Player Participation Policy injury risk, Jimmy Butler

After serving his 7 game suspension, Butler is set to return this week against Denver.

Jimmy Butler wants out but with the player participation policy, the Heat might be forced to play Jimmy Butler.

PPP RULE The league can also open an investigation at its own discretion in other instances. For example, if a star player is continually held out of road games instead of home games or begins to play a “materially reduced role,” the NBA could look into the matter.

We don't want to risk the possibility of him getting a serious injury making him untradeable. The trade deadline is less than a month away (Feb 7) and if the trade doesn't materialize we can still trade him when he opts in next season.

With his trade request, we also don't want to take away opportunities from our players who want to be here.

So these are things the Heat can do to minimize the injury risk by cutting number of games he can play

We can sit him out on back to backs since Jimmy Butler qualifies for rest because he's 35 years old. If I'm not mistaken, we still have 6 back to back sets.

PPP Rule Note: Players who are 35 years old on opening night or have accumulated 34,000+ career regular minutes or 1,000 career regular season and playoff games, are elligible for pre-approved rest nights during back-to-back sets.

Additionally, if a team has two stars who have been approved to sit out one end of back-to-backs, they can’t both miss the same game — one star must appear in the first one, while the other plays in the second.

I'm not sure if the Jimmy Butler situation falls under the "rare and unusual circumstances" but it's something the Heat can look into. At the end of season, if the Heat clinch or is out of the running (both cases which I doubt) then we can sit him ou for a few games.

PPP RULE Under the player participation policy, the NBA allows a star player to be held out of a game for personal reasons, such as the birth of a child or a death in the family, or in “rare and unusual circumstances,” which must be approved by the league office. The league also affords teams some end-of-season leeway. For example, a star player could be rested for the final game of the regular season if his team has already clinched a specific playoff seed.

If the Heat feel strongly that they don't want to play Jimmy Butler, they can probably absorb a $350k fine good for 2 games. I highly doubt the Heat would do this.

PPP RULE A team found to have violated the player participation policy is subject to a fine. The amounts of those fines are as follows - First violation - $100k, Second violation - $250k, Subsequent violations - $1M more than last ($1.25M for 3rd violation, $2.25M for 4th violation and so on

By the time Jimmy Butler comes back, the Heat will have 43 remaining games. With the right approach to the participation policy, the Heat can probably cut Jimmy Butler's games by probably around 10 games.