MIAMI — A player who tends to march to the beat of his own drummer, Jimmy Butler hardly has gotten caught up in the Miami Heat’s 3-for-all.
While increased output from beyond the arc has been an ongoing storyline with Heat center Bam Adebayo, Butler has successfully been moving as a counter to the culture of the NBA longball.
“As long as you put the ball in the basket, I don’t care if it’s a two or a three,” Butler said, with the Heat hosting the New Orleans Pelicans in an exhibition Sunday at Kaseya Center. “Make your shots, make ’em at a high clip, and I think you’re going to find yourself in a good position to win.”
While Butler upped his 3-point volume to 2.4 attempts per game last season, his highest number in five seasons, it was well off the 3.6 of his third NBA season or 3.4 of his seventh.
Still, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra has been seeking more from beyond the arc, with Butler’s limited output in that regard leaving the team seeking answers elsewhere.
“I’m a part of every solution,” Butler said. “But I disagree. If you shoot a hundred threes and you don’t make one of them, twos can now be threes. With that being said, we’ve got a lot of guys that can score from all over the floor. I am one of them.
“I’m not going to go out there and jack up a thousand threes. I don’t think anybody else is either. We’re going to play basketball the right way.”
Nonetheless, with Butler a career-best .414 from beyond the arc last season, expect more of a middle ground than solely life in the midrange.
Yeah,” Butler said of the Heat’s rotation, “I think everybody’s going to take and make some threes this year.”
Busy week
Sunday started a run of four exhibitions in six days for the Heat, the result of Thursday’s home exhibition against the Atlanta Hawks being postponed by Hurricane Milton and rescheduled for Wednesday at Kaseya Center.
That’s a night after the Heat host the San Antonio Spurs and two nights before the Heat close out their five-game preseason schedule on the road against the Memphis Grizzlies.
So, yes, there will be adjustments, Spoelstra said when it comes to when he might utilize his rotation pieces.
“Maybe not for all four games,” Spoelstra said. “But that wasn’t going to be the plan, anyway.
“But I think we’ll be fine. I don’t mind it. We’re still able to get practice time and also get those games in.”
The Heat remain at the NBA preseason maximum of 21 players, needing to trim to no more than 18 by 5 p.m. Oct. 21.
A big fan
Count Adebayo among those who view Nikola Jovic not only as an answer for the Heat at power forward, but as someone anticipated to fill out boxscores.
“Man,” Adebayo said, “I expect Niko to have one or two triple-doubles just because he pushes the pace, we get out and run, obviously he can make the right play every time.
“I expect a lot of us to have triple-doubles this year. Everybody comes with the right mindset and we play together, things are good.”
Welcoming Washington
Although he was away from the Heat during summer league due to his commitment to the Team USA’s Olympic program as an assistant coach, Spoelstra said he appreciated the work of roster addition Warren Washington.
The undrafted center out of Texas Tech was part of the Heat roster that won the championship at the Las Vegas NBA Summer League, and he was signed Thursday by the team.
“We’re encouraged by all the work that he put in this summer,” Spoelstra said. “He got a lot better, he really did. His role I think that he’s going to have, he worked on that, he’s wrapped his mind around that to be a defensive big, an energy guy, on the glass, run the floor, setting screens, get people open, be that vertical spacer. All of those things, he did extremely well.”
Washington is expected to be waived and then move on to the Heat’s G League affiliate, the Sioux Falls Skyforce.
