Miami Heat Fans Find Their Joy in Jimmy Butler’s Failure | Did Pat Riley Get the Last Laugh?

Miami Heat Fans Find Their Joy in Jimmy Butler’s Failure | Did Pat Riley Get the Last Laugh?

So, I didn’t even plan about making a video on this just because I I truthfully thought we were all over Jimmy Butler, but apparently I highly underestimated how petty the Miami esports fan base is because Jimmy Butler was a massive talking point online today and especially whether Pat Riley made the right decision not paying Jimmy Butler or not. So, we’ll get into that as well as my reaction and the reaction from the rest of the public because of course last night Jimmy Butler season has officially come to an end at the hands of the Minnesota Timberwolves as the Golden State Warriors lost in five games. Now, it’s no secret that I still love Jimmy Butler because of all the great memories that he gave me as a Heat fan. Yo, we got Jimmy Butler. 40 points, baby. [Music] Let’s go. There’s no doubt in my mind Jim Bull has ended this series. That is the game. See you in the next round. New York Knicks. Let’s go. Go, baby. We’re going. We’re going. And of course, I still got up the signed Jimmy Butler jersey behind me where in almost every single video I get a comment telling me to take it down. Uh, and I do appreciate those comments because all comments help the algorithm. So, make sure to leave your thoughts down below and subscribe while you’re at it cuz the support is greatly greatly appreciated. But it’s like I’m not keeping that jersey up as a memory of how bad things ended, but I’m keeping it up as a memory for all the great times that Jimmy Butler gave us. And also, I mean, it’s a signed jersey. Like, I I won it in one of those uh trivia contests they used to do on their app a couple years back, but like it it’s signed memorabilia. It’s just cool to display sign memorabilia. I got that uh the ball underneath is signed by UD and BAM. I got the signed BAM picture right here. The only one that I might have to take down is this one over here because it’s a signed Kameh Jamez photo and I actually went to Dellin Mall to get it signed by him in person myself. That was back his rookie season when we all had high hopes and I loved the the footwork. You know, I had the foot fetish for the footwork of Kamehameh Hakez Jr. and his sophomore season just was pretty abysmal. So, if he doesn’t pick it up come his junior year, that one might have to get taken down even if it’s signed. But back to Jimmy Butler. Although I still am a fan of him as a player, do not get it twisted. I am a Heat fan first and I was rooting for the Warriors downfall ever since Jimmy Butler got traded there. So, I’m certainly happy that the Warriors lost to the Timberwolves. Although, on the flip side of things, I was also kind of rooting against the Timberwolves because I’m hoping that they flame out in the postseason every year so Anthony Edwards becomes disgruntled and demands a trade to the Miami Heat. Either way, I am happy that the Warriors lost because I don’t want Jimmy Butler’s decision to leave the I’m Heat to be justified. I don’t want him to to leave us, go find a new home, and then win the championship. That would suck as a Heat fan, quite truthfully. So, yes, I am happy the Warriors lost, but at the same time, I’m not going to take a victory lap on Twitter like a lot of people because the Mommy Heat kind of suck right now, too. I don’t know if you noticed, but the Heat are in a little bit of a bad spot themselves. And also at the end of the day, Jimmy himself still kind of won because he got paid, he got his money, and he gets to go play with Steph Curry. Well, at least he did for a little bit because of course Steph Curry, he hurt his hamstring in the playoffs, missed the last several games. So, it’s really hard to judge that Warriors team as a whole without their best player. And I guess also Jimmy Butler was banged up. He hurt his tailbone pretty bad in the playing game and who knows how that affected him. So, it is hard to judge the Warriors as a whole, but I I guess that kind of goes in Pat Riley’s point of not wanting to overpay for aging superstars because guys get hurt. You know, you don’t get more healthy as your career continues. But even outside of that, when those guys were healthy, that Warriors team was very good. I mean, that core of Draymond and Curry and Jimmy, they were rolling. And as a Heat fan, it kind of got me thinking, damn, if we could have actually got