Draymond Green is letting the Miami Heat hear it this week over his frontcourt partner.
The Heat made the surprising decision over the weekend to trade away 3-and-D forward Haywood Highsmith. Though Highsmith had some upside as a lengthy shooter and had even gotten some run during their 2023 NBA Finals run, Miami opted to let him go in a pure salary dump move.
That led to a reaction from the Golden State Warriors star Green. In a post to Threads, Green tied the situation into his current Warriors teammate Jimmy Butler, the former Heat star.
“Y’all (internet experts) wanted Jimmy to come off the bench behind dude, and 5 months later, the Heat traded him for a bag of chips,” Green wrote. “That’s wild.”
Draymond Green trolls the Heat after trading Haywood Highsmith pic.twitter.com/YYayNIZfvH
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Since no one, Internet experts or otherwise, would actually argue in good faith that Highsmith, a 5.4-ppg scorer for his career, deserved to start over Butler, a six-time NBA All-Star, when they were still teammates in Miami, Green’s remark reads as a bit more of a swipe at the Heat. It is true that Miami once wanted Highsmith to start over Butler. But there is some important context there that Green was missing (or chose to overlook).
Before the Heat ultimately traded Butler to the Warriors last February, Butler was causing big problems for Miami in an attempt to force a trade, and he was suspended by the team multiple times for detrimental conduct as a result. After one such suspension, Butler reportedly walked out of shootaround after being informed that the Heat planned to start Highsmith over him for Butler’s first game back (read the details here). That lone game is the only context where Butler coming off the bench behind Highsmith ever came up.
So while Green’s remarks there were somewhat intellectually dishonest, we at least know that he has his teammate Butler’s back. This not even the first time that Green has stood up for Butler without doing proper research first.
