The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Local Hour: So... What Ever Happened With That Jimmy Butler Situation?
Thu, 06 Mar 2025
"But why did they take away the ice cream?" Andrew Hawkins tries to catch himself up on that whole Jimmy Butler thing. Today's cast: Dan, Amin, Andrew Hawkins, Chris, Jeremy, Mike, and Tony. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: Why is leadership being discussed in this episode?
I believe that Hawk and Amin are tougher than I am. They have seen me lament and whimper for a while now about, I don't think I'm a good leader. I'm bad at leadership.
And I'm looking today from the 10th floor of this building in a very nice gym and I'm seeing walk across the street. OK, I got Danny Benitez. I got Mally lugging a bunch of equipment and I got Fuentes leading the charge. And they had to park at Bayside because I didn't know when we started this that parking would be really hard in in downtown Miami.
And I'm looking down there at them and I'm like, you know what? I'm starting to like my team. They're three little gorillas walking across the street carrying a bunch of equipment. It took me four years. I'm like, I haven't liked my team for four years.
But I'm liking that they care like that because I have said for a while, you give me people who care and we'll try and figure out how it is that we make something with them. And I've been thinking a lot recently because Jimmy Johnson's career is over and he chose one path at 50, right? Jimmy Johnson at 50 years old said, okay, I don't like what this shit does to me.
Chapter 2: What are the challenges faced by the Miami Heat?
I'm gonna go be in a department over there. But Pat Riley chose to stay with it for the next 30 years. And now the whole machine comes for Grandpa. Because the way they lost against Cleveland last night, where even Spoh looks bad, where you're like, what are they doing at the end of the game with those rotations? And what they're doing is, they're not very good.
And they're trying to figure it out. And when Tyler Hero's out, it's like, what the hell? We got Terry Rozier to do this.
Thoughts and prayers for Tyler Hero. He had a vicious head cold. Wow, that's scary.
That's his attempt at like, well, a hockey player would have AIDS and still play. No, no, no, no.
He's got AIDS. You guys got it. No, that's not what I'm doing. Okay. That's not what I'm doing. It sounded genuine.
It sounded like real concern.
Dan is right to point out their rotation is bad because they're bad. But their rotation is bad because they're holding out Tyler Hero for head colds because it's pretty obvious what's happening here over the last two games is – I think the Miami Heat and its culture are trying to tank.
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Chapter 3: Is the Miami Heat's strategy to tank this season?
They won the last game they played before this one. A, heads colds are going around. That's number one, something we cannot take lightly and should not take lightly.
Everything's going around.
Everything is going around. Two, the disappointment of, I guess, the way Terry Rozier played last night, which I was made aware of this morning because there's not a person on planet Earth who knows less about the Miami Heat than the guy that you're talking to right now. You do this every day.
time you come in here though I don't know anything what happened last oh you guys lost I guarantee you watch them more than I do I promise I only get the heat news when I walk in this building and Terry Rozier but you walk in the building saying hey guys whatever happened with that Jimmy Butler situation I want to know smiling solid troll where did that where did that end up
Like, explain to me the last... He's on Golden State now. The last we left it, there was something going on with Pat Riley and a disagreement about should he play, should he not? And I'm like, you know what? We're looking for topics for the show. I don't know if we have time and can fit it in, but where did that land? Dan, do we?
Just because Jeremy was so quick to correct me that they won their last game. Yes, they beat the 12-win Wizards. Yes, they did. Congratulations to them. My apologies.
So the tank, it is a strange thing when you get culture meets tank. And what is the explanation for Terry Rozier playing the entire fourth quarter? Well, he's the worst player in the league statistically. He's shot 26% fouls. from three since January 1st. He's got 33 fouls, 33 turnovers, and 33 threes since January 1st.
So you put in your worst player in the league and you aggressively try to lose against Cleveland. But you keep it close because everyone else has to care.
But also, it's his hometown team. So maybe they just fourth quarter against the hometown, put Terry in. This one's Riley just, you know, being the good guy that he is.
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Chapter 4: What happened with the Jimmy Butler trade situation?
It's not Riley's fault, man. He's too busy patrolling and policing the ice cream.
What fault is it? This is the Dan Levitar Show with the Stugatz Podcast.
The second half last night, Terry Rozier 0 for 8, three turnovers, plays 22 of the 24 minutes. And it was like watching somebody who doesn't know how to play basketball try to play basketball. Let's play the clip from last night's game.
Oh, wow. Why are we doing this? Come on, guys. So for the listeners, they're playing Philip Seymour Hoffman's basketball. This is not scary, Terry.
Make it rain. Raindrops.
It was, I bet it was abysmal. Like you're watching something in a heat uniform you don't recognize. And it's like Eric Spolstra, who called a timeout he didn't have earlier this season, was purposely putting in Philip Seymour Hoffman from Along Came Pauly to turn the ball over at half court with no one bothering him.
