Andrew Lopez of ESPN has claimed that the biggest question surrounding Miami Heat star forward Jimmy Butler isn’t whether or not his knee is healed after he sprained his MCL shortly before the start of the 2024 NBA Playoffs.
“Butler’s knee healed up after and he’s been getting workouts around the globe,” Lopez wrote. “The biggest question for Butler heading into training camp is less about his knee and more about what hairstyle he will have this time around.”
Butler suffered the MCL sprain in question during Miami’s matchup against the Philadelphia 76ers in the play-in tournament in April. He stayed in the game even after sustaining his injury, but he converted only five of his 18 shots from the field — including two of his six 3-point attempts — in a game the Heat lost by only one point.
Despite losing to the 76ers, Miami still qualified for the 2024 NBA Playoffs after the team earned a win in its following play-in contest against the Chicago Bulls. However, the fact that the Heat secured the No. 8 spot in the Eastern Conference standings meant that the team had to face off against the Boston Celtics in the first round.
The Celtics — who eventually earned the 2024 NBA championship — won a league-high 64 games during the regular season, and without Butler on the floor, Miami stood no chance against Boston. The Heat were eliminated in five games, and most of Miami’s losses came in embarrassing fashion.
If the Heat wish to make a deeper playoff run in the year 2025 than they did in 2024, it’s important that Butler keeps himself out of harm’s way. On top of missing the entirety of Miami’s tenure in the 2024 NBA Playoffs, he was sidelined for a fair amount of the 2023-24 regular season as well. Butler missed more than 25 percent of the Heat’s regular-season slate, as he suited up in 60 of the team’s 82 games.
Heat fans should breathe a sigh of relief in light of Lopez’s report that the key question regarding Butler prior to the start of training camp is what hairstyle he’ll rock. Miami will hold its training camp at Baha Mar — which is located in the Bahamas — from Oct. 1 through Oct. 5