Jimmy Butler was in the spotlight quite a bit on Thursday but he won’t be on the court tonight when the Heat play in Orlando. He’s listed as out due to return to competition reconditioning, Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald tweets. He’s expected to rejoin the team on Friday when it prepares for Saturday’s road game against the Hawks.
Heat president of basketball operations Pat Riley issued a statement on Thursday, declaring he won’t trade Butler. There has been heavy speculation regarding Butler’s future. Butler holds a $52.4MM option on his 2025/26 contract.
We have more from the Southeast Division:
- Magic star Paolo Banchero continues to ramp up his on-court work, Jason Beede of the Orlando Sentinel reports. Banchero has been sidelined eight weeks since he was diagnosed with a torn right abdominal muscle. However, Banchero still hasn’t gone through a contact practice, so his timeline to return remains unclear.
- Bilal Coulibaly and Alex Sarr are available to play for the Wizards tonight against Charlotte, Varun Shankar of the Washington Post tweets. Both players sat out Monday’s loss to the Thunder.
- Hornets 2023 second-rounder Isaiah Wong is averaging 7.0 points, 2.7 rebounds and 2.3 assists in seven December games. Roderick Boone of the Charlotte Observer explores whether the team may have found a diamond in the rough in Wong, who was signed to a two-way deal earlier this month.
- Hornets forward Brandon Miller is back in action tonight after missing the last three games due to an ankle injury, Boone tweets.