Jimmy Butler Week episode 2: How can he get better? | Five on the Floor

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Yesterday, Alex Toledo and I did an episode about how the Heat can maximize Jimmy Butler as he ages. Now we're going to pivot and we're going to talk more about Jimmy specifically and what he can do to maximize himself and where his game can go after four seasons with the Miami Heat, three years left on his contract, two appearances in the NBA finals, three appearances in the conference finals, and a whole lot of money coming his way. This is Jimmy Butler week because he is turning 34 years old on, I guess, Thursday. And we'll have a couple more Jimmy Butler episodes as well. I think we're going to draft the teams, players that have been around Jimmy over the past four years. So we're going to do a two-on-two draft here, have some fun with that. And we're also going to do our favorite Jimmy Butler moment. So if you have any of those, you can start sending those to us on Off the Floor or on Twitter. So Brady, let's get to this. Would you say right now, Jimmy Butler is a top 10 player in the NBA? I definitely would. I mean, because I think I factored playoff success over regular season success. And what we've seen over the last few years is that he's a top player in the world when it really matters. So I think it's definitely a case to be made. You're going to see certain guys get thrown in in front of them and your situation or this and that, but no, he's a top 10 player in the world. And I know we were going to get into some of the stuff that, you know, maybe we can see his game grow too. But it's funny because when we said we were just going to do this topic, I started just looking at some numbers in general over the last few years to see what he's grown to now from his first year in Miami. And I was looking at some of the numbers. So let's start with the fact I was looking at his shooting percentage less than 10 feet from the rim. So his first year in Miami, he was at 56%. It went up to 58% the second year. I think it went back down to 56% the third year. And this past year was at 60%. So it's grown from all four years. We go back to now I go to mid-range pull-ups first year, Miami in the regular season, it was 34% went up to 43%. Third year was 43%. Again, this past year was at 45%. Like a lot of his numbers you're looking at have really grown this past year. And it's like, I keep seeing this thing and it's happened since probably after a second year in Miami, everybody keeps saying, well, he's going to burn out. Like, okay, you're not going to get this version of Jimmy again. Then it happens again. Then it's like, okay, well, it's, he's not going to do that again. He's not going to be able to put up those types of numbers again. And he just keeps doing it. Like he knows how to preserve his body to wait to the right time to just fully go. And it's like, can we just stop doing the thing where we're saying that he's not going to do it again. He's going to do it again. Like I'm, I'm, I'm over the point of doubting the guy that he's not going to do this and that, but I think it is promising to just look at some bare numbers and see the fact that his game is aging like wine. Like it's just, it's continues to get better over time. And this is just regular season, which is the time we all say he doesn't even look like he's trying most of the time. So I think that stuff is just, just cool to see in general, just seeing the way his game's grown to now. I think we're seeing some of the things that we saw with Bron James over the course of his heat career, where the efficiency got to such a level by his third season and Dwayne's efficiency got to such a level, even though Dwayne was dealing with injuries that the two of them were literally having a contest about how many games each could shoot over 50% from the floor. And they were passing up good shots to get great shots. Like it was obvious, particularly LeBron, like LeBron would have like a good look and he wouldn't take it because he was in this competition with Dwayne. And so he was waiting until he got a better look and they would openly joke about it in the locker room. Like we, I wrote about it at the time and that's kind of where Jimmy is now, where he knows what a good shot is for him. He knows what it isn't. He knows how to get to that spot on the floor. We talk about preserving his body, but one of the ways you can preserve your body is by the game slowing down. If you don't have to exert yourself to such a degree that you did before. Now, I guess the other concern would be the amount of contact that he takes and the ability to draw free throws, to draw foul shots, which is what he's done over the course of his heat career. It's also something Dame will bring to the heat if he comes. And Jimmy is obviously far and away the Heat's free throw leader. We talk about with Bam, it fluctuates, kind of depends in a lot of ways on his aggressiveness. And there really isn't anybody else on this roster who gets to the line consistently. Not really a part of Caleb's game yet. Hero, we've talked about needing the growth there, but haven't really seen it. And that's unfortunate to a degree because he's such a good foul shooter. But Jimmy, I think the one concern would be the, the drawing the contact and finding ways to avoid that as he goes forward. It's not the high flying game like Dwayne had, where everybody said he would pay for that later in his career. And in a lot of ways he did. I