The most underrated player in the NBA
We're talking, yes, about Jimmy Butler ... as explained in this audio ode to Miami's 56-point man
After being snubbed from the Eastern Conference All-Star team in February, Miami’s Jimmy Butler will certainly earn All-NBA status from season-ending award voters.
GARE-UN-TEED.
Which would be the second time in Butler’s career that this has happened if this not-so-bold prediction comes true.
Consider such folly as yet another example of Butler’s status as the most underrated player in the NBA.
You can accuse me of prisoner-of-the-moment thinking to write this in the Tuesday Newsletter Extravaganza on the day after Butler torched the Milwaukee Bucks for 56 points. The problem with that critique: I’ve been writing and expressing basically the same sentiment for the past 2½ years, so we’re talking about quite a lengthy moment.
In October 2020, then writing for The New York Times, I asserted that Butler emerged from the Walt Disney World bubble in Orlando as one of the NBA’s top 10 players. I believe it with even more conviction now after seeing what he’s doing against the Bucks, who face a stunning Round 1 elimination Wednesday night at home in Game 5 against Jimmy Buckets and Co. after being forced to play two games in this series without an injured Giannis Antetokounmpo.
The eighth-seeded Heat and the seventh-seeded Lakers in the West lead their respective series by a 3-1 scoreline and are in a race to become the first play-in team in league history to win a first-round series. The difference, of course, is that the Lakers were widely picked to spring a No. 7-over-No. 2 upset over Memphis even before Ja Morant sustained a hand injury in the fourth quarter of Game 1.
Who was picking the Heat to upset the Bucks? Even after Giannis was limited to 11-ish minutes through the first three games of the series by his own Game 1 injury (back contusion), Milwaukee appeared headed for a 2-2 split once it seized a 101-89 lead over the Heat halfway through Monday night’s fourth quarter.
Butler wouldn’t let it happen.
In tribute to the performance, our latest loud reminder of what a winning player Butler is, I’ve recorded a Grant Wahl-style audio dispatch to talk about No. 22 and his place in the game. Please click the orange play button to tune in:
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My mythical All-NBA team
When I revealed my completely unofficial awards ballots earlier this month, I promised that I would post my completely unofficial All-NBA team separately. So here goes.
This is how I would have voted were I still a participant in year-end awards balloting:
FIRST TEAM
F: Giannis Antetokounmpo (Bucks)
F: Jayson Tatum (Celtics)
C: Joel Embiid (76ers)
G: Stephen Curry (Warriors)
G: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Thunder)
SECOND TEAM
F: Jimmy Butler (Heat)
F: Anthony Davis (Lakers)
C: Nikola Jokić (Nuggets)
G: Luka Dončić (Mavericks)
G: Donovan Mitchell (Cavaliers)
THIRD TEAM
F: Lauri Markkanen (Jazz)
F: Jaylen Brown (Celtics)
C: Domantas Sabonis (Kings)
G: De'Aaron Fox (Kings)
G: Damian Lillard (Trail Blazers)
My explanations ...
🏀 Curry played in only 56 games due to injury interruptions, but he was the best offensive guard in the league when he did play, averaging 29.4 points per game and coming very close to a 50/40/90 season.
🏀 Oklahoma City's unexpected surge into a play-in spot in the West, which dropped Dallas into the lottery after last season's trip to the Western Conference finals, moved SGA onto the first team ahead of Luka.
🏀 As stated above, Butler is a lock to make one of the three All-NBA teams — for the second time — after a nonsensical snub from the All-Star Game. Davis played in only 56 games like Curry, compared to Butler's 64, but there's no disputing that AD was the most impactful Laker during the regular season ... and I don't think the Lakers' season was good enough to merit two All-NBA selections.
🏀 Lillard was among the numerous stars who fell short of the 65 games played that will be required for All-NBA consideration in the new labor agreement, but it wasn't Dame's fault that he got stuck on 58. Portland's decision to tank after the All-Star break for the second successive season was the real culprit, so he had to get no less than third-team recognition from me.
🏀 Fox and Sabonis were easy selections on this scorecard given their efforts in leading Sacramento to a wholly unexpected No. 3 seed in the West after those hard-to-fathom 16 consecutive seasons without a single trip to the playoffs.
