As the Miami Heat return back home from a five-game road trip and prepare for Tuesday's contest against the Houston Rockets, the status of star Jimmy Butler is still up in the air. However, Butler's agent Bernie Lee spoke to Ira Winderman of The Sun Sentinel and shed some light into the player's injury and if it is serious or not.
It's been a tumultuous last couple of weeks for Butler as he first suffered a calf injury on Dec. 18 against the Minnesota Timberwolves. He would go on to miss the next four games with a calf strain before making his return on Dec. 30 against the Utah Jazz.
However, he would hurt his foot in the third quarter and then miss the next three games after that. According to the Heat and the NBA, the injury deals with his toe, specifically labeled as a “sprained right 1st MP joint.” Lee, Butler's agent, would say to The Sun Sentinel that everybody involved has gathered information about the injury and they “feel comfortable” in saying the injury is not long-term.
“Since the Utah game,” Lee said. “We’ve been able to gather all the info we needed to feel comfortable to move forward, and thankfully everything that’s come back has indicated that this shouldn’t be a long-term or lingering issue.”
Butler's agent has confidence he could play after 40 years old
For Butler's agent, this is not the first rodeo for Butler and injuries as in the past, the player has missed significant time. Lee expresses the work and preparation that the star puts in with his offseason prep.
“Not to state the obvious, but clearly injuries suck,” Lee said. “But taking into consideration that three of the last four years Jimmy has led his team into playing in the conference finals or Finals means Jimmy has played a lot of games that have bled into his offseason prep time for the following season. We are working to figure out the balance to that, but clearly it’s a good problem to have.”
Having turned 34 last September, people have acquainted the injuries Butler has had to him getting older, which Lee finds to be so hilarious that he laughs to himself. He has the confidence that if he wanted to, he could play like this after hitting the age 40 years old.
“Big picture, someone sent me a quote today about Jimmy being on the other side of 30 with the implication, I’m assuming, being that he’s aging, and I had to laugh to myself,” Lee said to Winderman. “Because the reality is, he’s been on the other side of 30 the entire time he’s been in Miami, and truthfully I see the way he prepares every day and goes about his craft, and I expect that he’ll be doing this to the other side of 40.”
Butler's agent expects him to “power though as fast as possible”
So the message to Heat fans is pretty simple and that it is don't be surprised if Butler comes back sooner rather than later. However, the Heat have been playing well despite not having arguably their best player on the floor, though they lost to the Phoenix Suns Friday night where a scoring threat like Butler could have been handy.
“But the battle of today is this in front of us and I expect him to power through as fast as possible like he always does,” Lee said.
Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra spoke before the Suns game briefly at that morning's shoot-around about the injury to Butler and what the plans involving him look like. Butler was not with the team for the game against Phoenix as he was sent back to Miami for treatment of his injury.
“The diagnosis is still the same,” Spoelstra said. “We felt it would be better for him to train in our facility and do things around the clock.”
As for his official listing, the Heat are going to label Butler as “day to day” moving forward, giving the star leeway to test his injury before each game. After Friday's game, the team will have Saturday and Sunday off from practice before likely having a session on Monday before the game Tuesday.
“We’ll treat him day to day and we’ll see how he’s doing when we get back to Miami,” Spoelstra said.
With the injury of Butler, Spoelstra has been experimenting with a bunch of different lineups and rotations. So much so, that the Heat lead the league in most different starting lineups and the past few weeks were a microcosm of that as players like Nikola Jovic, R.J. Hampton, and Jamal Cain made appearecnes.
Heat's Jaime Jaquez Jr. filling in nicely for Butler
However, the “replacement” for Butler and the main benefactor has been Heat rookie sensation Jaime Jaquez Jr. who for his performance in December, received his second Rookie of the Month award from the NBA. Spoelstra talked about the UCLA product winning the award and what that means for the team.
“That’s definitely impressive,” Spoelstra said, “And the most important thing is his play has impacted winning. He’s earned his minutes because it’s impacted winning. It’s a good nod. It’s not something that we’re going to celebrate. But it’s nice to have a young player ready to help us win.”
In the month of December, Jaquez has averaged 16.1 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.7 assists while shooting 48.1 percent from the field and 84.9 percent from the foul line. However, maybe the most staggering statistic has been that Jaquez has logged 315.8 fourth quarter minutes, which is the most in the entire NBA.
That number for a first-year player is utterly eye-opening. But it proves even for a rookie, how much confidence he has in not just Spoelstra, but with the rest of the team. The comparisons will continue between him and Butler, but is that really a bad thing?
In the meantime, fans will wait and see if Butler plays against the Houston Rockets on Tuesday, Jan. 9 where the Heat make their return back home to the Kaseya Center. Currently, Miami is 20-15 on the season, which puts them fifth in the Eastern Conference, though they have the same record as the Orlando Magic, New York Knicks, and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
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