There are some players on the Miami Heat that would prefer to not have Jimmy Butler return to the team now that his seven-game suspension is over. The Heat went 3-4 without Butler as they played six of those games on the road.
“I don’t know how he can come back to this locker room,” one source close to the team said. Said another, “We don’t want him back.”
ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne writes that “there remains a palpable dread at what [Butler] might do and the environment the ongoing chaos might create.”
Sources also tell Shelburne that “teammates, coaches and staffers have already grown weary.
The Heat suspended Butler for seven games in order to allow the team to escape the chaos of his escalating situation. The Heat believed Butler had not given a full effort over two separate games.
For Butler, he has grown to believe that the Heat have prioritized Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro both on and off the court. Butler’s image rate this season is his lowest since 13-14.
“If they’re doing this transition to Bam and Tyler, Jimmy’s like, ‘Fine, do your transition,'” a source close to Butler said. “If [he’s] going to be the second or third wheel, [he’ll] be that in Phoenix to Kevin Durant and Devin Booker.”