Jimmy Butler wants to find 'joy' again, open to trade 'anywhere but Miami'

Jimmy Butler says he needs to find joy again on the basketball court. And when asked if he can find that joy in Miamihe had a two word answer.

“Probably not,” he said.

The relationship between Butler and the Heat — a topic of conversation for weeks — appears to have soured further. The Lost to Indiana 128-115 on Thursday night, Butler scored exactly nine points and played exactly zero seconds in the fourth quarter for the second straight game. It also happened in Wednesday’s win over New Orleans.

“What do I want to see happen? I want to see the joy of playing basketball back,” Butler said. “Wherever that is—we’ll soon find out here—but I want my joy back. I’m happy here, off the pitch, but I want to go back to somewhere dominant. I want to help this team win. I’m not doing that right now.

Butler hasn’t publicly asked for a trade, but ESPN reported Thursday that the six-time All-Star is “open to playing anywhere but Miami.” The Heat took a rather unusual step last week following that report that they will not trade him.

Thursday’s game was clearly not a typical Butler performance. He spent many possessions mostly camped out in the corner on offense and managed just six shots in 27 minutes; he made five shots from the floor on Wednesday. Heat coach Erik Spoelstra essentially put Butler at point guard for part of the third quarter in an attempt to spark things. It didn’t work.

“He’s obviously frustrated because he’s standing in the corner,” the Heat captain Bam Adebayo he said. “So there’s a lot of things in his corner. For us, we keep the main thing as our coach always tells us. We play to win and that’s what it’s all about.”

Butler said he felt like he was focused and did his job Thursday, adding “or at least what my job is right now.”

“It’s not what I’m used to being,” Butler said. “I haven’t been that since my first, second, third year in the league, where I just went out there and played defense. I competed. I guarded. That’s what I’m doing now.”

Butler was the best player on two Heat teams that went to the NBA Finals. He was eligible for a two-year, $113 million extension starting last summer, and Miami has yet to offer the 35-year-old a new contract. Butler has a $52 million player option for next season or could leave Miami in free agency this summer — if he stays with the team after the trade deadline.

Spoelstra has repeatedly said he wants Butler in Miami and said he believes the back-to-back nine-point games are due in part to Butler missing nearly two weeks with an illness. Wednesday was Butler’s first game since that stretch.

“It’s about aggressiveness,” Spoelstra said, speaking before Butler’s postgame comments. “We’ve got to figure it out. I’m going to figure it out. And he’s got to figure it out. We’ve got to figure it out.”

(Jimmy Butler’s next team odds: Will star point guard stay in Miami after trade deadline?)

Butler insisted he would continue to compete.

“I’m going out there to compete to win, either way, whether I score nine or 29 points,” Butler said. “I’m going to compete. That’s one thing I’m going to say. You’re not going to say I’m not playing hard. Maybe it looks like that because my usage is down and I’m not shooting the ball a lot, but we’re not going to sit here and say I’m not playing hard.”

Associated Press reports.

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