Sometimes, we tend to look away from the bigger scheme of things. For example, the deeper implications of Jimmy Butler’s repeated suspension. And, also, his desperate need to leave Pat Riley’s canopy. You can easily say this Miami Heat vs Butler, has turned into a battle of powers. However, the biggest question remains: who has the upper hand? The 35-year-old forward or the 79-year-old boss.

Rachel Nichols didn’t mince words to clarify what she heard was going on in the Heat locker room. Things are heating up in Miami right now, and Jimmy Buckets deserves most, if not all, of the credit. Meanwhile, the repeated suspension of the star player is raising doubts. Why can’t the front office just bench him or send him home and call him only when a good trade offer appears?

Pat Riley may have played his cards well, but Jimmy Butler might still hold power

“Part of the reason to suspend him as they have. Instead of just saying ‘Go away, we’ll call you when we have a deal for you’ you still have to pay him,” the NBA insider commented on the Open Floor podcast. “‘If you go away we’ll call you,’ if you suspend him you do not have to pay him. I think regardless of the cap hit it galls Mickey Arison and Pat Riley and that front office to be paying him for these antics.”

So, here’s the thing, the Heat front office played their cards well in suspending Jimmy Butler. According to the regulations, a suspended player goes unpaid for each game he misses. Thus, despite the Players Association’s loud protests about the All-Star forward losing $5.3M per game, Pat Riley and Co. didn’t budge.

This situation also poses two possibilities. First, ‘We keep him on the roster because nobody wants him and we can’t get a deal for him.’ Second, ‘We suspend him for the month and if he comes back and he still pulls the same drama, he’s suspended for the rest of the season.’ The latter of course becomes a risk for the player as he could miss out on his prime era. Work stoppages work differently for owners and players.

“Athletes have a ticking clock,” Rachel Nichols noted. “If the owners have to wait out the years of a work stoppage, they can just pick right back up and make money. And in a lot of cases, save money by not fielding these teams. Athletes will lose their prime years.” And if Jimmy Butler remains out of action for a better part of the next two years, “He’s never playing in the NBA again,” the insider warned. Simply put, the Miami Heat are somewhat stuck with their star. Does Pat Riley say to the 35-year-old, “Great. You are on a running suspension until you come and show up and contribute to this team? And if you want to waste these last years and not get paid anything?”

Meanwhile, if the deadline passes and the team is unable to find Butler a spot elsewhere, then the star player will hold a lot of power on the team. He still holds the power. “He can continue to screw their team and they’ve got to get rid of him,” Nichols pointed out. Jimmy has both money, which we now know is very important to him, and time. He has the rest of his career to lose. The stakes for him are also pretty serious here.

Given how things are turning out to be for Pat Riley, he may or may not have to bear the burden of Jimmy Butler’s $52 million contract. That is, if the two “likeliest” spots give the superstar forward to play alongside their biggest names.

Insider gives a short list of two names for Jimmy Butler

In less than a week, Jimmy Butler‘s fate could be decided by the Miami Heat front office. With the trade deadlines approaching the forward will have two binary possibilities: Stay or Leave. Which side will he and his team choose? Well, it would depend on the teams that are remotely or greatly interested in having a $52M player on the team. Perhaps, in a desperate attempt at the championship, dreams could make these two teams take the risks that most teams would back out from.

Jimmy Butler’s next move is heating up, and it’s all eyes on the West. “The Suns and Warriors are shaping up… to being the two likeliest landing spots,” Shams Charania reported. Both teams are making a push, eyeing one last title with Curry and Durant. “The Warriors’ front office has been acting very opportunistically,” he added. Meanwhile, Sacramento? Not happening. “They do not see Jimmy Butler as the answer,” Sam Amick wrote. The Kings are busy deciding De’Aaron Fox’s fate instead. With the Feb. 6 deadline looming, it’s a high-stakes game. Who makes the move first? Pat Riley or the two possibilities?

As you can guess, drama hasn’t left the scene in Miami. Well, as long as they have Jimmy Butler, the drama won’t end. The sole solution now is to let him go. But that’s possible only when some team decides to risk things for a player who’s not in his prime and could most likely repeat the same troubles with them. It’s a tricky situation and all we can do is wait for the next moves.