Jimmy Butler ‘never thought’ he’d be featured ‘on somebody’s scouting reports’
You have to wonder why it took until now for Jimmy Butler to conclude that teams might have designated scouting reports bent on stopping him. After all, the Bulls shooting guard showed unending confidence in both re-shaping his game during the 2014 offseason, and in turning down what many considered to be a fair or even too-optimistic contract extension offer just before last season started – betting on himself in the process.
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Butler responded with a surprise All-Star berth and a Most Improved Player trophy in 2014-15. To hear Jimmy tell it, in talking to David Aldridge at NBA.com, it hadn’t really hit him until recently that he might be the top focus for opposing defenses in 2015-16 (via Dime):
“You know, I never really thought of it like this until Coach (Jim) Boylen said it to me the other day at practice. All summer, I’m working on my game, I’m working on my game — yeah, I think everybody knows that. But I step into practicing, making a few shots. And he was like, ‘you know, Jimmy, yeah, you’ve got an open shot. But you’ve got to start looking to facilitate, get the ball to the other guys more. Because, believe it or not, you’re going to be a key points on people’s scouting reports.’ I never thought of it like that. I never thought that, hey, Jimmy Butler may be on somebody’s scouting reports, like, ‘hey, we have to stop this guy.’ Seriously.”
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“It never crossed my mind. This entire summer, it never had been, teams are going to key in on you. It’s always been, put the ball in the basket. You’ve got to finish. But when he put it to me like that, it was like, well, damn, you’ve got to know where everybody is on the floor.”
This could be a bit of daffiness, or this could be faux-humility – Jimmy playing the nice guy before destroying the opposition. It’s all very odd.
It’s true that Butler has had a whirlwind year and a half. After he struggled to lend much support in Chicago’s first round upset during the 2014 playoffs, he spent the whole of the offseason obsessively working on his game – improving his footwork, ball-handling, and shooting along the way. Closer toward that season, famously, he turned down a four-year $44 million contract extension from the Bulls that, back then, seemed like a lot of money for someone who could only put up an inefficient 13 points per game in 39 minutes a contest.
Butler broke out in 2014-15, though, registering 20 points a game on nearly 47 percent shooting (up from 39 the year before) while hitting just above the league’s average percentage on three-pointers. He improved his rebounding (5.8) and assist (3.3) averages and took far more free throws. Perhaps most impressively Jimmy averaged about the same turnovers per contest (1.5) as he did the season before despite all the extra time with the ball in his hands. All while playing standout defense.
As a result, Butler took in the hardware and what will end up being a five-year, $95.5 million contract. He also took his Hollywood turn, palling around with Mark Wahlberg between workout bouts over the 2015 offseason. Again – a rather busy year and a half.
For it to take to now for it to click that Butler will be scouted heavily and often regarded as the defense’s No. 1 target, well, that’s hard to believe. After all, Jimmy Butler was just about there after just two months at the start of 2014-15.
The injury to floor-spacer Mike Dunleavy helped magnify the unwanted attention, but by midseason teams were starting to clamp down on Butler’s new game regardless of who he played with. They’d watched as he took advantage of quick-hit post-ups, screen and roll switches with Derrick Rose, and out-of-nowhere drives on his way to 20-point game after 20-point game in November and December, and started to dig in. Butler didn’t have the roughest January, but it wasn’t up to All-Star standards and you hardly saw any more of those fabulous post-ups as the season moved along.
As it moved along, though, Butler kept pouring in the points, and maintaining that average. He never seemed to forget the piece-by-piece approach that built to 20 by twos (and sometimes threes) from back in the season’s first few weeks. He didn’t come out expecting those 20 points to be already in the box score, and he didn’t press. He played in the moment.
Perhaps this is why, in his own basketball world, the scouting realization came late. That doesn’t mean Butler has run out of things to busy himself with, as new coach Fred Hoiberg has a brand new offense to install.
[Aldridge]: What is different about the offense that will benefit the personnel you have?
Jimmy Butler: Spacing. I think offense is a lot about spacing. Last year, at times, our spacing was terrible. We might get a basket out of it, just because we’ve got really good players. Now, with the spacing we have, there’s going to be more driving gaps for people that drive the ball good. It’s all about that spacing. It’s going to make things easier for everybody. And, you’re going to know where everybody’s going to be on the floor. When you drive baseline, you know there’s going to be a guy over there in the drift spot. You know there’s going to be a guy over there in the slot. So if everybody pays attention and gets to the right spot, it’s almost like you can pass the ball without even looking.
Hoiberg is already on record in pointing out that he’d like to make Butler more of a “playmaker” alongside a scoring point guard in Rose, and Jimmy seems up to the idea. From Sean Highkin at Bleacher Report:
“Why not?” Butler asked during camp. “I think [playing point guard] is another challenge, something I have to get better at anyway. The only way to get better at it is to go out and do it, attempt it. Trial by error, I guess. Hopefully I don’t mess up too much, but I have confidence that I can do whatever my team needs me to do.”
These sorts of things were unthinkable this time last year, when Butler had the reputation as the Bull that couldn’t be trusted to put the ball on the floor, much less shoot as the team’s primary offensive option or even run the offense. Jimmy Butler is one of the rare NBA players that developed new skills along the way, rather than just building upon what he entered the league with.
We’re going to write about him, as a result. Just like opposing NBA teams have been doing, scribbling furiously, since midway through his breakout season.
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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KDonhoops
