After leaving the Wolves, Jimmy Butler once again his ability to be the leader of Philadelphia and Embiardi and Simmons, and now he is attacking the championship with the Heat. Now Butler has reached an important stage in his career, he needs a championship to prove his worth and with Butler, fans are very optimistic about the future of the Heat. It must be said that Butler has been in the league up until now and having such strength is really rare. the NBA is a very realistic place, he is the dream of countless basketball players and the place that destroys the dreams of countless people.
No talent or talent is not enough to stand, however, one’s success does not depend entirely on one’s talent, hard work is also a very important factor. Therefore in a highly competitive league, Butler to success is not easy.
A tragic childhood
In the league, many players’ families are not so happy, but for them, at least they have families. For Butler, his early years were like being abandoned by heaven, just after Butler was born when his father left him and his mother. When Butler was 13 years old, he was kicked out of his mother’s house because she didn’t like his appearance.
From then on Butler started his wandering life, he had to stay in a friend’s house in order to avoid sleeping on the street. It is hard to imagine the sadness of this life, but God did not really abandon him, after participating in the summer league, he met a good friend Jordan Leslie, Leslie knew Butler’s plight, and invited Butler to stay in his house. With that Butler finally had a place to stay and he soon became an up-and-comer in the up-and-coming high school league and then earned a nomination for Best Team in the Big East Conference for his outstanding performance.
Butler worked hard to be able to live a better life and achieve his basketball dreams, but the reality was really harsh, whether Butler was in high school or college, or he made it to the league. He is not the object of the most attention, but it is easy to be ignored, after all, to eat this bowl, you need to have a great talent, Butler’s physical condition is quite general, when he participated in the draft, physical test data: barefoot height 198CM, standing contact height 257CM, arm span 202CM, the ratio of arm span is only 1.02. Such data is really miserable, especially his height arm span Not enough, which led him to rank 30th.
Trying to play good defense
From a low starting point like Butler, even if he enters the NBA, he will face greater challenges. Butler was undoubtedly overlooked in his rookie season. The Bulls had a brilliant Rose, and with the attention focused on Rose, naturally, no one would care about Butler. His rookie season was even worse, scoring only 2.6 points in only 8.5 minutes per game. He didn’t really start for the Bulls until his third season.
Butler knew exactly where he should start and trained every day in order to get a foothold in the team. Focusing on improving his defensive skills and gradually Butler practiced his defense, he was aggressive, although he was not as physical as Leonard, he could not play top defense, but Butler often defended the opponent’s top player. Until now, Butler has been in the best defensive second unit four times, and he has 1.58 steals and 0.5 blocks per game. His 1.4 saves and 33.5 blocks per game this season rank in the top 10 in the league, and his defensive efficiency has reached 105.2, dropping opponents’ shooting percentage by 4.4% when he is in charge of the outside defense.
Butler’s height issues can’t be remedied due to his short wings, and he only hustles more on the floor to grab rebounds and play defense. Butler is known as a fitness monster in the league and he was able to have enough energy to play against each other in every game. In the playoff’s, he focused on defending James’ peak, playing 48 minutes in consecutive games. In recent years, he has gotten his looks under control so well that in four consecutive seasons with the Bulls, the average playing time per game in the playoffs was around 40 minutes, and only Butler was able to meet Thibodeau’s demands.
Compared to Leonard, Butler is slightly worse defensively, but his range is too strong. This is incomparable to Leonard. In addition to being able to defend the outside, Butler can also grab rebounds and do a good job of protecting them, all while winning 6.6 rebounds per game this season, including 1.8 frontcourt rebounds. With no height and arm strength, Butler relies on his brain and effort to grab more rebounds. However Butler is not good at rebounding or interior defense, and the closer he gets to the three second box, the less effective he becomes. His body affects his ceiling, not everyone can do one defense five, which is the main reason why he can’t get stronger defensively.
All-around scorer
The original Butler was not a great offensive player, he started with defense and focused on shutting down the opponent’s key players. However Butler is really good offensively and he is one of the few stars in the league who can integrate offense and defense. Butler’s offense has declined this season, but he is still guaranteed 20.2 points per game, and he has scored 20 points per game for six straight seasons in his career, and his 53 points per game are insane performances.
There are many different ways to score Butler, who not only has great breakout ability, but also a balanced shooting ability. He can do more damage to the opponent both from the outside and from mid-range, but Butler’s scoring also has the characteristic that he is not a particularly good three-point shooter. When he hits more than 3, he wants to score 3 total points.
Butler is a new change of pace, as he is starting to focus more on rest and being more with his teammates when playing close to the line in the regular season. He also likes to use his brain to score, such as fouling, which is his favorite way to score, and he is getting 9.1 free throws per game this season. He has also developed his organizational skills and passing ability. As the most used player on the team, Butler needs to control the ball more, and he passes to Adebayor 15 times per game. His assist rate of 29.1 percent is on par with Dragic’s, and in such a shift Butler is providing 6.1 assists per game, the highest of his career.
Butler’s conversion doesn’t mean he completely sacrificed his points, in fact he just put in more effort in the most crucial moments. He scored key moments and a whopping 3.3 points, which ranked seventh in the league, and he remains the team’s most trusted top scorer. He just hasn’t played in the regular season yet. In the past, Butler played hard in the regular season, which affected his efficiency in the playoffs, and now the Heat’s team basketball is so effective that he doesn’t have to be so tired in the regular season.