Jimmy Butler wants to find 'joy' again, open to being traded 'anywhere other than Miami'

Jimmy Butler says he needs to find joy again on the basketball court. And when asked if he can find that joy in Miami, he had a two-word answer.

"Probably not," he said.

The relationship between Butler and the Heat — a talking point for weeks now — seems to have further deteriorated. The Heat lost to Indiana 128-115 on Thursday night, Butler scoring exactly nine points and playing exactly zero seconds in the fourth quarter for the second consecutive game. It also happened Wednesday in a win over New Orleans.

"What do I want to see happen? I want to see me get my joy back from playing basketball," Butler said. "Wherever that may be — we'll find out here pretty soon — but I want to get my joy back. I'm happy here, off the court, but I want to be back to somewhere dominant. I want to hoop and I want to help this team win. Right now, I'm not doing that."

Butler has not publicly asked for a trade, but ESPN reported Thursday that the six-time All-Star is "open to playing anywhere other than Miami." The Heat took the rather unusual step last week after that report of saying that they will not be trading him.

Thursday's game was, obviously, not a typical Butler performance. He spent many possessions largely camped in the corner on offense and took only six shots in 27 minutes; he took five shots from the floor on Wednesday. Heat coach Erik Spoelstra basically made Butler the point guard for parts of the third quarter in an effort to spark things. It didn't work.

"Obviously he's frustrated, because he's standing on the corner," Heat captain Bam Adebayo said. "So, he's got a lot of things going on in his corner. For us, we keep the main thing the main thing like our coach always tells us. We play to win and that's what it's all