The Miami Heat can’t allow Jimmy Butler to ‘John Henry’ himself

The Miami Heat are just a week away from really gettin things ramped up for their season. Getting set to head to the Bahamas next week, they’ll really begin to get down to the business of sorting things out to tip the year off.

Among all of the noise and rumors of the offseason, much of which found the Miami Heat dead in the midst of it all, they needed and still could stand to add to their power forward rotation. That’s especially after losing P.J. Tucker this past offseason.

While they have a few options on the roster to potentially try there, without certainty, that could lead to a situation where someone just has to do something or play somewhere where they typically don’t or wouldn’t.

With no clear answer to the Miami Heat’s PF scenario yet and Jimmy Butler willing to do whatever’s needed, they’ll have be sure to save him from himself.

In the Miami Heat’s case, Jimmy Butler will always do a lot of or all of whatever needs to be done in any given scenario if it means giving his team the best chance to win. That’s just how he seems to be put together based on all he’s done throughout his career and especially his time in Miami.

When you consider the Heat’s circumstances and that tendency from Jimmy Butler, you also have to strongly consider his recent history and tendency not to play over 60 games a season, something that’s been the case during his entire tenure in Miami.

And though you live with that because he’s there when it counts and because of his rough and tumble playing style, you still worry about it all. The grand and overall point of it all is this though.

The Miami Heat cannot allow Jimmy Butler to “John Henry” himself. You all are familiar with the story.

If not, here’s a short summary. There was once a man named John Henry who worked as a manual rock crusher.

In a contest against a machine, a steam drill, John Henry would drill more rock manually with his hammer and chisel to win it all, but only to succumb to stress placed on his heart—with his hammer still in hand.

The Miami Heat cannot allow Jimmy Butler to place this kind of burden on himself this season. When it all boils down to it, Jimmy will do what needs to be done.

It’s up to the Miami Heat to ensure that whatever that may be isn’t too much, too soon, and too often because the only way to win a title is with a, somewhat, fresh and healthy Jimmy Butler leading the way, at the very least.