Miami Heat: Let’s talk about Jimmy Butler’s Upside
The Miami Heat have a guy that mirrors their philosophy in Jimmy Butler. Has he reached his final form?
The Miami Heat shocked the world and the league last season. No one thought that they could do the things that they did, but they did them anyway.
Well, a few people thought that they could, but not the masses. Those people include us as fans, irrational or not.
That number also included Coach Spo, Pat Riley, and most importantly, Jimmy Butler. Jimmy was the most important here because he’s the man on the court.
Even still though, with all he accomplished last year, there are still those that doubt him. Take this piece of evidence as example, a blurb from a recently published piece of work from Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
"“He has no more upside. He can only go down. I’d say a 4,” the scout ranked Butler on a scale from 1 to 10 with one meaning there’s no more upside and 10 meaning there’s still unlimited untapped potential. “I’d be shocked if he does more, but that’s also because he reached his ultimate potential last season. More? I’d be surprised.”"
The Miami Heat are used to the disrespect. Keep it coming, it only motivates them.
Interesting take, right? Well, it’s also wrong.
For starters, he did what he did last season, which includes outplaying LeBron James for long stretches, without one of his major weapons working for him. His jump shot was non-existent last season.
He isn’t that bad a shooter. Never has been.
If he can regain his jump shooting and add that to what he was able to do last season, that’s an improvement and the recognition of more upside. There, whoever said that was wrong, even if semantically or by the simplest of margins.
Hear this though. Even if he doesn’t have any more upside, that’s fine.
He showed us last season that who he is right now is enough to win the NBA title. Save for a few unfortunate injuries and missed shots, we might be having a totally different conversation right now.
That’s all. Here in Heat Nation, we’ve learned to look past things like this, as often it’s a sign that they hate us, because they ain’t us.
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And that’s alright. Just know, more upside or fully tapped, Jimmy Butler is enough to lead this Heat team to the promised land.