Jimmy Butler – Miami Heat
Jimmy Butler is a SF currently playing for the Miami Heat. The Miami Heat are 4th in the Eastern Conference this NBA season. The Miami Heat have a major jump from the NBA season. This mainly due to fact this is a newly managed team who has an acquired an all-star caliber player in Jimmy Butler. Jimmy did not start out as an all star player when he first came in the league only averaging around 10 points per game and was the the 30th pick in the 2011 NBA draft. However, NBA scouts always knew he had potential because he has always been a great defender but just need to work on his offensive game. Well, Butler has always been a man of great effort. He’s had to put in this great effort since he was a child sadly even being homeless at a time of his life. According to statistics in kids like Butler, he wasn’t supposed to be here in the NBA. He was supposed to be just another statistic but Butler had bigger dreams. Butler was different, he had a work ethic that you rarely find in other people which sometimes rubs people the wrong way who aren’t as motivated as him. Jimmy Butler knew he had to work to be great in this league so that’s what exactly what he did and by his 4th season in the NBA, he was officially an all star player. This made him an elite 2 way player which is very hard to find across the the league. This built a major confidence and has made him one of the most vocal players in the league which rubbed some of the teams he was on very wrong. With his short stint with the Timberwolves, he called players on the team “soft” because of their work ethic. He felt like they weren’t hungry enough to be a good team and wanted to be traded. This led to him being traded to Philadelphia for 1 year where he was almost able to make it to the finals but lost on a Kawhi buzzer beater shot. The Butler trade by the 76ers was really a 1-year rental to see if they could win a championship but it clearly didn’t work out. After all of that, Jimmy finally had the choice to choose what team he wanted to be on and decided to go to the Miami Heat where him and his team have been flourishing. Jimmy Butler this season is currently averaging 20.2 points per game, 6.6 rebounds per game, and 6.1 assists per game. The Miami Heat surprisingly started the year on a complete hot streak and have never looked back! This has even led to two of their players in Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo to make the all star team this year. Sure they have had their short stint of losses this year but they are still a top team in the East and can beat any team in the NBA on any given night. We all knew that the Miami Heat having newly acquired Jimmy Butler would make them better but we did not see them really looking like a championship threat out in the Eastern Conference! In my opinion, I have always loved Jimmy Butler’s game and his mentality. He is an absolute dog on the court that you definitely want on your team game in and game out. He will give buckets to your team’s best defender and will put in amazing pressure at the same time to the best player on your team. You just don’t see that a lot in the NBA anymore because the league has glorified scoring so players don’t focus as much on defense as they used to. Jimmy Butler is changing that and I hope he is able to eventually hold that championship trophy up because he deserves how he hard he has worked since day 1 of stepping on an NBA floor. In my advice, I would tell Jimmy Butler to keep being you. Don’t let anybody especially the media or players to change the mindset you have. The mindset you have has brought you success your entire life and has built you into the player you are today. From what I’m seeing out of him now, I can see him eventually being a superstar player in this league maybe even being in the MVP race at some point in his career. However, I think Jimmy has the mindset of the bigger picture. He appreciate the accolades and recognition throughout the league but he ultimately has the same goal as all the NBA greats of eventually holding that golden trophy up and declaring yourself a champion!
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