Miami Heat: The Athletic lists Butler, Adebayo as top 20 players

Seth Partnow of The Athletic just released a set of articles grouping the top 125 NBA players into tiers (subscription required). The Miami Heat have two players very high on his list.

The groups are broken up into a bunch of different tiers. There are four different tiers and each is also broken down into multiple sub-tiers as well.

Both Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo were placed in the second tier of NBA players. Tier two is the players ranked 8-19 in the top 125.

Adebayo is listed in tier 2C. Other players in that tier include Chris Paul, Jayson Tatum, Khris Middleton, and Kyrie Irving.

As for Butler, he was put into tier 2B alongside three other players. Those players are Damian Lillard, Paul George, and Rudy Gobert.

Considering the season each of Miami’s top two players had last year, these are pretty fair rankings. Butler should certainly be above Adebayo, but they aren’t actually too far away from each other.

For Adebayo, being placed in a tier alongside Paul, Tatum, Middleton, and Irving is great. Each of those players is an absolute killer on the court, and two of them have won an NBA Championship.

Meanwhile, Butler was placed next to three players who have also achieved greatness in the NBA. Lillard is touted as a top point guard in the league, Gobert is the reigning Defensive Player of the Year, and George just led the Clippers to the Western Conference Finals.

In addition to all of that, there are some great players below Butler and Adebayo in the rankings. It’s all obviously based on personal opinion, but Partnow gave them some high praise by putting them so high up on the list.

In the tier directly below 2C (3A) resides Devin Booker, rue Holiday, Trae Young, and Zion Williamson. Then, in tier 3B, Partnow listed players such as Bradley Beal and Donovan Mitchell.

This means that he believes both Butler and Adebayo are better than the rest of the players listed. Again, that’s some very high praise for Miami’s stars.

Both are set up to have great seasons this year, and will hopefully be able to lead the Miami Heat on a deep playoff run. Each of them deserves to be considered a top-20 player in the NBA.