The Miami Heat are rocking it to start the season behind resident superstar Jimmy Butler. Here is how Buckets is on pace to have his best season as a pro.
The Miami Heat are off to an astounding 16-6 start to the season, fueled by mega wins in Milwaukee to take down Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks, taking down Houston in Miami, and being the first team to walk into Scotiabank Arena and hand the blazing Toronto Raptors their first home loss of the season.
While these wins have been total team efforts, with Bam Adebayo continuing to take steps in his development, Justise Winslow doing what Winslow does, the rest of the returning players filling their roles admirably, and with the rookies playing like studs already, there is one person at the forefront of it all. Besides Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra, there is a guy at the top of this concoction of players that really is the straw that stirs the drink. His name is Butler, Jimmy Butler.
While Jimmy is looking destined to lead the Heat to great places, he also appears to be having one of his best years as a pro, even though no one is really talking about it. The story is told from a few different perspectives, but we will start in the beginning.
The first reason is in the pure numbers. If you take a look at his averages thus far, 20.5 points per contest, 2.3 steals, 6.8 assists, and 6.3 rebounds per game as well, he is either beyond or extremely close to all of his career averages. His current average of 20.5 points per game would currently rank as his fifth-highest season, but with his aggressiveness rising in recent weeks, he looks to be primed to surpass that mark for this season.
His 2.3 steals(which has toggled between that and 2.4 over the last week or so, which happens to also toggle him between the first and second position on the NBA leader in steals list) is right there with his 2018-19 season, where he averaged 2.4 pilfers per game across the entire season. His rebounding and assists numbers are his best ever right now, surpassing his 6.2 in 2016-17 or his last year in Chicago, while his 6.8 assists per game are almost an assist and a half higher than his previous season-high average from that same 2016-17 season, 5.5 dimes per game.
Outside of his numbers or the analytics, you then go to the eye test. When looking at Jimmy Butler play the game, he is being as involved and as effective all across the board as he has ever been, as reflected by the analytics. If you take a peep at some MVP Candidate lists, Jimmy is firmly planted amongst the names.
For this Miami Heat team, he is their James Harden or their LeBron James. This doesn’t mean that he does it the way that they do it, but what it does mean is that he takes the concept of the team, embodies it, lives it, orchestrates it, and makes sure that it reflects in the on-court demeanors and performances of all his teammates in every game. The way he is affecting the game across every aspect this season and to the greatest degree of his career is enough for him to pass the eye test for me as possibly having his greatest season as a pro thus far.
Lastly, you take it to the psychology. While we are not in Butler’s head, not will we pretend to be, we think, We do know this though. As humans and unless it is a pressing, unfamiliar, or redundant scenario, people oftentimes perform best in more comfortable environments. Simply put, Jimmy Butler is home.
He doesn’t have to worry about people becoming mad or being sensitive when he pushes them to work harder. He doesn’t have to worry about being the only guy who works hard either. He doesn’t have to worry about the motivation of the team, the players, and the organization in Miami because the Heat organization and Jimmy Butler operate symbiotically or as close to identically as the two entities could get.
These are the reasons why he looks to be having his best season as a pro thus far. The numbers are there, the eye test shows you that he is affecting all aspects of the game at his greatest capacity, while Jimmy Butler is more than likely as comfortable as he has ever been across his entire career with an organization, a group of guys, and a playing situation in general. We look forward to continuing to see him tear it up for our Miami Heat.