Podcast: Butler’s first-team All-NBA case, crazy Heat rumors and more playoff mayhem

Jimmy Butler is an All-NBA player, Bam Adebayo is an all-defense player, Miami Heat fans are clamoring for Luka Doncic and praying Erik Spoelstra won’t leave, and the 2021 NBA playoffs are getting crazier by the day.

Who said the offseason is boring?

The Heat’s season hasn’t even been over for a month and already rumors have linked Miami to Kyle Lowry, Damian Lillard, Kawhi Leonard and Doncic, and linked Spoelstra to the Portland Trail Blazers.

Let’s save all that for the back end of the episode, though. A new episode of the Heat Check podcast opens with playoff and award talk after Brooklyn Nets superstar Kevin Durant put together a historic performance Tuesday, and Butler and Adebayo both took home honors early in the week. Anthony Chiang, the Miami Herald’s Heat beat writer, voted for Butler to make first-team All-NBA and he defends his decision to David Wilson to kick off the episode, even after Butler’s disappointing first-round performance against the Milwaukee Bucks.

After another week of postseason action, the effects of the 2020 NBA Bubble are more clear than ever. With the Denver Nuggets getting swept out of the second round, the four teams to make the 2020 NBA Conference Finals combined to go winless in the second round of the 2021 playoffs after the Los Angeles Lakers, Boston Celtics and Miami all bowed out in the first round.

As injuries mount across the NBA playoffs, the affects of the 2019-20 NBA season still loom large on this postseason.

In the second half of the episode, we play some buy or sell with five key topics heading into the offseason. Is combo guard Tyler Herro really a “core player” like president Pat Riley said June 3? Are Butler and Adebayo still the centerpieces going forward? Will Lowry be in South Florida to start next season?

As always, continue to rate, review and subscribe, as we inch closer and closer to free agency, and everything the offseason holds.