http://bit.ly/Bullsville72214 Jimmy Butler became a household name in April of 2013, when he made a permanent move into the Bulls' starting lineup. He stepped in while Marco Belinelli recovered from an abdominal strain, and immediately he began making an impact. He scored 20 points on 5/11 shooting, made both of his 3-point attempts, got to the line for 9 of the Bulls' 17 free throw attempts, and threw in three steals for good measure. The Bulls beat Minnesota 104-97 that day, and Jimmy Butler has started every game he's played since. Over those last 14 games of the 2012-13 regular season, Butler played as well as could have been expected for a second-year player who was the last selection in the first round of the 2011 draft: 42.4 min .471 FG .528 3pt .712 FT 6.4 reb 2.8 ast 1.93 stl 1.57 to 14.5 pts .590 ts% He continued his impressive play into the postseason: Jimmy Butler 2012-13 Playoff Stats 40.8 min .435 fg .405 3's .818 ft 5.2 reb 2.7 ast 1.25 stl 1.33 to 13.3 pts .575 ts% But Jimmy Butler really made his name with his defense on LeBron James during the Bulls' 2nd-round series. He held LeBron to 23.6 points per game on 43.4% from the field. Compared to the 26.6 points on 50.3 percent shooting in LeBron's other 18 playoff games, and you get the idea of the kind of defense Jimmy was playing. Then last season started, and even though Jimmy Butler missed a chunk of preseason games with a sore knee, he was ready to go on opening night. He started the season right where he left off, throwing in 20 points (6/12 field goals, 2/4 three-pointers) with five steals in under 30 minutes of action. Before he suffered a turf toe injury that caused him to miss 11 games, he had been quite impressive in the first nine: 29.8 min .434 fg .385 3's .861 ft 4.8 reb 1.7 ast 1.89 stl 1.33 to 11.2 pts .595 ts%
True, he was not 100% when the season started. And then Rose went down, so he instead of letting the game come to him, he pressed. He felt like he had to do more and tried to do things that he normally would not do. That being said, he should play better this season unless both Rose and Gasol goes down.
I liked the response from your commentator: I'd also add that shooting seems to have a network effect in the NBA. If you don't field a team with a couple of dead eyes, defenses can overplay and offenses just fall apart in the playoffs. I used to think you needed players who could create a shot in the playoffs. I'm not sure that's accurate anymore. I now think players who can create outside of the offense are great, but you can still run your offense in the playoffs if you have shooting and passing from all your non-bigs. I'm just not convinced Butler is a player you can rely upon to hit open jumpers with enough regularity that defenses are forced to stay home.
Just to clarify - and it doesn't change your point at all, and maybe you already realized it - those were five different comments from five different posters on RealGM and Chicago Bulls Confidential. I added them to show examples of the lack of respect Jimmy is getting now, compared to this time last year when he was the next Paul George to many Bulls fans. I couldn't agree with you more that this "the Bulls are going nowhere without another shot creator" mantra is just nonsense. I see a lot of Bulls fans talking about the Spurs, and how they have all these guys who are "shot creators", when in reality they are just guys who are average ball-handlers. But when the defense runs them off the three-point line, they can step in a few dribbles and make the right pass to the open man. Mirotic and McDoug are outstanding in that respect, and Jimmy is good enough that if the defense is out of position when that happens, he's quick enough and strong enough to get to the rim and either finish or draw a foul. Like you said, the NBA isn't a one-on-one league any more, defenses are more amoeba-like in their coverage. That makes quick ball and player movement more important than having a guy who is a "shot creator" off the dribble. It's why the Triangle works so well even though it's been around forever - the ball moves much quicker via the pass than via the dribble. And that's the kind of offense Thibs tries to run, hopefully he's got enough shooters now to run that offense efficiently. Even if it starts with Derrick on a pick and roll, once the defense reacts to that it's up to the offense to move the ball quickly and get an open look. And have the guys to knock them down, obviously - and I think with the teammates he has now, Jimmy will be in position to knock down 37% of his open 3's. If you can knock down 37%, even if you never get an offensive rebound that's an Offensive Rating of 111.0 and that was good for 4th in the league last season. If you can knock down 38%, you should shoot all of them you can possibly shoot.
If you watch the Spurs, they do put the ball in the hands of Manu and he does facilitate the offense for his teammates. They don't run him off screens all night long looking for jumpers. The guy has averaged 4.9 assists in 2 seasons, a number that DJ barely beat last season and Kirk did not. Those are our PGs. He's a 6th man SG. It's been a long time since we've seen Rose in the playoffs. Last time we did, teams double teamed him at half court. Both our bigs (Noah and Boozer) were forced to set picks for him near half court all season long. So yeah, you need to get the ball out of his hands enough to keep defenses honest. If you think having the rest of our guys playing 4 on 3 is an advantage, it is not if you let Jimmy or Kirk shoot (or Noah outside) and guard the others.
