Inside The Heat

NBA Writer Says Miami Heat Would Be "Crazy" To Move On From Jimmy Butler

Shandel Richardson

Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

Remember the Miami Heat teams from 2014-2019?

It appears some have already forgotten the lack of success they had from the time they had LeBron James to the arrival of Jimmy Butler. Here's a refresher:

2014-15: 37-45, missed the playoffs

2015-2016: 48-34, lost in conference semifinals

2016-17, 41-41, missed the playoffs

2017-18, 44-38, lost in first round

2018-19, 39-43, missed the playoffs.

Longtime NBA writer Rohan Nadkarni made a great point by using this stretch as the main reason the Heat should not part ways with Jimmy Butler. Speaking on the Dan LeBatard Show, Nadkarni said they should do everything possible to keep Butler in Miami.

"I think it would be crazy for them not to extend Jimmy Butler," Nadkarni said. "I think people have already very quickly forgotten where this franchise was in the three or four years before he got there, that in-between period between LeBron versus what happened before Jimmy Butler got there."

Butler led the Heat to the NBA Finals his first season with the Heat. He also took them to the Finals in 2023 and the conference finals in 2022. He has proven his worth, so now Nadkarni feels it's time for the organization to build a team around Butler to get over the title hump.

"No `superstar' in the NBA has done more with less than Jimmy Butler has in the last five years," Nadkarni said. "There's always the conversation about, `Do we extend him?' I look at the rest of the East that has upgraded significantly the last few years and it feels like the Heat have not done that for Jimmy despite how far he's taken them."

Shandel Richardson is the publisher of Inside The Heat. He can be reached at shandelrich@gmail.com

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Shandel Richardson
SHANDEL RICHARDSON

Shandel has covered the NBA since 2010, with previous stops at The Athletic and South Florida Sun-Sentinel.  He has covered six NBA Finals, one Super Bowl, the NCAA basketball tournament. He has also been a beat writer for the Miami Hurricanes and contributed on every major beat in South Florida since 2003, including the Miami Dolphins and Miami Marlins. He can also be read in the Sportsbook Review for gambling coverage from around the NBA. A native of Bloomington, Illinois, Shandel attended Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. He's also worked for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Kansas City Star.  TWITTER: @ShandelRich EMAIL: shandelrich@gmail.com You can subscribe to our YouTube channel here Follow all of our Miami Heat coverage on Facebook here