🏀 The last forward spot proved the trouble spot here. Phoenix’s Kevin Durant played in only 47 games, which is just too low a number for inclusion. Ditto for the Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard (52). New York’s Julius Randle was a viable option, but I didn't feel good about placing Randle here without making room for Jalen Brunson, who was truly the best Knick.
🏀 I deemed Brown to be the smartest compromise in the end, since he was at times Boston's best player on the league's second-best team, but the fact that Brown becomes supermax eligible if he earns All-NBA status — infinitely improving the Celtics' chances of keeping Brown long-term — is a prime example of why I didn't resume voting for year-end awards when I left The New York Times to start this Substack in June 2021. No one is stopping me from voting now like the NYT did, but I hate that media members are forced to make choices worth many millions of dollars — especially when we had zero say in being the party that ultimately determines supermax status. The media weren't asked our permission to be the arbiters of the supermax and can't abstain from the process unless we don't vote at all.
🏀 Other players I considered for selection but haven't mentioned yet (in alphabetical order): Devin Booker (Suns), Anthony Edwards (Timberwolves), Tyrese Haliburton (Pacers), Jrue Holiday (Bucks), LeBron James (Lakers), Zach LaVine (Bulls), Ja Morant (Grizzlies) and Pascal Siakam (Raptors).
Numbers Game
🏀 56
Jimmy Butler's 56 points Monday night in a Game 4 win over Milwaukee tied Wilt Chamberlain, Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley for the fourth-highest scoring game in PLAYOFF history. (Like an idiot, I accidentally omitted the word playoff when I discussed that stat in my audio dispatch but couldn’t go back and add it without redoing the whole thing.)
🏀 63
The only three playoff performances better than Butler's: Michael Jordan's 63, Elgin Baylor's 61 and Donovan Mitchell's 57.
🏀 11
The Heat were trailing 98-87 with 8:11 to go when Butler re-entered the game in the fourth quarter.
🏀 6
The Bucks must win the final three games of the series to avoid becoming the sixth No. 1 seed in league history to lose to a No. 8 seed in the first round of the playoffs. The previous five:
Denver over Seattle in 1994 (3-2)
New York over Miami in 1999 (3-2)
Golden State over Dallas in 2007 (4-2)
Memphis over San Antonio in 2011 (4-2)
Philadelphia over Chicago in 2012 (4-2)
🏀 3
Important factoid to file away: The winner of the three previous Bucks/Heat playoff matchups has gone on to reach the NBA Finals in 2013, 2020 and 2021. You can look it up.
🏀 15
Here's a fun piece by my fellow Substacker Mark Whicker, one of my favorite writers for nearly 40 years, on the 15 alumni Kentucky has in these playoffs ... 12 of them former first-round picks.
🏀 6
Phoenix's Monty Williams is now the sixth longest-tenured coach in the league (dating to May 2019) after the two coaches just ahead of him (Detroit's Dwane Casey and Toronto's Nick Nurse) departed their jobs at season's end.
🏀 5
The five coaches ahead of Williams in tenure: San Antonio's Gregg Popovich (dating to December 1996), Miami's Erik Spoelstra (April 2008), Golden State's Steve Kerr (May 2014), Denver's Michael Malone (June 2015) and Milwaukee's Mike Budenholzer (May 2018).
🏀 38
Important note I've been trying to get across to my Arsenal-loving mates throughout the NBA: The Premier League is a 38-game season. It's a very long season. Are you sure your Gunners are built to go the distance?
🏀 3-1
Six of the seven first-round series still going entering Tuesday’s play featured 3-1 series scorelines. Yet it’s the lower seed that holds the lead in three of the six matchups: No. 8 Heat over No. 1 Bucks, No. 5 Knicks over No. 4 Cavaliers and No. 7 Lakers over No. 2 Grizzlies.
Jimmy Buckets in that game was every bit the killer Kobe and MJ were, and it was an impressive feat of human will.
Curious you have tatum over butler after your effusive praise.
Couldn't help but be reminded how we chose Simmon over butler while watching last night or allowed butler to choose Miami, however you choose to look at it. I believe sixers have a banner hanging if we didn't screw up.