Jimmy Butler hits South Beach ... as a Golden State Warrior
A comprehensive statistical preview, on this Newsletter Tuesday, to get you ready for Warriors at Heat
It's hard to imagine an NBA game in the regular season that gets much spicier than this:
Jimmy Butler makes his return to South Beach on this Newsletter Tuesday.
As a Golden State Warrior.
We will obviously say the same — presumably even louder — when Luka Dončić returns to Dallas as a Los Angeles Laker on April 9. But Jimmy at Miami is a Super Bowl of a Revenge Game in its own right, happening so soon after Butler had the temerity to take on Pat Riley and actually win a weekslong staredown with the longtime Heat patriarch that led to Butler being traded to a Western Conference playoff contender that duly signed him to a two-year contract extension worth $112 million.
We launched our preview of this momentous occasion last week with Jake Fischer's tremendous feature about Mike Dunleavy's time in Chicago as Butler's teammate and how that relationship helped inspire Dunleavy, now the Warriors' GM, to trade for Butler. Check it out here if you missed it:
Jake Fischer Latest: The GM who boldly traded for his former teammate
Tom Thibodeau took the floor, coaching gruff, bellowing his trademark barks throughout an early September training session. Thibs was always barking at his Bulls. Just as he's still barking at today's Knicks.
And now to complete our pregame preparations ...
I've enlisted the assistance of researcher extraordinaire
🏀 2
The Heat reached the NBA Finals twice in Butler's five full seasons and narrowly missed a third trip in 2021-22.
🏀 1
Only one other Heat player made an All-Star appearance besides Butler during that run: Bam Adebayo.
🏀 8
The Heat, remember, were the East's No. 8 seed in 2022-23 when they advanced to the NBA Finals and needed two Play-In games just to reach the playoffs.
🏀 8
The Knicks in 1999 were the only other No. 8 seed in league history to reach the NBA Finals. The Butler-led Heat ranks as the only team in the history of the NBA's current playoff format (dating to the 1983-84 season) to do it in an 82-game regular season. (New York did so in a 50-game season shortened by a lockout.)
🏀 64
Butler played in 64 playoff games with Miami. The Heat went 37-27 in those games, good for the NBA's second-most playoff wins since 2019-20. (Boston is 52-33 in the same span.)
🏀 24.7
Why do we call him Playoff Jimmy? Butler averaged 24.7 points per game in the playoffs for Miami ... second only in franchise history behind LeBron James (26.9 PPG) and ahead of Dwyane Wade (22.6 PPG).
🏀 4.6
In the regular season, Butler averaged 20.1 points per game ... 4.6 PPG lower than his Heat postseason average.
🏀 40
Butler scored at least 40 points in a Heat-record eight playoff games, including a franchise-best 56-points in Game 4 of Miami's first-round series against Milwaukee in 2023.
🏀 0
Butler never reached the 40-point plateau in a regular-season game for Miami.
🏀 316
The Heat's record in Butler's 316 regular-season games was 190-126 (.601).
🏀 63
Butler last played for Miami on Jan. 21 ... 63 days ago.
🏀 5-17
The Heat are 5-17 since the trade and have lost 10 of 11.
🏀 16-4
Golden State is 16-4 since the trade ... 16-3 with Butler in uniform.
🏀 25-26
The Warriors had slipped to a game under .500 when they acquired Butler (25-26) despite starting the season at 12-3.
🏀 109.1
Since Butler last wore a Heat uniform, Miami has an offensive rating of 109.1 points per 100 possessions, which ranks 26th leaguewide.
🏀 42
Andrew Wiggins has appeared in 13 games a member of the Heat and has scored at least 20 points eight times. That includes Wiggins' 42-point outburst Sunday in a desperately needed win over Charlotte, making him one of just four Heat players to post a 40-point game in the regular season since the start of the 2015-16 campaign alongside Tyler Herro, Bam Adebayo and Victor Oladipo.
🏀 30
Golden State ranked 30th in team free throw percentage and 28th in free throw attempts per game before Butler's arrival. Since the trade? The Warriors are shooting 82.6% on 25.3 attempts per game at the line, good for fourth- and third-best in the league, respectively, in those categories.
🏀 2.9
Also before the trade, Golden State was being outscored by 2.9 points per 100 possessions with Stephen Curry on the bench. The Warriors have outscored teams by 7.2 points per 100 possessions in 373 minutes with Curry on the bench post-trade.
🏀 10
The Warriors' defense has likewise improved post-trade. Golden State was 10th in the league in defensive rating before Butler's arrival, allowing 112.2 points per 100 possessions. The Warriors have played the league's second-stingiest defense in the 20 games since, allowing just 108.6 points per 100 possessions in that span.
🏀 10
If the Heat fail to advance out of the Play-In Tournament to reach the playoffs, they will made a draft selection in the top 10 for the first time since drafting Justise Winslow in June 2015. However ...
🏀 2026 (and 2028)
Missing the playoffs this season comes with the potentially disastrous outcome of sending their first-round pick in both 2026 and 2028 — unprotected in both cases — to complete trades with Oklahoma City and Charlotte. The 2028 selection would go to the Hornets in that scenario as part of Miami's trade last season to acquire Terry Rozier, who is shooting 39.6% from the field this season for a team is desperate need of offense.
🏀 10
When Butler joined the Heat, with Michael Jordan's No. 23 having been retired even though Jordan never played for Miami, he chose No. 22 in honor of former Bulls teammate Taj Gibson. As a Warrior, Butler chose No. 10, paying homage to Neymar and other soccer stars he admires.
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