The Miami Heat are officially on to 2022, as the end of season pressers and meetings took place last week. Pat Riley is now talking next season and how he can improve this team.
To officially tie a bow around things, let’s look at how the players finished the season. Here are the 2021 end of season grades.
There is no better place to start than at the top. That means with Jimmy Butler.
Offensively, Jimmy Butler was… Jimmy Butler. Though, traditionally, he hasn’t been a knock-down shooter at just under 33 percent for his career from three, he was really poor again from three this season.
That makes two of two for his years in Miami, thus far, shooting 24.4 percent from three last season and 24.5 percent this season, on just two attempts per game in each season. He did make up for it in other areas though, continuing his dominance from a playmaking perspective.
This also makes two for two, as far as the two seasons he’s been in Miami being his two highest assist output years, increasing from six a game last year to just over seven per contest this season. Even with his struggles shooting the ball from the outside, Jimmy makes the grade and partly, because he still averaged 21.5 points per game.
Offensive Grade – A-
The Miami Heat leaned on Jimmy Butler heavily this season, as they have across his tenure. It wasn’t hard to tell either if you watched them.
When it comes to defense, that’s his calling card. Even if nothing else is working that day, from an offensive perspective, you can always count on his defense. Heck, he could probably use that to get going offensively.
Leading the league in steals this season at 2.1 per contest, he could use those to create easy looks for himself in the open court. Aside from just that though, he guarded whomever needed to be guarded, helped get everyone else in a position to succeed, and all while managing to live in the passing lanes.
This was a pretty easy grade as well.
Defensive Grade – A+
It’s pretty simple, the guy had a season worthy of top-10 candidacy in both the feature player awards in the season. He should have finished top-10 in the MVP voting, for his worth to his team and frankly, should have finished top-five when it came to DPOY.
His overall grade will reflect it. Whether you go with the “+” or not isn’t a big deal, but hey, why not?
Overall Grade – A+
Jimmy Butler gave this Miami Heat team all he had and for as long as he could. No one could hit shots during the playoffs but he still gave it all he had, as he did every night of the year.
Hopefully, the Miami Heat are able to make a few tweaks and add some artillery, because Jimmy Butler still has a ton to give. With a few tinkers in the right areas, this team could be Finals bound again.