Miami Heat: ‘Shooter Jimmy Butler’ Opens Up The Rest Of His Game Even More
On the first play at hand, Jimmy comes down the court to hit the defender, Mason Plumlee, with a mean hesitation move. The defender bites hard, as Jimmy Butler has hit 40 percent of his threes recently, allowing Butler an easier reverse layup at the hoop.
That’s simple sauce for a guy like Jimmy, easy buckets. In the following play, Miles Bridges has to play Jimmy Butler tight and far out on the perimeter as again, the man is hitting 40 percent from deep recently.
That allows Jimmy to manipulate the leverage and quickly get into his move set, finishing it off with the extended step-back mid-range jumper. He has so much leverage to create that space, as Bridges can’t anticipate “anything but the three”, allowing Jimmy to be able to get to exactly what shot it is that he wanted.
It’s really that simple. For Jimmy, it’s not about winning games from range or mauling teams from the deep stripe.
That isn’t the point of hitting enough threes for him. For him, it’s just about making enough to keep them off balance.
These two plays mentioned were the perfect examples of just that. That’s also why ‘Shooter Jimmy’ is a game-changer for the Miami Heat and their title hopes.