Miami Heat: Why rust won’t be a huge factor for Jimmy Butler in Orlando

As the Miami Heat prepare to embark on their postseason journey in Orlando, the returning rust could be an issue. Jimmy Butler won’t have to worry about that though.

The Miami Heat are a team that works harder than their opponents do on any given night. It’s just in them, it’s just how they do.

While skill and nuance can be taught, minimized, or simply take nights off, effort can always show up in the most consistent manner possible. That is what typically sets the Miami Heat apart from everyone else.

That is definitely what sets Jimmy Butler apart from most other players in the league. The still-underrated superstar is not the most skilled or the most athletic, Jimmy Butler has found a way to turn his hard-working demeanor and no-nonsense attitude in the utmost superstar like quality.

While other players may be better shooters or can jump a bit higher, I trust no one to work as hard, as long, or as efficiently as Jimmy Butler does. That is just the first reason why rust won’t be a factor, but not the main one.

As the Miami Heat return, you have to begin to think about the rust that has set in. That shouldn’t be an issue for Jimmy Butler though.

The main one here is the fact that if you look at his numbers, specifically his shooting percentages, he has been rusty all season. Although his statistical outputs are up or about even to where they have been throughout his career, with most of his ancillary stats being up across the board, his three-point and effective field goal percentages are way down.

Effectively, he can’t come back rusty, because he’s been rusty when it comes to shooting the ball, all year long. That’s just a fact.

Perhaps this layover will have the opposite impact on Jimmy Butler. Perhaps it allowed him to free himself of everything and basketball, thus allowing him to refocus a bit. Don’t get us wrong, the Jimmy Butler we saw before the suspension was still the focused, aggressive, lead his team by any means type of guy that we have gotten accustomed to seeing and grown more to love, by “refocus” here, we mean on the finer tunings of his jump shot.

So, while it is likely, in general, that it could have gotten worst, that isn’t likely based on the fact that it was already pretty bad. If we know Jimmy like we think we do though, none of that will even matter though because he prefers to simply outwork you anyways.