Miami Heat: Executives have nothing bad to say about Jimmy Butler’s deal
"In NBA writer Ric Bucher’s piece “Maxed Out”, a few front-office execs said no player deserved to make the most a team could pay, but nothing specifically about the Miami Heat."
A piece was published on Tuesday in B/R Mag, Bleacher Report Magazine in the long-form, that took the temperature of several current NBA front-office executives on the current state of NBA Free Agency. Needless to say, they were not that hot on it. It made no mention of which executives, so while it isn’t safe to say that there wasn’t any Miami Heat participation on that front, no Heat players were mentioned.
While the basic summation of the piece is all laid out in the first few sentences, that being that these executives think that none of the players that got paid are totally worth those maximum amount offers that they received. This wasn’t based on skill alone.
It wasn’t even based on the leadership qualities of said player alone. These responses were said to be based on a combination of things that included playing ability, leadership qualities, and how they represented for their organizations. Here is the direct quote from Bucher’s piece.
"There were a few who had the requisite talent, while others had the requisite leadership skills. But none had both along with the skills and desire to be the team face and spokesman."
He invoked many names in this piece. These names include Kawhi Leonard, whom some execs said that though he was arguably the best two-way player in the game, he didn’t necessarily make any of his teammates better and that he was not going to be the face or spokesman of your organization due to his demeanor.
They also mentioned Kemba Walker and Klay Thompson, whom they said were both probably not worth the deals they received but were fortunate by circumstance. On Walker, they said that he probably isn’t a max guy but his “leadership and media friendliness” is what made him so valued. On Thompson, they said that although “he’s a good player”, “he’s not a leader”.