Ira Winderman: No one won in Heat-Butler mess, with both now left at a loss

MIAMI — To call this vindication would be way too simplistic, considering how it ended for his own team.

So leave to others whether Miami Heat president Pat Riley got his joy back on Wednesday night when Jimmy Butler was eliminated from the playoffs with his Golden State Warriors.

And yet, as with almost everything in the NBA, ultimate assessment comes down to the postseason.

It is why Riley hedged last week about offering Tyler Herro a maximum extension this offseason, in the wake of Herro’s wobble in the Heat’s final two playoff games.

It also is why now, at least at this moment, bypassing a similar extension window for Butler appears at minimum prudent if not prescient.

With the Warriors at the finish line of their playoff elimination at the hands of the Minnesota Timberwolves, Butler very much looked like someone in need of a friend over this past week in the injury absence of Stephen Curry.

Sort of as he did during his latter stages with the Heat.

And there is nothing wrong with that at 35.

But there is when a price tag is attached, such as the $56.8 million now due Butler from the Warriors in 2026-27, a season that will end months shy of Butler’s 38th birthday. Such is the extension that Riley put on hold, much to the consternation of a Heat season that went south as a result of Butler insisting that with the Heat he no longer could find his joy.

That joy returned when the Warriors extended him at $110 million over two years.

Then came Wednesday night’s 121-110 loss to the Timberwolves, another team Butler previously had trashed on the way out the door.

In the wake of that loss, Warriors coach Steve Kerr spoke of what might have been if not for the hamstring injury that sidelined Curry in the five-game series’ first game.

In addressing that injury, Kerr also addressed the reality of Butler, the reality of a player desiring leading-man money but in need of a leading man.

“Once Steph went out,” Kerr said, “it changed everything for our whole team, but especially for Jimmy.”

By the end, it was clear Butler was sapped by an illness, apparent in his voice as he addressed yet another playoff bid that came up short. That was after a hard fall left Butler missing a game in the previous series and less than 100% the rest of the postseason due to a pelvic injury.

“I think he was definitely compromised through all series,” Kerr said of the 4-1 ouster at the hands of the Timberwolves. “I think the injury in Houston definitely impacted him. He’s been playing through pain. And I think the biggest thing in this series is that without the spacing that Steph gives us, Minnesota did a great job of just playing us one-on-one. They guarded us on the perimeter. They were trying to take away our threes. And that forced Jimmy to play a lot of one-on-one against a long, athletic team.

“Because they have a lot of length and athleticism, it wasn’t easy for him to get anything at the rim.”

Over the final two games against the Timberwolves, Butler scored a combined 31 points on 9-of-20 shooting, a team-worst -47 over that span. While there also was a 9-of-11 effort from the line in Wednesday night’s season-ending loss, many of Butler’s shots late in the series against the Timberwolves came up short, just as they did during previous months with the Heat. Along the way, he consistently was being beaten defensively by Anthony Edwards, Jaden McDaniels and Julius Randle.

During Wednesday night’s closing act, Butler confidant Dwyane Wade was seen on a live stream imploring more.

“Hey, number 10! If you can hear me, do something!” the Heat icon wistfully said as he looked on.

As it soured to his point of no return with the Heat — his lost wages due to three suspensions still to be adjudicated through arbitration — the initial trade demand was to be funneled not to the Warriors, but to the Phoenix Suns.

Riley acknowledged as much last week, when he said of the initial attempts to offload Butler, “We were pretty much locked in with one team, the team of his choice. It didn’t happen there.”

Instead, it happened with the Warriors, where Butler made nice, said all the right things, just as he did after Wednesday night’s season-ending loss.

“We’re not going to use anything as an excuse.” he said, “just didn’t win.

“Injuries happen, but it is a lot different without Steph out there.”

The Butler risk for the Heat, with Riley’s preference for veterans, had been holding on for too long, getting too locked in longer-term amid the hope for short-term gain.

In the wake of Butler and Draymond Green coming up short as Curry looked on, TNT’s Charles Barkley said, “They’ve got three old guys making a lot of money, so you’re pretty much stuck with them for the next two years. You can’t go to war with three old guys against the West.”

In his exit interview Thursday, Butler said he still sees a pathway to better Warriors days ahead as he heads into his two extension years.

“If we win some, it could be longer than that,” he said. “Because I still think we have a lot of great basketball ahead of us. I don’t think this age thing is anything with the way we take care of our bodies.”

And, yes, Butler again referenced his joy, and how it still being back now that he is by the Bay.

No, Wednesday night was not about vindication for Riley, not after his team was humiliated in the most-lopsided playoff series in NBA history.

But with both of Butler’s 2024-25 teams now gone fishing, it allows for the perspective that couldn’t be there in the moment at the Feb. 6 trading deadline or even as Butler was helping to rejuvenate the Warriors.

In the end, no one came out ahead in Miami with the Butler episode.

But the reality now appears that losses have been cut.