Insider: Jimmy Butler “Out of Touch With Reality”

Jimmy Butler insists that he'll be turning down his $52 million player option for next season to become a free agent. He wants a multi-year extension, and as we all know by now, it will not be coming from Pat Riley and the Miami Heat. Butler has asked for a trade, and the Heat are trying to accommodate him.

But according to insider Steve Bulpett of Heavy Sports, a trade will not be easy to come by. He quotes sources as telling him that Butler is "out of touch with reality" with his trade and contract demands.

One NBA team's head of basketball operations said, shockingly, that really all that Butler is worth right now for other teams is an expiring contract and an opportunity for rivals to dump their own undesirable contracts.

First of all, Jimmy’s 35 and doesn’t have much value. And then the team that would like him the most is probably Phoenix, because they’re so bad and they have the worst contract in (Bradley) Beal.
Other than that, I don’t know of any teams that would want to take on Jimmy Butler, other than teams that just want to dump contracts — and Miami won’t go for that. I just don’t know how it’s going to work.

Butler has had these 'burning bridges behind him' moments with most of the teams he's left in his career: notably the Chicago Bulls and the Minnesota Timberwolves.

"All of it is because he wants to get paid," continued the rival team's front office exec. "That’s where he’s at right now. He wants to be paid for what he’s done for Miami.”

“You’d have to say Jimmy’s been good for Miami overall, but he’s also been very difficult,” another league source told Bulpett. “I think it’s just reached an end. It’s like he’s in charge; he doesn’t play all the time, and he’s had injuries that always seem to come up. He’s not as good as it was."

And so here we are. Butler is currently on suspension from the Heat while they desperately try to make a trade that will get them back something of value, rather than losing him for nothing in free agency this summer.

Just three weeks to go until the Feb. 6th trade deadline.