.
Butler is averaging 17 points per game this season. He had one of the best statistical games in Heat history against Detroit on Dec. 16 — 35 points, 19 rebounds and 10 assists.
In six appearances entering Monday since then, including one where he departed in the first quarter with an illness, Butler is averaging 9.5 points, 2.7 rebounds and 4.2 assists.
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