Damen Lillard, we would have had something like that. Of course, Dame is similar to Curry in some ways. Bam and Draymond could both kind of be that playmaking hub/defensive versatility Swiss Army knife. And then you would have had Jimmy Butler. So, I do think the Heats would have been very, very good. Pro definitely contenders if they got Dame because we kind of saw a version of that with the Warriors. It’s just, of course, they ended up getting hurt. But either way, Jimmy did play in these playoffs. So, if you kind of want to judge his performance, well, truthfully, he wasn’t great. Just looking at the numbers, he only averaged about 19 points per game, about 6 and a half rebounds, five assists. So, he did do a little bit of everything out there, which he has always been capable of doing, but the efficiencies weren’t so great either. He only averaged 45% from the field and just under 31% from three. And he he honestly only stood out a couple of games. And especially once Curry went down, he really only had one great game, one playoff Jimmyesque game where he scored 33. But then again, in the fourth quarter, I think he might have had one field goal. So even then, he wasn’t too great. And I’m not necessarily surprised solely because it was against the Timberwolves. And if you watch Jimmy Butler when he was on the Miami Heat, for some reason, he always struggled against the Timberwolves. He only played against them five times while he was on the Miami Heat, but in those five games, he only scored over 20 points twice. And the Miami Heat had a record of 1 in4 versus the Wolves. So, he always struggled against them, which is very weird considering he literally stormed out of their practice when he was a member of the Timberwolves and said, “You need me, you bleeping need me.” And I mean, here we are like what, seven, eight years later and maybe they needed you at the time, but definitely not anymore. But we’ll kind of get into that whole Timberwolves practice thing because there was an interesting quote about that on the Levit show today. But for a guy that’s getting paid as much as Jimmy Butler is signed that $60 million year extension with the Warriors, he’s getting that bag. That’s the bag that he wanted. He probably should be able to get his numbers verse any team and he probably should be able to do it every single night. But the reality is that’s just not who Jimmy Butler is. Or at least not who Jimmy is anymore. I mean, he was never in the tier of a guy like Giannis or Sheay or Joic because those guys got their numbers every single night in the regular season and in the postseason, but I still always believed that Jimmy Butler was a superstar, maybe a tier below those other guys and a guy like Prime Durant or prime LeBron, but he was still a superstar because when the games mattered most and everybody counted him out and everybody doubted him and all of the national media gave he a 3% chance to win, that’s when Jimmy Butler played at his best, which was an elite level. The complete opposite of guys like James Harden and Paul George and all these other playoff chokers. Jimmy Butler was a tier above those guys who people considered them superstars, too. But Jimmy Butler was a tier above those guys because he performed when the games mattered most. I mean, think back to game six in Boston, 40 plus points. Did the same thing LeBron James did in Boston game six 10 years prior. Jimmy Butler actually did that. And then go to the NBA finals in 2020 verse LeBron when Jimmy was guarding LeBron. He had a 40point triple double to carry the Heat to a win without Gandragic without Bam Bailey. And then two nights later had a 35point triple double to carry the Heat to another win without Gandragic. And this time a hobbled bam bio. So Jimmy was like that. He was that guy. But even back then, he still couldn’t do it every single night because let’s stay in those same finals in 2020, game six, the game where the Lakers clinched the championship. Jimmy Butler was so worn out from carrying the Miami Heat all postseason that he could only muster up 12 points. That’s it. He was so tired, all he had in him was 12 points. And that was back 5 years ago. Think about all the wear and tear his body has built up since then. all the tailbone injuries, all the ankle injuries. So, it’s no surprise he can’t be playoff Jimmy every night anymore. Especially for a guy that relies on driving to the basket, getting hammered every play, and getting to the free throw