Could the Butler signing backfire on the Heat?

The Miami Heat signed rookie Da’Sean Butler to a two-year, $1.3 million contract on Monday.

Butler’s minimum salary contract will pay him $473,604 and $788,872, respectively, for this season and next. The first season is $300,000 guaranteed. The second season is fully unguaranteed, becoming 50% guaranteed if he is not waived before June 20, 2011, and becoming fully guaranteed if he is not waived before opening night of next season.

The contract offer is surprising to put it nicely, but unwise is a more accurate description.

Butler will be competing for the 15th and final roster spot with Patrick Beverley (who received a fully-guaranteed two-year, $1.3 million contract) and Kenny Hasbrouck (who has a $250,000 partial guarantee).

But he is not healthy. And he figures not to be for quite a while. Butler continues to rehab from the devastating knee injury he sustained in the Final Four of last season’s NCAA tournament.

Doctors originally thought Butler could be cleared for some basketball activity by the beginning of the NBA season. But the 6-foot-7 swingman had a setback with his surgically repaired left knee in July, leading to a second surgery that further pushed back when he could return to the court.

“I couldn’t tell you when I’ll be back,” says Butler. “I’ve been trying to find out from my doctors and trainers when would be the perfect time and I get the same answer every time. Everybody’s body is different, so when you’re better, you’re better. You’ll know when you’re better and we’ll know you’re better. So, they will let me know when I’m good to go and I’m fine to do something. All I can do is just wait it out.”

Butler was presumably signed so that his rehab process could be directed by the Heat training staff. Ironically, however, the signing makes it substantially more unlikely he will ever play for the Heat. Read more…

Da’Sean Butler had played his way into a sure first-round draft selection with a spectacular senior campaign at West Virginia last season, sinking six game-winning shots, earning second-team All-America honors, and leading the Mountaineers to the Final Four for the first time since 1959. With a first round selection comes the virtual guarantee of becoming a multi-millionaire.

And then one fateful play changed the course of Da’Sean’s career. With a little less than nine minutes remaining in the Mountaineers’ national semi-final match-up with eventual champion Duke on April 3rd, Butler drove to the basket and collided with the Blue Devils’ Brian Zoubek. Moments later, the senior forward lay on his back clutching his left knee, writhing in pain caused by a torn ACL, a sprained MCL and two bone bruises.

The image of head coach Bob Huggins consoling his fallen superstar was simultaneously touching and perhaps just a bit uncomfortable. But we can all certainly empathize. Instead of beginning preparation for a potential spot in a starting rotation somewhere in this league, Butler found himself instead fighting for any place at all. Read more…