remember Gary Payton telling him very early on, like when he came to my, you need to stop being on the floor so much. And again, that did affect him. But I think with Jimmy, it's just the grind. It's, it's the wear and tear of, you know, taking bodies as he goes to the rim. We saw what happened with Josh Hart last year, but it was more than that. So I think one of the things that he has to continue to do is find the angles, find the angles so that he does not need to draw the contact. We obviously don't want to see his free throws drop to say four or five per game as opposed to the nine that they've been at consistently over the past couple of years. But I think that you, you, you want him to avoid some of those situations that will put him into danger because we know that over the course of time, the wrist has been a problem. The knee has been a problem. The ankles are a problem. That's clear. And that's a consistent problem at this stage. And these are problems that once you hit a certain age, they don't necessarily get better. You just kind of manage them and you get get better at managing them. I want to ask this question, though, because there was so much focus on Dwayne during his career when he was going, when he was going to step out to the three point line, when he was going to start to avoid the contact entirely. Now, with Jimmy, he actually was a little better from three last year than he was the previous couple of years. But it seems like it's like in spurts, like it's like he'll get in a rhythm and just start to feel it from there. Sometimes it looks like it's days he doesn't really want to play as much as the others that he'll start taking more threes. Would you advise him to go out to the three point line more often or at this point, if we're making too much of that? I mean, it's funny because you look at his Instagram stories every single day and every training session is just him just chucking up threes and just kind of working on his shot constantly. And I think that's part of the fact that I think talking about his game aging, you kind of need that element to some degree, but it's also probably a troll. The fact that he's just sitting there just shooting threes the whole time. And then he gets to the season and he shoots maybe one a game. Like that's kind of where he's at. And to your point, I was looking at that too, that he shot 35% from three last year, the three previous years were 23%, 25%, 24%. So you did see a little bit of a lean in that direction a little bit more so. And he shot a little less threes actually last year, each of the three years, first three years were two threes a game. He shot like one and a half. But yeah, I think he could utilize that. Especially let's say a guy like Dame is in Miami and he's not gonna have the ball in his hands as much, like maybe a spot of three once in a while could do him a little justice. I think the issue sometimes it feels like every time he shoots a three, it looks different. I feel like that's the main issue. Sometimes he's like, you talk about the games where he feels like he doesn't really have it. That's like when he's just flat footed, just kind of getting the ball up. Then the times at the end of games, I think back to so many games where he shoots like a clutch three, he gets up on those shots. That shot, his feet are up in the air and he's releasing at a much higher point. So there needs to be a little bit, I guess, more consistency with the way he shoots it. But yeah, I think they definitely could utilize that. And to your free throw point, I was looking at that as well. He shot last year the third most free throw attempts of his career. So that's not sustainable. And you talked about comparing it to Dwayne, because I think that's funny because Dwayne, you mentioned getting up in the air and all that. Jimmy just runs into people. So he just bulldozes into people. And I don't know if that's a good or bad thing, because especially with the ankle, all of a sudden one bad hit and all of a sudden he twists that ankle. So yeah, I think there is going to be more of a reliance on that. I think the mid-range is something he's been very comfortable with. You mentioned angles. I think about the angles he gets in those little mid-range kind of turnaround stepbacks where he banks it in, gets all those types of moves. I think that's going to be more of a lean. So yeah, it's going to be interesting because the three-point shooting, I think could be dependent on what the roster looks like. If it's the roster we're talking about with the complete depth that we keep addressing or the Dame type of roster. But the funny thing is, no matter what we talk about, the playoff three-point shoot is going to be totally different than the regular season three-point shooting. So what's sitting here and focusing on regular season, Jimmy probably will not be as important as we're making it out to being, but we still have to address it. All right. Well, we're going to get to the defensive side here in a second before we do. I mentioned a couple of great sponsors in the Five Reasons Sports Network. Get in our Better Edge competitions. It's up right now. Go to betteredge.com. Use the code 5RSN. You get $20 to play at betteredge.com and the contests we run are only 10 bucks. So you get to play in two contests and you get to win money. You get to beat people like me and Sean Rochester and Tony Schwartz and others from our network. So check it out, betteredge.com. Use code 5RSN. This is legal sports betting