line, your body’s going to break down pretty quickly. And this Warriors team without Steph Curry is legit so terrible. They’re way worse than any of the rosters that Miami put out there. I mean, their starting lineup for game five was AirPods, who is an inconsistent bum. Same goes with Buddy Heel. the guy could shoot, but he’s inconsistent as hell. And then you had Jimmy Butler, Draymond Green, who when he scores over six points, it’s a miracle. And then you had Trace Jackson Davis, who’s basically a lob threat and nothing else. That team had no offense. And then their leading minute getter off the bench was Jonathan Kaminga. He played 32 minutes when earlier in the season he was getting coaches decisions, DMPS. He wasn’t even playing earlier in the season. And then the rest of their bench rotation consisted of guys like Ge Santos who looks like the Walmart version of Anderson Verhao and then Pat Spencer who’s an accountant on the weekends. That was the Warriors roster. So very clearly Jimmy Butler cannot do it by himself anymore, especially on that roster. And Udonis Hasslam seems to seems to agree with me. This is what he had to say on ESPN earlier today. As great as Jimmy is, the playoff Jimmy thing has put Jimmy Butler in a conversation with guys that maybe are a little bit above Jimmy Butler. And sometimes the expectations of Jimmy Butler are the playoff Jimmy Butler expectations all the time. And that might not necessarily be who Jimmy Butler is. I think Jimmy Butler gave what he gave, but Jimmy Butler didn’t have any more to give against that team. And that’s where you see the differences between other guys and Jimmy because I’ve seen guys guard LeBron. And no matter what you do, he gets his. I’ve seen guys guard Dway. No matter what you do, he gets his. Jimmy Butler’s not that unstoppable guy like those guys. Even on Udonis Hasslam’s OG’s podcast with our guy Mike Miller, on this week’s episode, they had David West on and they were talking about Jimmy Butler. And Udonis Hasslam said that Jimmy will be the first to tell you that he’s now a Robin. He is Robin to Steph Curry. Jimmy will say that he’s not that guy anymore. So from Pat Riley’s perspective, a Robin type player, meaning a number two option, who’s 35 years old, gonna be 36 by next season, people will say that Pat Riley was right. They will say that his decision to not pay Jimmy Butler was justified. And my response to that is, well, duh. It’s it’s kind of obvious. When these contract extension talks were going on, we all knew that paying Jimmy Butler that much money was going to hurt in a year or two. But the whole reason for paying him was so you could win right now. And unfortunately for the Warriors, Steph Curry got hurt this year. And unfortunately for the Miami Heats, they were never able to pair Jimmy Butler with a star who was as good as him or better than him. And I don’t know if that’s cuz the Heats overvalued Tyler Hiro or Pat Riley was trying to play too much hard ball with other GMs, but I think that’s where the Heat messed up because they never got Jimmy that running mate. I mean, Bamaba, exceptional player, but obviously he’s not a huge help consistently on the offensive end. And then Tyler Herro, who is also a pretty good player, he’s just not consistent enough to be the number two option on a championship team. So, yeah, because they couldn’t get Jimmy another star to help them win this season, it was the right decision not to pay him. Now, that’s not to say give Pat Riley all the credit in the world because if he knew that he wasn’t going to pay Jimmy Butler, well, then he probably should have traded him a year ago when his value was a lot higher and we would be sitting with more assets right now than Andrew Wiggins in a first round pick. I think if they would have traded Jimmy Butler a year ago, you probably could have got three first round picks, which obviously would have been crucial in in a summer where it looks like Giannis Denkumbo is going to be available. So, it’s not a huge win for the Miami Heat that they didn’t pay him. I’m not going on Twitter and making all these cringe funny comments saying, “Oh, I think I got my joy back.” Everybody who comments that or tweets that is not funny. It’s like the most cliche thing you could say right now. Which I I agree. Even when Jimmy Butler was doing it, even when he was in his post game after a Warriors win in the playoffs, he was like, “I think I got my joy back.” It’s not funny. Like, it’s the easy joke to