3 Heat players who earned untouchable status, 3 who are expendable

Expendable: Jimmy Butler

Writing this is crushing my soul. Jimmy Butler will forever be a true Heat legend, but at the end of the day, the NBA is a business, and a business decision will need to be made by the Heat’s front office. Butler is demanding a two-year maximum extension for $113 million. If Miami does not match his demand, he could request a trade to a team that will pay him.

Butler missed a total of 22 games this past season, which many people believed was due to load management to maximize his abilities during a potential playoff run. However, he ended up suffering an MCL injury during the play-in tournament that ended his season. This is not a sustainable strategy, especially when the roster is not well structured outside of Butler and Adebayo. This results in unnecessary regular season losses, which contribute to lower seeding in the playoffs. This is exactly what happened this past season, which led to the Heat matching up against the juggernaut Celtics.

Miami finished the season just four games behind the New York Knicks who finished as the second seed in the Eastern Conference. If Butler plays just a couple of more games, the Heat could’ve very well been a top-five seed.

In addition to the issue of missing an excessive amount of games, when Butler played, it did not seem like he was nearly playing to his maximum potential. Throughout the season, he averaged 20.8 PPG, 5.3 RPG, and 5.0 APG, while just attempting 13 shots a game. In my opinion, the Heat can conserve their money, and attempt to trade or reserve their money for better assets.