Miami Heat: 3 goals for Jimmy Butler in the 2019-20 season

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MIAMI, FLORIDA – APRIL 09: Jimmy Butler #23 of the Philadelphia 76ers talks with Tobias Harris #33 against the Miami Heat during the first half at American Airlines Arena on April 09, 2019 in Miami, Florida. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images) /

Make the Eastern Conference All Star team

Team president Pat Riley and senior vice president Andy Elisburg didn’t try as hard as they did to get Butler to Miami just to have another highly paid player on the books who doesn’t make the All-Star team even if they do have shooters. Jimmy Butler’s first season goal should be to make it onto an All-Star roster by hook or by crook.

It’s been a while since the Miami Heat had a player in the game selected standard voting (Dwayne Wade special roster addition in 2019 and Chris Bosh replaced due to injury in 2016). Butler represents what’s next for the organization and fans in this post-Wade era, so what better way to start things off than with an All-Star selection?

This should be rather low hanging fruit for Butler as he made four consecutive All-Star games before just falling short last season with Philadelphia. During that season, was ranked fifth out of Eastern Conference frontcourt players by the players themselves and fourth by the fan vote. Where he struggled to gain traction is the media vote of course finishing with zero nominations.

Seeing this is not surprising given his enigma status off the court I mentioned earlier. The media’s vote should be representing the league’s interest at large and cover gaps where a teams fan base or a players media coverage may prevent a deserving player from making the squad. In this case, it certainly looks like that bias surrounding his personality played a part in their vote.

It looks like Butler came to the right place. The Miami Heat are known for handling things internally. An area where Philadelphia’s inexperience and Minnesota and Chicago’s carelessness clearly showed. With that being said, I expect Butler to take this opportunity to get the perception of his personality in check. With the elite front office spear-headed by Riley himself, player relations is not going to be the thing that upsets the apple cart.

This sort of reclamation project falls on coach Erik Spoelstra. This summer, he got three gifts: Hassan Whiteside traded, a real All-Star level player in Butler, and a fully-healed bench unit who’s ready to go. It’ll be up to him to hold the players accountable, get all the pieces fit in together, and to keep the defense guessing by not having such a stale offense this year.

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