Miami Heat: ‘Jimmy Butler The Shooter’ Is A Game-Changer

The Miami Heat are looking primed for a big run in the postseason.

Even just two weeks or so removed from the incident that looked as though it would tear this team apart, the Miami Heat have now fully bounced back from that situation and look to be back to the same dominant Eastern Conference team that they were before that incident or four-game losing streak of a week happened.

A huge part of that blowup, one guy has come out since and totally reinvigorated your hope as a fan with his play.

To be quite frank, something about tension, high energy, and abrasive communication must have reinvigorated his own game but then again, it kind of makes sense, because we are talking about Jimmy Butler here.

Not only has he come out and looked like the stud he is on the basketball court with his penetration and midrange game but he has, seemingly, gotten a bit of his deep shooting game back.

Miami Heat: ‘Jimmy Butler The Shooter’ Is A Game-Changer

Across Jimmy Butler’s last seven games played, he has taken 22 shots from distance.

That’s nothing for some guys in the league, but for Jimmy Butler, that’s a ton. Out of those 22 though and most importantly, he has sunk nine of them.

For those that like percentages, that’s 40 percent shooting from three over his last seven contests. That’s colossal for a guy like Jimmy and the way he gets it done on the floor.

When a guy is a locomotive going to the hoop and in the painted area, is an expert at drawing the foul, and while he has mastered the midrange game, having a deep shot that is, threatening enough, can make a world of difference.

If nothing else, it will allow him to access or more easily access his most effective spots on the floor.

See the following example from the Miami Heat and Charlotte Hornets track meet on Tuesday. This is a great portrait of the totality of his game, but if you focus on the two plays that occur around 10 seconds of the clip, it tells this particular story in its entirety.

Here comes the fun part. Let’s talk about what we saw.

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.