The Miami Heat miraculously were able to land Jimmy Butler this past offseason. Would the new rules have prevented that from being able to occur?
When the Miami Heat went into the offseason, many knew that in order for this team to get back to contention and relevance that they had to make major changes or have a major acquisition. Pat Riley, being the magician that he is, did just what we thought needed to be done and what he told us he would do. This is where things become a bit murkier though.
While there is no definitive proof and while we here at AUCH aren’t saying that this was the case, it has been heavily pondered that Jimmy Butler knew he was going to end up with the Miami Heat one way or another. This is said to be based on many things, including silent or behind the scenes jousting and deliberating and an ever-blossoming relationship between Butler and those associated with the Miami Heat, namely one Dwyane Wade.
With the NBA passing new provisions today that promise to crack down on “tampering” and illegal negotiations, it’s safe to ask if this would have ever happened in the aftermath of said crackdown. Again, this isn’t to say that there were innate illegalities involved in the acquisition of Butler by any means, but it is rather coincidental that the team he was said to want to be a member of that supposedly didn’t have any desirable assets or the necessary cap space to sign him outright was able to land a top 10-15 player in the NBA. Here is an exact quote on the matter and new provisions that NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said could be implemented as forms of punishment for violating the newly established code, per the twitter account of Adrian Wojnarowski.
"Suspending executives…taking away draft picks….voiding contracts…All those provisions are on the table. The ultimate goal is compliance"
While we want to be perfectly clear here again that this isn’t hinting at the fact that there may have been violations or tampering of any sort involved in the acquisition of Butler, the way in which it all played out perhaps is something that the league would want to take a look at under the new rules moving forward. Riley has always been cunning, devout, meticulous, deliberate, bullish and steadfast in getting what he sets out to get done accomplished.
Perhaps Riley of the Miami Heat and those in charge of these decisions on other teams will continue to find ways to circumvent the policies if they were going to do it in the first place, but at least you feel like the league is trying to get a handle on it. There is one thing for certain here though, that is regardless of how he may have gotten the Jimmy Butler deal done, the Miami Heat faithful are just glad he did it.