Make an All-NBA team
Moving on to a more secluded group of NBA players that saw some new players this past season, let’s dive into what it will take for Jimmy Butler to be selected to an All-NBA Team. For that, we’ll need to reference the 2017-18 season; the season before he was traded from Minnesota to Philadelphia and became a second or third option behind Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons.
That year he made third-team All-NBA and second-team All-Defense. That season he averaged 22 points per game on 47 percent shooting to go with five assists. He also finished top-20 in free throws made and attempted, and in steals per game. I’m sure this is the player the Miami Heat want on the court especially if he can get that average up to 25 points per game.
This past season he didn’t get any of that sort of recognition, but let’s look at what it took some players to make it above him. When thinking about who should make a particular list of players over another, I like to ask the question, “Well, who would you take off?” The first answer to this question is easy since Kevin Durant will miss the entire season; his All-NBA spot will have to be filled by someone. Why not Jimmy Butler?
The secondary answer lies within a poll we did on the All U Can Heat Twitter. Although I think Pistons Twitter ran interference on us, the results were overwhelmingly in favor of Blake Griffin being better than Butler. Sure, he’ll have to work hard and put up stats deserving of the nomination, but there’s one thing going for him over Griffin: Their respective team’s regular-season record.
Voters have always shown they don’t like to put non-playoff bound players on an all-league team so even if he does just as good as he did last season, he’ll be the number one option on a playoff-bound team and that may be enough as the Pistons are going nowhere slowly.
Settle a dispute with @KSaidWhat, which player is better?
— Duncan Smith (@DuncanSmithNBA) July 13, 2019
If you compared Butlers last all-NBA season (17-18) to Griffin’s campaign last season, you’d see there’s almost no difference. Good luck splitting hairs. This selection may very well come down to playoff seeding only. Barely eek into the post-season as a seventh or eighth seed, and as long as the Pistons miss, you’re in no problem. Surprise the league and Vegas by leading the Miami Heat to a 4th-through-6th seed, and he’s a shoo-in.
Let’s say Jimmy Butler’s arrival to Miami isn’t all warm weather and sandy beaches. Let’s say the betting odds are placed on their heads and the Pistons don’t get leap-frogged by the young Bulls with Zach LaVine or another upstart. Struggling against those two teams as well as the Milwaukee Bucks would put Griffin’s chances in the basement along with the team’s seeding since those are all division rivals, and we haven’t even mentioned the Indiana Pacers yet. For these next roster spots, let’s say Blake Griffin goes supernova and gets his team to the playoffs comfortably.
Two other nominations could be up for grabs. Let’s call these the “check please” spots. With all the star player movement in this summer’s free agency, there are spots that were previously held by two players separately, but now that they’re teammates, voters will be forced to decide who’s the better candidate or if they both belong on there. Insert Jimmy Butler.
As of now, he’s not in the shoes of Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. Nor is he in the shoes of James Harden and Russell Westbrook.
Although George finished third in the MVP voting this past season, the quality of teammates and coaching he’s now surrounded by will take him out of the running. Leonard will keep his spot but George will not. Same goes for former MVPs Harden and Westbrook. It’s clear that no matter what coach Mike D’Antoni does with the playbook, the offense will predominantly run through Harden. Brodie will get his numbers, but it’s Harden’s team and nomination.
Last but not least, you can’t forget that every year LeBron James is an all-NBA performer. We have no reason to believe he won’t repeat this upcoming season, but he also has a new teammate that will undoubtedly be coming back for his all-NBA spot, and his name is Anthony Davis. Can’t count him out even though they play on the same team. You don’t go from a top-five player in the league to not on an all-NBA team by merely asking for a trade.
Jimmy Butler can get his spot back, but he’ll have to work for it. I’m sure he wouldn’t have it any other way in his first season with the Miami Heat.