Miami Heat: Who’s been more of an MVP, Jimmy Butler or Chris Paul?

The Miami Heat are riding high as the 4th seed in the East Not only were they not supposed to be there, but Jimmy Butler also wasn’t supposed to be leading them there.

The Miami Heat did what the Miami Heat do as they went about landing Jimmy Butler from the Philadelphia 76ers this past offseason.

In a move so shrewd that only Pat Riley could have made it, he found a way to turn Josh Richardson and Hassan Whiteside into Jimmy Butler and Meyers Leonard. While Josh Richardson was a player in his own right and while Hassan Whiteside could be dominant when he came to play, Richardson isn’t Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat needed to move Whiteside and his toxicity anyway, but to get Meyers back from the Blazers was a fleece of a deal.

Back mainly onto Jimmy Butler though, while many didn’t even think that he would be in Miami this season, most also thought that it was somewhat of a moot point once it was actually finalized that he would be coming to South Beach.

You heard everything from he’s going on vacation to it’s just an early retirement spot, but it has been anything but. Not only are the Miami Heat one of, if not the single toughest, home opponent in the NBA this season, but they have actually been one of the best overall teams. That, ladies and gentlemen, is the Jimmy Buckets effect.

Making everyone around him better with his toughness, willingness to do the dirty work on his own, and his overall sheer want to win above all else, we knew he was tailor-made for the culture, but he has truly been a hand in glove fit.

Having the best overall season of his career if you ask me, with his all-around numbers being by far career highs from assists to rebounds to free-throw attempts, he is doing so while his shooting from distance is horrifically down. Although averaging a touch fewer points than his career-high 23.9 at 20.2 this year, he is more than making up for that production with his all-around performances.