make. It’s cliche. I just I don’t find that very funny. If you’re watching this video, then you are an elite ball knower. So, why not take advantage of it with my bookie? Listen y’all, throughout the NBA playoffs, I’ll be using their live betting feature to smash the DaVon Mitchell overs and smash the Rudy Gobear unders and then using their early cash out option to stack up the profits. If you want to do the same, make sure to sign up for My Bookie using promo code MM50, which will instantly boost your first deposit. And then once the games wrap up, you can check out their casino, which has blackjack and slots and roulette. You name it. Bet on anything, anytime, anywhere. Only with my bookie. Now, let’s get back into the video. And plus, like I said earlier, the Heat are not in a great spot right now. But here’s what the guys on the Levit show had to say earlier today. Five years of Jimmy Butler in Jimmy in in in Miami, birthed someone who had the ego of I’m playoff Jimmy. Everyone else bows to me. I am the things that I believe. And when I get to the text I got last night is how many conference finals has Jimmy been to without Tyler Hero and Bam. How many how many conference finals has he gotten to? He took the five years in Miami. LeBron made it what he made it. Jimmy made it this. And now the bet is next year. Next year that that thing’s done in Golden State. That ended last night. What is Jimmy Butler’s biggest moment outside of a Heat uniform? It’s irrefutable to me. His biggest moment. It’s the practice in Minnesota. It’s a practice. Now, I do like Leitard. I like Mike Ryan Ruiz. I love Jonathan Zazzlo. But I don’t really love what they’re doing here in this clip because one, I I really don’t think the Warriors run is over. They still have some assets that they can use to solidify their roster going into next season and filling a lot of the holes that they had this year. Obviously, when you make a trade for a star mid-season, it’s hard to win that exact season because you have to make some pieces on the outside to fit the current roster that you have. particularly that that team needs more size and they do have the assets to kind of fill some of those holes and I do think Jimmy and Curry will be good enough next season to make the Warriors contenders then. And also number two, it really feels like all those guys are trying very hard to discredit Jimmy Butler. And I don’t really like that easy. They made it seem like the only reason that Jimmy Butler had success in Miami is because of the Miami Heats. And while I do agree that the Miami Heats definitely helped Jimmy in terms of his career narrative and overall status because before coming to the Heat, he probably had no Hall of Fame case. And now he might because he was the best player on a team that went to multiple Eastern Conference Finals, multiple NBA finals. So the Miami Heat definitely helped out Jimmy Butler. I’m not denying that. But at the same time, Jimmy Butler also helped out the Miami Heat a ton because this team was in the depths of mediocrity before Jimmy Butler said, “I want to come to the Miami Heats.” And this year, once you traded Jimmy Butler, you were pretty terrible once he left. Now, I’m not going to judge their future without Jimmy Butler just based off the second half of this season because they’re also entitled to an off seasonason to try to fix these things and to go into next year with a more complete roster. But if they go into next season and they suck and the season after that and they suck again while not trying to suck because we know they’re not going to try to tank. So if they’re trying to win and then they’re bad, well then I’m going to be very mad that Jimmy Butler was getting discredited right now because the Heat also needed him as well. I mean Dan Dan Levitar said that he got a text saying, “Oh, how many conference finals did Jimmy Butler make without Tyler Herro and Bam in the Bile?” And it’s like, yeah, Bam had some great playoff runs, definitely some great playoff series, but Tyler Herro, I mean, the first finals they made, Tyler Herro was a rookie. He didn’t really have a lot of opposing defenses ready for him or schemed for him. And then it’s like in 2022 when they made the conference finals, Tyler Herro was hurt. He missed a lot of games in that conference finals. In 2023, Tyler Herro literally got hurt the very first game of that postseason and they still went to the NBA finals without him. I understand he was literally on the