As Jimmy Butler serves out his seven-game suspension, the Heat don’t appear any closer to finding someone to take him off their hands, writes Steve Bulpett of Heavy. Numerous executives and other league sources who talked to Bulpett expressed skepticism that Miami will be presented with a deal to its liking before the February 6 trade deadline.

It’s partially due to Butler’s age and desire for a contract extension this summer, but it’s also because of his history of disrupting teams whenever he’s unhappy.

“It’s more difficult than people think,” said one team’s head of basketball operations. “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. But all this stuff with Jimmy — all the stuff in Miami and Minnesota and Chicago and Philly — all of it is because he wants to get paid. That’s where he’s at right now. He wants to be paid for what he’s done for Miami.”

Butler, who’s in his sixth year with the Heat, has only appeared in 22 of the team’s first 36 games. Coming into this season, he had vowed to be more available after being challenged by team president Pat Riley when Miami was eliminated from the playoffs last spring. Butler has played 58, 52, 57, 64 and 60 games the past five seasons, and his frequent absences have made the organization reluctant to offer the extension he wants.

Butler is scoring 17.6 PPG so far this season — his lowest mark in more than a decade — although his shooting splits remain good at .552/.375/.788. At age 35, there’s plenty of doubt around the league about whether he can still play at a level to justify an expensive new contract. Butler has stated that he plans to turn down his $52.4MM player option for next season and test free agency, but that may not be his best financial move if he’s still in Miami past the deadline.

“You’d have to say Jimmy’s been good for Miami overall, but he’s also been very difficult,” a 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. He got a lot of mileage out of being a leader, a go-to guy, a big game player, but he wasn’t there night in and night out.”

Rival executives were skeptical about Riley’s commitment to Butler when he announced in late December that the Heat were taking him off the market, Bulpett adds. The feeling was that Riley was responding to what he viewed as inadequate trade offers.

“I really believe (the Heat) had discussions (with other teams) about Jimmy before Pat said, ‘We’re not trading Jimmy Butler.’ At the very least, they went through every single team and what was realistic — like, there’s only a handful of teams that are trying to win right now and that Jimmy would want to go to,” one executive said. “And Miami looked at everything and basically said they weren’t doing any of that crap. So Pat says they’re not trading him, and Jimmy says what he says. So maybe now Jimmy will be open to more teams that he’d be willing to go to.”

Butler has been working out at Kaseya Center with assistant coach Octavio De La Grana and two other staff members while the Heat are on a road trip, but coach Erik Spoelstra declined to comment on those proceedings before tonight’s game at Portland, according to Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald.

“Of course I’ve talked to him. I’m very close to coach,” Spoelstra told reporters. “That’s between me and coach O, with all due respect.”

Trade talks regarding Butler are ongoing, but the Heat still haven’t received an offer they consider acceptable, a source tells Jackson, adding that they remain willing to bring him back for a January 17 home game if he’s not traded by then.

Jackson also hears that Miami wouldn’t be opposed to keeping Butler on the roster for the rest of the season and dealing with the situation this summer.