Heat’s Jimmy Butler an MVP candidate? He’s not considered a top contender and he doesn’t care
Most would consider Jimmy Butler the Miami Heat’s most valuable player, but there are very few who have Butler among the top contenders in the NBA’s MVP race.
That’s not too surprising, considering Butler has missed 14 of the Heat’s first 38 games this season because of a combination of injuries and the league’s health and safety protocols.
It’s also not surprising considering what the MVP’s resume has looked like recently:
▪ In seven of the past 10 seasons, the MVP award has gone to a player on the team with the league’s top record. The only time during that span that a player has earned the honor on a team that didn’t finish with one of the top-five records was in 2016-17 when guard Russell Westbrook won it after leading the NBA in scoring and averaging a triple-double for the 47-35 Oklahoma City Thunder.
▪ Each of the past 10 MVP winners were voted into the All-Star Game in that same season.
▪ Each of the past 10 MVP winners also finished that same season as one of the league’s top-seven scorers.
Butler, 31 does not fit that MVP profile.
The Butler-led Heat entered Saturday with the NBA’s 12th-best record. Butler was not voted into the All-Star Game this season in part because he missed double-digit games during the first half of the season. And Butler ranks 35th in the league in scoring average.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean that Butler’s doesn’t deserve to be in this season’s MVP conversation, with two months remaining in the regular season.
Butler has sparked the Heat’s turnaround, averaging 21.1 points on 46.1 percent shooting and career-highs in rebounds (7.4) and assists (8) this season. He’s also averaging two steals and the fourth-most free-throw attempts per game (8.7) while shooting 84.6 percent from the foul line.
Butler is one of only four NBA players averaging at least 21 points, seven rebounds and eight assists this season, along with Dallas’ Luka Doncic, Brooklyn’s James Harden and Denver’s Nikola Jokic.
“We saw how he put the team on his back in the playoffs in the bubble. When he’s healthy, he has done that this year,” guard Goran Dragic said of Butler, with the Heat closing its quick two-game trip on Sunday against the Orlando Magic at Amway Center (7 p.m., Fox Sports Sun). “He’s an amazing player. I always say, he’s the guy who manipulates the game. He can get to the free-throw line and he gets everyone else involved, he’s creating shots for himself. You can see, he’s the complete package.”
During the current 13-4 stretch that has pushed the Heat from 7-14 and 13th place in the Eastern Conference to 20-18 and fourth place in the East entering Saturday, Butler has averaged team-highs in points (22.5), assists (9.1) and steals (2.1) while posting a team-best plus/minus of plus-117 during that stretch. He has also totaled 10 or more fourth-quarter points in three of his past five games.
Butler is also one of the best wing defenders in the NBA. Along with his instinct to rack up steals, he has limited those he has defended to 40.4 percent shooting this season (five percent worse than those players’ combined average shooting percentage for the season), according to NBA tracking stats.
Butler has helped anchor the Heat’s elite defense, which entered Saturday with the league’s fifth-best defensive rating (allowing 108.8 points per 100 possessions) this season.
The Heat is 16-8 in games that Butler has played in this season and 4-10 in games that he has missed. Butler recorded a team-high 28 points with the help of 10-of-12 shooting from the foul line, eight assists and four steals in Friday’s 101-90 road win over the Chicago Bulls.
“He just plays at his own pace. He controls the game,” Heat center Kelly Olynyk said. “He knows what he wants to do and where he wants to get, gets to his spots and makes plays. The other thing with Jimmy is he’s not afraid to make the right basketball play, move the ball, share the ball, get off the ball. So it makes it tough on opposing defenses. He has done an unbelievable job of just controlling the end of games in these last 10-12 games and getting us back above .500.”
But on the NBA.com latest MVP Ladder released on March 5 at the start of the All-Star break, Butler’s name is not included.
The list is No. 1 Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid, No. 2 Jokic, No. 3 Los Angeles’ LeBron James, No. 4 Portland’s Damian Lillard, No. 5 Doncic, No. 6 Golden State’s Stephen Curry, No. 7 Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo, No. 8 Harden, No. 9 Los Angeles’ Kawhi Leonard and No. 10 Utah’s Donovan Mitchell.
The “And Five More” list with the next five candidates includes Brooklyn’s Kevin Durant, Phoenix’s Devin Booker, Los Angeles’ Paul George, Chicago’s Zach LaVine and Brooklyn’s Kyrie Irving.
“No, he doesn’t,” Heat forward Duncan Robinson said when asked whether Butler’s play gets the outside attention it deserves. “I think last year in the playoffs, he was starting to. But still probably not enough. But I think he enjoys leaning into that anyways and we don’t mind it either.
The Heat has outscored its opponent by 6.2 points per 100 possessions when Butler is on the court and it has been outscored by 6.9 points per 100 possessions when he’s not playing this season for an off/court net rating differential of 13.1 points.
The only players on the NBA.com MVP Ladder with a larger differential in on/off court net rating this season is Embiid (16.3), George (14.6), James (14.2) and Leonard (13.4).
The Heat could continue its recent winning stretch with Butler leading the way, and he could find himself among the league’s top MVP candidates by the end the season. Or he could just continue flying under the MVP radar.
It doesn’t matter to Butler.
“Don’t care,” he said matter-of-factly when asked about the outside perception of his game.
INJURY REPORT
The Heat will remain without center Bam Adebayo (left knee tendinitis) and guard Avery Bradley (right calf strain) for Sunday’s game against the Magic. It will mark the fourth straight game Adebayo has missed and the 18th straight game Bradley has missed because of their respective injuries.
Heat center Meyers Leonard is out for the season after shoulder surgery, but is away from the team indefinitely after recently using an anti-Semitic slur. He is also currently serving a league-issued one-week suspension from team activities.
The Magic will be very short-handed for Sunday’s game against the Heat.
Cole Anthony (rib), James Ennis III (calf), Evan Fournier (groin), Markelle Fultz (knee), Aaron Gordon (ankle) and Jonathan Isaac (knee) have all been ruled out for Orlando. Terrence Ross is questionable because of a sore left knee.
This story was originally published March 13, 2021 at 1:24 PM.