in Florida and 44 other states. Also check out PrizePix. Use the code 5FIVE. Get that initial deposit matched up to $100 at PrizePix. Again, use the code 5FIVE. Get your initial deposit matched up to $100. This is the official fantasy partner of the Five Reasons Sports Network. You can play NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, and more. Go to prizepix.com or download it from the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store. Use that code 5FIVE, betteredge, 5RSN. Let's get to the defensive side. You've made this many times that Jimmy's at his best kind of roaming, floating. They've taken the burden off him as far as guarding the other team's best player one-on-one all the time. Alex and I didn't get into this much yesterday, so I guess this is a good place to go. With the current roster, do you think they can continue to do that? And does that change at all if they bring Damon? Because it feels to me like we talk about the burden on Jimmy and all that, but we always talk about offense. We don't necessarily talk about defense. And he's a game-changing player on the defensive end also. Alex and I didn't get into this yesterday. How do you preserve him there? And then what can he do to still be elite defensively as he ages? I think this roster is much better fitted for him in his defensive style right now as currently constructed. You're talking about adding Josh Richardson. You're talking about having guys like Caleb and Haywood Highsmith and all these guys that can guard opposing guards at a high level. He does not have to worry about that. Even though there's going to be certain nights he's going to take that challenge on himself and guard the opposing best player, especially in the fourth quarter specifically. He just doesn't really have to rely on that. I posted a video, I think it was yesterday, where I was just posting all his steals because I still don't think there's a better skill set in Jimmy Butler's game than off-ball, just reading passing lanes and stealing. He does it at another level because it's one thing to be able to do it, and it's another thing to be able to read it the way that he does because it is pure timing. And he can call it kind of gambles, and they call it all different stuff. It's about Spode tries to dial it back a little bit because sometimes it gets a little iffy. But he's so good at it that you just cannot ever take that back away from him just because he's in that style. So I think about the fact that Josh, I think, it's one of the reasons I said before, I think it's kind of one of the best duos that we're going to be able to see kind of unpredictable-wise because of the defensive end, because you have a guy that is very good at navigating screens. I think about it for Bam in pick and rolls, but Josh being able to guard a lot of these opposing guards, being able to get around these screens, and Jimmy being able to sit on the wing or the corner and be able to kind of pinch in or jump these passing lanes, I think he's going to be right at home in this certain style. I think they could do a lot of things with that. So we'll see how they go about it if Dame is in Miami, because now you have to kind of see who's on the roster. Josh should still be on the roster, obviously. And Heywood should still be on the roster if you get Dame. So I think even if that's the case, you still have the other guys to make up for that and put on these opposing guards. So I don't think it changes that much, but definitely it's a fun style to play around when they really do have a lot of defensive wing talent on this team. When you, Jonah, I was talking about it, we did a podcast the other day, obviously talking about the possible rotation, but we keep talking about the depth, but they have guys that can actually defend multiple positions. Like it's, this is a slow roster right now. Like it really is like just dealing with all that type of stuff. So it definitely fits Jimmy if it fits. Yeah, it's actually more of a spell roster than the Dame roster would likely be. And that's one of the things, one of the sacrifices you're making here. And I do think that the ability to help Jimmy defensively will help him offensively. You are already asking Bam out of to anchor the defense, and then we get on him when he doesn't do enough on offense. And yet there are stars all around the league who play one way. I mean, LeBron James at this stage is not exerting himself consistently on the defensive end. He will do it in a significant game at a significant time, but he does not do it throughout the whole game. And Dwayne didn't later in his career either. Dwayne went from someone who was guarding the team's other best, other team's best player, of course, was an off the ball menace as a shot blocker. But Dwayne didn't take those assignments. Dwayne didn't get back on defense at times. We kind of forget. And you look around the league. I mean, how many of the top 10, top 15 players are really two way players? Embiid? Yes, when he's engaged. Anthony Davis when he's healthy, I suppose. And they get him involved in here, but he hasn't been healthy and forever. Same with Paul George kind of inside in and out of the lineup. But obviously that's been something that he's done. But we don't talk that way about Steph. He can be adequate defensively if used correctly. Dame is someone we don't talk about that way either. What's that? I was gonna say we have to throw in Giannis. And Giannis, of course. Yes. No, Giannis counts for sure. So, I