Hey, I have a history of being a part of a tank. The key to a tank is that the players can't know that it's a tank. It's like you just put Hawk at X receiver. Yeah. And Hawk is like, man, now they're finally getting it, right? But. About time y'all figured this out. You got to be a wizard, no pun intended, to really be able to make all the pieces.
I mean, I'm watching Terry Rozier, and I hurt for him because it's clear his confidence is shot. Like, his shots are not even close to going in. Yeah.
No, it's one of those situations where I've seen coaches do this too. When a guy like Hawk complains about, I don't run no plays for me or whatever. Okay, here we go. We're going to force feed it every single time to prove that you're not good enough to have plays run for you. It's evil. It's evil, but it's like the ultimate exposure of, okay, you want it? All right, here we go.
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Chapter 5: How are the Warriors benefiting from Jimmy Butler?
My head was deep in the football.
Now he knows. Now he's back up to date.
The the thing that I want to analyze here is because I tried to start yesterday with a wink wink joke about it wasn't cookies that LeBron had on the flight. It was ice cream. Everything I said was true. LeBron James got mad because the nutritionist took away his ice cream. He didn't like it. The moment he didn't like it, they brought back the ice cream.
The story is a ridiculous one that's being told that Pat Riley was micromanaging the cookies and the ice cream.
I thought it'd be funny to point out to the audience that right now Pat Riley is so under it that the people who care about him, the people who care about the things he built in 50 years and specifically the things he built over the last 30 are getting mad that in the new age you can just say anything
And it becomes a thing that is true about Pat Riley because everyone's feeding now on an organization they haven't quite been able to feed on in 20 years because of how obvious it is that they've been passed by Boston and Milwaukee and New York and Cleveland, but somehow not Philadelphia.
And I'm asking you two as experts in sports and experts about what it takes to continually get to excellence in sports. I saw Jimmy Johnson at 50 say, this is too much for me. I don't like it. The life balance, what it turns me into, don't like it. I'm gonna do television for 30 years. I saw Pat Riley try television with Bob Costas for a year and say, I don't like that.
I'm going back to the grind. He's 78 years old. There's literally no reason for him to be doing any more of this, except he can't quit it. And now he's getting devoured by the machine.
because his team stinks and his coach can be questioned if indeed they're tanking because of how bad he has been this year mike says no blame for spo you could spread it all around and also tyler hero has a head cold and they're playing terry rosier way too much it's going around
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Chapter 6: Why is Pat Riley's management style under scrutiny?
starting those predictions i just think that matters but mike ryan didn't want could have got wendy is what they're saying could have got we're still doing that you know you can't we know that we're here it's fine game now you lost
You were wrong. You sounded like a moron for two years. That's crazy. You sounded like an idiot. It was impossible to be wrong. We're here. You don't still push back. This is unbelievable. You're Terry Rozier right now, jacking up threes from half court.
You're right.
You haven't watched a game in the two and a half years since the prediction started. See what I mean? Matt Iberflues didn't have a Jeremy Taché. Iberflues never had a Jeremy Taché.
Never. Never had one. So how is Jimmy Butler doing with the Warriors? Really good.
The offensive numbers are a little confusing, but defensively, it's there. He's taking pressure off Steph.
The big thing is just the attention he draws and the fouls he draws makes life easier for everybody else. Even though his shooting numbers aren't so great, but also, as Mike said, defensively, he's like another Draymond for them. So they've got a lot more flexibility. And they've been winning defensively.
I'm just getting caught up slowly. I don't want to derail the conversation. Every once in a while, I have a couple questions every here and there. It's okay, Dan. It's just Cliff Notes.
We got Butler covered, though, right? You're not going to ask about that again. They won nine of their last ten games.
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Chapter 7: What inaccuracies do the Miami Heat face in the media?
netsuite.com. Don Levitard.
Stugatz. Stugatz. This is the Dan Levitar Show with the Stugatz. Stugatz.
Wait, who are we talking about? Jimmy Butler. Jimmy Butler didn't go out to anybody.
No, we're talking about... No, I'm talking about Mickey. Mickey? Because when Sean started reporting, Mickey and the Miami Heat and Pat Riley put out a press release. They were very aggressive in that this is not true. Right. Even Bernie Lee got involved. You know, playing both sides.
Well, yeah. I don't know. Look, you're caught up. I'm getting there. Not quite yet.
Don't tell me what I am. There's still holes. The one public gripe that I know that Mickey took exception to about the media and its coverage being lies ended up being true. Jimmy Butler did want out.
This is my opinion of every single franchise, every single owner, every single GM, every single coach, every single player who complains about the media gets it wrong. Tough shit. Yeah. Tough shit. I like that taste. You don't like it? Create the narrative that works, and you know what works a lot is winning.
Well, to be fair, by the way, I just put words in Mickey Arison's mouth. I don't think anyone has heard him complain. Oh, I saw him on Twitter. No, he was complaining.
He was upset about the show.
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