After losing two key starters from their NBA Finals team and replacing those minutes with another assortment of rookies and castoffs, the expectation for any other team in the league would be to take a step back.
We’re talking about the Miami Heat, and they always find a way. The first half of his season consisted of adjusting to new personnel and injuries: his 31 starting lineups What they’ve tried is more than the Celtics and Bucks have combined for this season.
Throughout that turmoil, they’ve actually gotten better than last year. His 35-29 record is an improvement over 33-31 record from last season at this same point. And they’ve shown over the years that they don’t care about playoff seeding. They will find a way to make noise in the playoffs. Last season, they became the first No. 8 seed to reach the NBA Finals since 1999.
“8th, 7th, 6th, 5-4-3-2-1, I don’t care. We do not care” Butler told Brady Hawk from Five Reasons Sports earlier this month.
They currently sit in eighth place in the East, with a chance to reach fourth place by the end of the season. Given his 11-6 record since Jan. 31 and his The second strength of the easiest schedule remaining, that is a possibility.
What’s even scarier for the rest of the league is that after a somewhat subdued start to the season, Jimmy Butler is starting to heat up again. Playoff Jimmy should strike fear into every team in the league. At 34 years old, this is how he continues to maintain his status as one of the best players in the league.
Jimmy Butler continues at his offensive peak
Three-point shooting has never been a major component of Butler’s game. As a freshman at Marquette, he attempted (and missed) just four three-pointers all year. He has had a few seasons in the NBA in which he has been a decent shooter, but he had made just 26.6 percent of his three-pointers in a Heat uniform entering this season.
That shooting weakness is what makes his 42.5 percent 3-point shooting this year so surprising. Butler gave a explanation to journalists about the sudden improvement.
“If I wanted to shoot every 3-pointer, I could, and I think I’d shoot a really good percentage. I just like to run into the paint and bump into people, to see who falls first.”
Butler still maintains that physical advantage as well. His 8.1 free throw attempts per game rank fifth in the league, and he is 13th in drives per game. There may be no other player better at getting to his favorite spots on the court. He has used that ability to make clutch shots year after year, including this one when he canned a game winning step back jump against the bulls.
Jimmy Butler and the Heat are improving defense
The Heat have always been an annoying defensive team, but they seemed like a bad start to the season. After giving up 118 points to the Suns on January 29, Butler admitted to journalists that “we are not watching.” The Heat found themselves sitting in 13th place in the league on defense.
That was a turning point for the Heat and for Butler individually. Since Butler’s brutally honest assessment, they have been he does not. 3 defense in the league. There has not been a major schematic or personnel change that has caused this increase. It’s been more a result of the team just crashing. Their zone looks sharp, they have made a better effort and Erik Spoelstra is always going to find ways to take different looks at teams.
Butler has also significantly increased defensive pressure at the point of attack.
Jimmy Butler is a threat. pic.twitter.com/xbueGxcY4K
— Steve Jones Jr. (@stevejones20) March 6, 2024
Butler has been on an all-defensive team five times in his career. He can no longer take advantage of every one of his possessions. But when games get tough, he remains a locked-in defender.
Jimmy Butler gets more help than ever
This is not the most talented team Butler has played on. But perhaps it is the most balanced.
Butler’s 24.7 percent usage rate is the lowest he’s ever had in a Heat uniform. He is still the driving force behind many of the things the team executes, but Bam Adebayo is making more handoffs, Jaime Jaquez is creating more in the post, and there are more passes to his shooters.
The Heat have eight players averaging at least eight shot attempts per game. By comparison, Boston and Denver only have five players who reach that mark. No other team has as many contributors coming from their system.
It took a while for Miami to find an identity. Now that they’ve figured out what works, they’re going to use what they’ve learned to be one of the most dangerous playoff teams in the league.
“You only keep a couple of things in your pocket all year long,” Butler he told Bleacher Report’s Chris Haynes earlier this year. “You can’t show your opponent everything now. You always have to keep people guessing.”
Don’t be fooled by its place in the rankings. This is a deep team with the best coach in the league, an All-NBA player in Butler and a Defensive Player of the Year candidate in Adebayo. They have proven time and time again that it would be a mistake to dismiss them. This year should be no different.
