Jimmy Butler can randomly be a superstar in the NBA playoffs but why only certain games? Use code ALLDAY for $20 off your first SeatGeek order: https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/ALLDAY
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This is Butler’s 4th 40 point game these playoffs, the second this series. But it’s confusing. We know Butler doesn’t go 100% in the regular season, playoff Butler has been a thing for years from the Timberwolves to leading the 76ers and them being one shot away from beating the Kawhi Raptors to Butler having a 40 point triple double in the NBA finals.
I’ve gotten on players like Harden for being inconsistent, but Butler shows up when you need it right? Yet, how can he go from single digit point games to the best game of his career? Jimmy Butler is a superstar when he wants to be and here’s how.
When Butler has a good first quarter, he typically has a good game. In his games of top 20 scoring first quarters in the playoffs, Butler’s averaging 30 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 5.9 assists. He comes out aggressive which usually leads into Butler handling the ball a lot. He’s looking for his shot. And no this isn’t just a bubble phenomenon, aite, but now we can actually watch them play and not be screens.
Good aggressive first quarters leads to Butler being the floor general of the team, where he can probe defenses, draw attention and make these great passes in the air whether it’s off a drive or these cross court jump passes.
For example in Game 6, Butler had 88 touches, the 4 games before that he averaged 55.6 touches per game. Butler in the regular season averaged 68.8 touches per game. Give Butler more touches and more time to probe.
But all this works because Butler is freakishly strong at his size. Butler is not a consistent shooter, Reddick and Bev made that clear. In these playoffs, Butler is shooting 40% from midrange these playoffs, he shot 30% from mid in 2019. And don’t get me started on the inconsistent 3 point shooting. Butler can hit the most difficult of shots but still be left wide open and not take 3s because well he’s not a good shooter, shooting 31.7% from 3 in the past 4 years.
Butler put on more muscle during the pandemic, up to 230 pounds at 6’ 7”, 2.9 pounds per inch. For reference, LeBron James is 3.08 pounds per inch, pretty close. Al Horford is 240 pounds, Butler is capable of just driving his way through defenses, especially if he gets a head of steam. Butler isn’t necessarily amazing at one thing, but the ability to be good at pretty much everything is what allows the Heat to succeed. So when Butler decides to be aggressive, his strength is a constant factor. It’s actually the same way I think about LeBron. It’s not practical that LeBron power through contact every game in the regular season and even in the playoffs because his body wouldn’t last and his play would deteriorate. But even then, LeBron is a freak of nature. Players bounce off him and man didn’t get hurt for 15 years like what Wade said.
We saw how exhausted Jimmy was in the 2020 finals, he needs to pace himself which is why Butler isn’t a superstar in the regular season. Butler is not LeBron, yet he can choose to be a superstar by sacrificing his body. This sounding like some Anime stuff but it’s true.
Which finally gets me to the shooting. Like I’ve said Butler is super inconsistent, but when he’s got his jumpshot going and he’s aggressive, defenses step up and Butler is able to probe deeper into the defense as we saw against the Celtics in Game 6. This allows him to drive. Butler has been averaging 14 drives per games these playoffs, 9th in the entire league.