mean, there are a handful, but I'm going through the rest of it. I mean, Jokic, you know, it depends on what metrics you look at. Actually, I don't think anybody calls him an elite defender. I think he's become a passable defender as well as being sort of the best offensive force of the game. Luca is not a great defender. So again, you go through this list, even among the best point guards. Kyrie, he can when he wants to, doesn't consistently do it, has been sort of targeted in a lot of big games. You know, I think what would you say about I mean, Jalen Brown, I think, you know, sometimes the offensive stuff gets a little off kilter, but he has some of those attributes. Would you say Tatum is a great defender? I think he's an improved defender, right? Yeah, I think he's a good defender. I don't know about great. Yeah. So but I mean, as far as the guys who are on both ends, I mean, Jimmy is one of the guys who does put the effort into it. And he's made as many big plays in terms of clutch plays on the defensive end as he has the offensive end. And sometimes we don't talk about that, but those those plays keep them in the game. And he does fit perfectly with Bam defensively, whereas sometimes we've talked about the fit not being ideal offensively. I want to close here as we look forward with Jimmy. And I think that, you know, this is Alex and I touched on this a little, but didn't get in depth with it. If Dame comes and the burden on Jimmy is less offensively, where else can he make an impact? In other words, if you're not because, you know, he doesn't really want to score 40. He doesn't really want to score 22. Some games early and early in Jimmy's career, you know, after he finally got the starting role and moved past the well, dang, and some of the others that they had there, he was basically known as a, you know, like I said, more of a defensive type player, kind of a fourth option on offense. Are there other things that you think he can do with Dame here? The first thought I had is the playmaking stuff, because I feel like that's probably one of the most underrated parts of Jimmy's game. So I don't know if it would be a total like drop in usage, because I feel like there's still going to be kind of similar usage, maybe a little dip. But the reason I think is just that there's going to be a total flip in playmaking because I don't even want to say just with Dame, because I still want to say with the roster without Dame, because we talked about this roster of point guards. They don't have any point guards to kind of run the show. Like it's Kyle Lowry, then it's Tyler and Josh and maybe Jovich. Like they don't have many options, but Jimmy can be that guy. Jimmy can be the playmaking guy that they can run stuff through. And with Dame, I think it's very similar. You're talking about a potential of, we've talked about backup point guard. If you get Dame, it's like a Boye or a Drew Smith type. So like, there's still going to need playmaking from some type of way. And I think about the stuff they can do with Dame, inverted pick and rolls and slip screens and all this different stuff and playmaking around the rim. We've seen the attention and gravity he gets when he drives. So, I mean, we can talk about a lot of stuff that we just talked about. The three-point shooting would probably be important. The mid-range and angles would be important, probably less free throws to kind of conserve his body. But I don't know, the playmaking feels like, I said it before that at Dame's in Miami, I think Bam has a career year in kind of assists, but Jimmy might as well. Jimmy might have a real surge in that area just because of the fact that they're going to ask him to do that. And he likes doing it, like, especially in the regular season. I think back especially to the bubble where he had like a, like a sideline interview before the game. And he was like, basically telling them, I don't want to shoot him. I don't want to shoot at all this game. I don't want to shoot one shot. I just want to pass to my shooters the whole game. And he kind of did that. Like, he just goes out there and just passed the ball that Duncan and Tyler and Kelly and everybody else. So I can see that happening at Dame. All right. So let's see how it plays out. Jimmy Butler turning 34 years old, probably the time you hear this. And just to put that into some perspective, I mean, there are a lot of guys who were done at that age. You need to talk about Allen Iverson. Career is basically finished. You go base, you go a little bit earlier than that to a lot of the stars. They start to break down. So the hope is he doesn't break down physically, continues to grow his game, maybe slides into a different role as he goes forward. The first four years were a success. What do you need now? You need a championship. That's basically what would I don't think it matters if he scores, you know, averages 33 or averages 16. At this point, people are going to give him credit for what he's done to get the team to this point. And if he wins the title, I mean, I think it's pretty clear he's going to be known as I think the second most important player in history behind Dwayne Wade. I think he passes LeBron James and others on that list if he does it. All right. Thanks to Brady. Thanks to our sponsors, Biscayne Bay Brewing. Check us out on Sunday. Check out Better Edge. Check out Prize Picks. Use those codes. Have a good day, everybody. Thank you for listening to the Five on the Floor on the Five Regional Sports Network.