Many remain divided on whether they stand with Jimmy Butler forcing his way to get more money or if they are against him because he’s under contract with the Miami Heat.

Two things are undeniable.

Butler has been a great player for the Miami Heat with many legendary playoff moments. These can never be taken away from him, and he deserves all praise for them. However, the other thing is Butler has done this forcing his way and acting out schtick several times in his career.

Jason Timpf from the Hoops Tonight podcast discussed the situation in one of his mailbag segments. In this segment, he selects questions from the YouTube comment section and elaborates on his viewpoints. Timpf is firmly against Butler, consistently forcing his teams into dire predicaments whenever he hasn’t gotten what he wanted over his career. He even compares his situation with another superstar, Kyrie Irving, and believes Butler’s antics are much worse.

“This just feels dirty,” Timpf said. “I have another question right after looking back at the Kyrie Irving debate. I am not going to get into it right now, but I think Kyrie Irving has been given this type of reputation in a way that I don’t think he necessarily deserves. This is way worse. Jimmy has done this so many times now where he’s just decided he’s unhappy. And his response is like, I’m just going to be a (expletive) to everybody. Kyrie Irving made decisions for his career, and we’re going to get into that in a minute, but this is not the first time Jimmy Butler has been like I’m unhappy and mean to everybody until I get what I want. It’s literally like dealing with a toddler.”

Timpf later criticized Butler’s complaining about his role comments and lack of preparation to mold his game to fit more around the younger talent on the Miami Heat as they make leaps in improving their skills to become stars, such as Tyler Herro being arguably an All-Star this year. Especially considering Butler’s injury history and being a 35-year-old who should be ready to transition his game to the next phase. He spoke about what he would think if he was in Jimmy Butler’s position.

“I sympathize with where he’s coming from to a certain extent, in the sense that Tyler Herro gets going this year,” Timpf said. “Tyler Herro is becoming their primary ball-handler option instead of Jimmy Butler. But you should have known coming into this situation as a forward with a bunch of miles on his body and an injury history that’s getting into his late thirties while playing on a team with younger talent that you might be transitioning to passing the baton a little bit. Part of aging gracefully in this league is identifying that and making the adjustment. Instead of transitioning to where Tyler Herro stepping up is good for our team and leaning into weaponizing my traits to help the team in every way I can elsewhere, and know damn well that if (expletive) hits the fan and Tyler is not the right guy or has the right matchup, they’re going to lean on me. Instead, it’s been quiet quitting, pouting, and refusing to shoot the basketball or be aggressive.” 

After criticizing Butler’s antics and complaints, Timpf speaks about other teams in the league finding a trade for him. He gives several key factors a team should consider when trying to trade for Butler, including how challenging the situation is because of how he is as a person and the way his contract is set up.

“The second piece of this is trying to find a place for Jimmy to go,” Timpf continued. “It’s really difficult because 1, he makes $50 million, so you have to aggregate a bunch of salaries to go get him. 2, most of the teams that are in a position where they are desperate enough to get him have to be pretty deliberate about their trading process because they’re usually a first apron team and they’re not as flexible in their ability to bring in additional salaries. And he’s a huge risk to chemistry because if it’s not what he wants, who’s to say he won’t do what he did again.”

Bryan Townes is a contributor to Miami Heat On SI. He can be reached at btownesjr@gmail.com or on X @bryantownesjr11. Follow our coverage on Facebook.