The Miami Heat depend on Jimmy Butler everywhere and he’s literally… everywhere.
Why, in this season, where he is the engine for everything that the Miami Heat do and when he leads the league’s in steals, by a half mile, that he just barely cracks the top 10?
First off, yes, he did just reach the minimum games threshold to qualify for rankings, so there’s that but even still, it’s freaking Jimmy Butler. You know who he is and you know his resume.
There are many complexed and nuanced answers or ways to answer this question, which will be done, however, there are a few general and simpler ones to start with. The first is Bam Adebayo.
Because Bam Adebayo is such a key part of what the Miami Heat do too and the fact that what Bam does, defensively, pops out at you, that’s the first reason. Speaking of that pop though, that’s another reason.
Guys like Ben Simmons and Rudy Gobert, although Gobert isn’t quite the defender everyone makes him out to be as he just blocks shots, which is a ton but yea, they pop. Ben Simmons guards bigs or the best wing on a regular, while Gobert stands at the rim and contests most shots.
You always see what they are doing. Jimmy is literally all over the place for Miami.