{"id":76564,"date":"2024-05-07T18:08:38","date_gmt":"2024-05-07T22:08:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=76564"},"modified":"2024-05-07T18:08:38","modified_gmt":"2024-05-07T22:08:38","slug":"heat-jimmy-butler-agent-fires-back-pat-riley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/05\/07\/heat-jimmy-butler-agent-fires-back-pat-riley\/","title":{"rendered":"Heat Star\u2019s Agent Fires Back at Pat Riley"},"content":{"rendered":"

After Miami Heat president Pat Riley ripped All-Star forward Jimmy Butler<\/a> for taunting the team\u2019s playoff opponents<\/a> despite not suiting up all postseason, Butler\u2019s agent fired back at Riley with a fact-based retort.<\/p>\n

Jimmy Butler\u2019s Agent Fires Back at Pat Riley<\/h2>\n

\u201cTaking issue in games in which he plays is just not reality<\/a>,\u201d Thread Sports Management\u2019s Bernie Lee tells South Florida Sun Sentinel\u2019s Ira Winderman.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis past season, we had a conversation at the start of the year, just with some of the changes, rules changes in the NBA, the priority that was in place to be able to participate in every game he was physically able to participate for, and I can tell you that he lived up that commitment.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Butler played 60 games in 2023-24, making it the fourth time in five seasons that he\u2019s played 50 or fewer games. He\u2019s missed at least 15 games every season since signing.<\/p>\n

Of the 2023-24 season in particular, Lee says, \u201cif there was a game that was on the schedule that Jimmy was healthy enough to participate in, he did that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe played in a number of back-to-backs and it was the utmost priority to him to do everything he can to be available.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

However, Lee didn\u2019t stop there, going even further to defend his client.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you dive into even more, Jimmy played his highest minutes per game since Minnesota. He played over 2,000, the third year in a row that he’s done that. He was third on the team in total minutes played.<\/p>\n

If you look at Jimmy’s entire career, I’m not really sure where this narrative is coming from, in terms of constantly dissecting his availability. But if you look at his five years in Miami, the Miami Heat have participated in 61 playoff games, not including these past playoffs that he was injured for. Of those 61, Jimmy has only missed three because of injury. In every single playoff series since he’s been in Miami, he’s led the team in both minutes per game and total minutes.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Not When It Matters Most<\/h3>\n

To Lee\u2019s last point, Butler has had greater availability in the playoffs, usually toughing it out due to the seriousness of the situation.<\/p>\n

However, over the last three postseasons, Butler\u2019s injuries have been particularly untimely. He sustained a knee injury during the 2022 Eastern Conference Finals, which the Boston Celtics won in seven games. In the first game of the 2023 Eastern Conference Semifinals, Butler sprained his ankle. Though Miami made it all the way to the 2023 NBA Finals, it was often in spite of Butler, who shot 43 percent or below in every series after the First Round. For reference, he shot 59.7 percent from the field in the First Round. This past season, Butler sustained a MCL injury during the Play-In Tournament, then missed the entire First Round. The Heat lost the series in five games.<\/p>\n

So when Lee asks why Butler\u2019s availability is \u201cconstantly dissected,\u201d it\u2019s because his client can\u2019t stay off the injury report.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no doubt that Butler is among the most competitive players in the NBA. Because of his mental makeup, people haven\u2019t accused Butler of purposely missing games. However, on a purely objective level, there\u2019s reason to question his ultimate value. Especially when discussing contract extensions for player that will be 35 years old heading into next season.<\/p>\n

Butler\u2019s the team\u2019s leader and their best perimeter player. He\u2019s one of the most well-rounded players in the league. But if he\u2019s not available or healthy when it matters most, what does that amount to?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After Miami Heat president Pat Riley ripped All-Star forward Jimmy Butler for taunting the team\u2019s playoff opponents despite not suiting up all postseason, Butler\u2019s agent fired back at Riley with a fact-based retort. Jimmy Butler\u2019s Agent Fires Back at Pat Riley \u201cTaking issue in games in which he plays is just not reality,\u201d Thread Sports […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":76566,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16,1608,62,3],"tags":[49217,142,419],"class_list":["post-76564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-heat","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","tag-bernie-lee","tag-jimmy-butler","tag-pat-riley"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}