Jimmy Butler, the Superstar. (Updated 2023)
Intro
With the Miami Heat having now completed an historic win over the number one-seeded Milwaukee Bucks, one of the biggest upsets in NBA history.
It’s time to appreciate the man, who single-handily led the Heat to a second round match up against the New-York Knicks.
Butler’s most recent playoff masterpiece, 42 points, including this ridiculous bucket to force overtime.
Was the icing on the cake to one of the best individual playoff series ever?
Butler becomes the first player in Miami Heat history to record back-to-back 40-plus point games in the postseason. This is a franchise that hosted peak LeBron James and Dwayne Wade this century.
A game-four 56-point exhibition was tied for the fourth most points in playoff history. A Miami Heat franchise record. Butler scored 22 of Miami’s first 28 points in the first quarter.
Butler is quite simply a playoff killer.
Since joining the Miami Heat in 2019 he has had 12, 30-plus point games in the postseason.
Not since peak LeBron James was carving up defenses a decade ago, has the Heat had a player, play at superstar levels in the postseason.
Throughout the 2022–23 season, Jimmy Butler averaged 22.9 points, 5.9 rebounds, 5.3 assists, and played 64 of 82 games. He was inexplicably not named into the eastern conference All-Star team as one of the best 24 players in the NBA.
He will however most likely be named onto one of the All-NBA teams. This would place Jimmy Butler as a fringe top-fifteen player in the world after the regular season.
2020 Playoffs
The bubble playoffs were when ‘Playoff Jimmy’ first started getting recognition as a playoff superstar, going toe to toe with LeBron James in the final.
2020 NBA Finals Game 3 vs. LAL: 40 PTS, 13 AST, 11 REB, 2 STL, 2 BLK
One of 2 historic final performances from Butler. His 40-point triple double was just the 3rd in finals history, joining Jerry West (1969) and Lebron James (2015).
His game 3 – 40 burger kept the Heat alive in this series. The Heat were without. starters Bam Adabayo and Goran Dragic.
Butler was 14–20 FG and 12–14 from the FT line.
This was old school playoff masterclass, scoring 40 points without attempting one 3-pointer.
Butler outclassed LeBron James and Anthony Davis, as he refused to let Miami lose.
2020 NBA Finals Game 5 vs. LAL: 35 PTS, 12 AST, 11 REB, 5 STL, 1 BLK
Butler had his second 35-plus point triple-double of the finals. He played all but 48 seconds of the game, it was an incredibly efficient performance, featuring 11–19 shooting and going 12–12 from the free-throw line.
Butler is elite at drawing fouls, using up fakes, and sheer physicality to get to the line consistently.
2022 Playoffs
His 2022 playoff performance was that of a legitimate superstar, having arguably the best performance of any player in the world in the postseason.
2022 Playoff Stats:
- 17 games played
- 37 minutes per game
- 27.4 points / 7.4 rebounds / 4.6 assists/ 50.6 FG%
Second Round v Philadelphia 76ers
Game 6: 32 Points to close out the series and take the Heat to the conference finals.
Butler scored 30 or more points three times in the series. Including putting up 23–9–6 in a Game 5 blowout.
Eastern Conference Finals
Game 1: 41 points, nine rebounds, five assists, four steals, and three blocks in the 118–107 win over the Boston Celtics, became the first player in postseason history to meet all of those benchmarks since steals and blocks were first recorded nearly 50 years ago.
Final stat line: 41/9/5/4/3
Game 6: 3–2 Down on the road against the Boston Celtics
Stat Line: 47 minutes / 47 points / 9 rebounds / 8 assists / 11–11 Free-Throw Line /
The third-most points in a road elimination game in the 75-year history of the NBA.
He scored or assisted on 68 points, the most in a conference finals elimination game in history.
Game 7: Series tied 3–3 with the Heat huge underdogs. Butler played 47 minutes 45 seconds of a 48-minute game, scoring 35 points on 13–24 shooting.
Butler averaged 25.6 points, 7.0 rebounds, 3.4 assists, and 2.0 steal over seven games.
Scouting Butler
Butler as a scorer uses his physicality and strength to get to the rim. He’s a bully ball driver who can get his head down and absorb contact In and around the rim, there are a few better finishers in the world, Butler plays at his own speed and manipulates defenses, bending them to his will. His ability to get to the free-throw line makes him very hard to stop as a career 84.1% shooter from the line.
Butler’s playoff brilliance is built on the postseason fundamentals; Competitiveness, toughness, and will to win.
Take Heat coach Erik Spoelstra’s quote after the Heat upset the Celtics in game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals — “Jimmy Butler is a great competitor, he is,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “You can mis-define him in a lot of different ways, but his competitive will is as high as anybody that has played this game. He put his fingerprints on this game.”
It’s Butler’s bravado, toughness, fearlessness, and manic competitiveness that a player like James Harden with all his skill, talent, and awards, has still never played a playoff game like Jimmy Butler.
Conclusion
In the era of constantly bemoaning the relentless, grind of the regular season, the obsession with 16 game players over 82 game players, the constant analysis, of judging a player by asking, ‘Is he a playoff player?’ Jimmy Butler’s run ticks every playoff box.
Butler is not the best player in the world, Butler will probably never be seen as a no-brainer first-team All-NBA player, he is not an MVP candidate. However there are very few players in the world, you would take over Butler when the lights shine brightest.
In the words of Thibaut Courtois, Real Madrid soccer star. (Butler is a huge soccer fan)
PUT SOME RESPECT ON HIS NAME.
Jimmy Butler, the Superstar.
