Jimmy Butler again out for Miami Heat exhibition at Houston

Jimmy Butler’s first appearance on an NBA stage since Game 5 of the NBA Finals on June 12 will not come until the Miami Heat’s regular-season opener Wednesday night against the Detroit Pistons at Kaseya Center.

Questionable for Friday night’s exhibition finale against the Houston Rockets at Toyota Center due to a dental procedure, Butler ultimately did not make the trip. He missed the Heat’s previous four exhibitions for reasons ranging from the dental issue to what the Heat termed for Wednesday’s home loss to the Brooklyn Nets as “return-to-competition reconditioning.”

Butler, who was with the team for Thursday’s practice at Kaseya Center, appeared in two of the Heat’s five 2022 exhibitions and played in two of the team’s six 2021 exhibitions. He did not appear in either of the Heat’s two exhibitions prior to the pandemic-delayed start of the 2020-21 season, another season when the Heat were coming off an appearance in the NBA Finals.

With the Heat losing playoff starters Max Strus and Gabe Vincent in free agency, and with Tyler Herro back from the hand injury that kept him out of all but one of the Heat’s 2023 playoff games, Butler will move into a far different starting lineup than when he last played.

Butler downplayed the need to appear in an exhibition, saying, “everybody knows what everybody is capable of.” He has worked throughout the preseason in scrimmages on the Heat practice court.