roster. So the point that they’re saying is a fact. Jimmy Butler has never made a conference finals without Tyler Herro. But Tyler Herro was hurt for majority of those runs. And also Jimmy Butler became playoff Jimmy because he’s that good because he put in the work to be that good because he’s that smart a player. He didn’t score 56 points against the Milwaukee Bucks because he was on the Miami Heat. He scored 56 points because like he’s a hell of a basketball player. So, yes, the Miami Heat definitely helped out Jimmy Butler, but he also helped us out a ton. And now the Miami Heats are looking for another Jimmy Butler, whether it’s just for a culture fit because they really had no direction last season or whether they they need to get another star for their late game scoring, a guy that can get to the free throw line. So, it’s like we still need Jimmy Butler or or at least another Jimmy Butler. So, let’s just not act like we could pick up anybody off the street and they could turn into Jimmy Butler. That that’s just not how it works. And finally, Barry Jackson was on the timeline discussing Jimmy when he put out this tweet saying, “Not paying 57 million to an aging butler was prudent. It must be the start of what should be a new heat approach of not paying players more than their value in terms of performing/winning, which is still an issue on the roster considering they paid the tax for a bad team.” Now, couple of things about this. Yes, it was prudent not to pay Jimmy, but it would have been more prudent to trade him a year ago as we just spent a few minutes discussing. But anyways, he also says that the Heat should have a new approach of basically not overpaying players. And I’m pretty sure Barry’s being sarcastic here. At least I hope so, because duh, why would you ever have an approach of overpaying mediocre guys who are are not as good? But that’s the Heat’s problem. I think they’ve overvalued a lot of their own talent for the last couple of seasons. And that is why they were a tax team last year while being a bad team, which should never happen. I mean, you look at some of these teams like the Phoenix Suns, they were a second apron team and they missed the playoffs. At least the Heat were only a first apron team who got their ass kicked in the first round. So, they were a little bit better. But at the same thing, we talking about who’s whose trash smells worse, quite truth truthfully. But we know that Mickey Harrison has some cheap tendencies as it is. But I’ve always believed that he will pay the tax for a contender. So the fact that they were making him pay the first tax for a team that was terrible that that should never happen. Especially when you consider there’s a such thing called a repeaters tax where if you’re a tax team for a certain certain number of years in a row, there’s additional penalties. So yeah, big problem that they paid the tax while being a bad team. But anyways, that’s really all I got to say for this video. Let me know some of your thoughts down below on basically how everything ended up playing out uh at least with regards to the second half of the season with Jimmy Butler. Very curious to hear what y’all think. Make sure to comment, like as a video, like the video, and subscribe cuz all the support is greatly appreciated. And I’ll see you on the next one. Peace out, everyone. Pull up in your city trying to get that dead face. Do it on my own. I don’t need no dead weight. Had to kill them off. Yeah, I need a head space. You know this homegrown [ __ ] don’t offend me.

Discussing the end of Jimmy Butler’s season as the Golden State Warriors are eliminated by the Timberwolves. Did Pat Riley and the Miami Heat make the right decision? NBA and Miami Heat News featuring Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro, Andrew Wiggins, Terry Rozier, Nikola Jovic, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Duncan Robinson, Josh Richardson, Kevin Love, Haywood Highsmith, Kel’el Ware, Pelle Larsson, Keshad Johnson, Erik Spoelstra and more. Subscribe for more Miami Heat, Miami Dolphins, NBA and NFL news.

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Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
0:34 Jimmy Butler Appreciation
2:12 Happy Warriors Lost
4:18 Reaction to Jimmy’s Playoffs
5:42 Jimmy is Not That Guy Anymore
9:05 Udonis Haslem Reaction
10:03 Was Pat Riley Right Not to Pay Jimmy?
12:10 Sponsor
12:48 Dan Le Batard Out of Pocket
17:07 Barry Jackson Reaction
18:47 Closing Thoughts