Report: Jimmy Butler named NBA’s Most Improved Player
Chicago Bulls shooting guard Jimmy Butler is the NBA’s most improved player this year.
Jimmy Butler will reportedly be named the NBA’s most improved player later this week, according to ESPN’s Marc Stein.
Butler made his first All-Star team this year and averaged career-highs in points with 20, rebounds with 5.8 and assists with 3.3 per game.
The Bulls struck gold when they spent the No. 30 pick in the first round of the 2011 NBA Draft on the defensive-oriented Butler out of Marquette and he’s developed into one of the game’s best two-way players.
Butler showed signs of being the difference maker at shooting guard the Bulls have lacked for years last season when he played an average of 38.7 minutes per game and locked down the opposing team’s best perimeter player while averaging 13.1 points, 4.9 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game, but his offensive game is the reason why he is this year’s winner.
Story going online now: ESPN sources say Chicago's Jimmy Butler will be named NBA's Most Improved Player later this week
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) May 6, 2015
With Derrick Rose in and out of the lineup with injuries and Joakim Noah hobbled by nagging injuries, Butler had to take a bigger role on the offensive end, and he responded as he was often the team’s go-to scorer, shooting 46.2 percent from the field and 37.8 percent from three-point range.
Butler is the prefect player for Bulls head coach Tom Thibodeau because of his two-way prowess and his ability to seemingly play nearly every minute of every game. Butler led the NBA in minutes per game this year with 38.7 minutes per game and they were hard minutes too.
When the Bulls play the Cleveland Cavaliers he is locked on LeBron James all night long so you could understand if his offensive game suffered as a result, but he never made excuses for his workload or his assignments and was the consummate pro, as he has been his entire stay in Chicago.
The future is bright for the 25-year-old who will be a restricted free agent at the end of the year and in line for a monster payday. It likely will come from the Bulls one way or the other, either as a result of matching an offer sheet he signed with another team or the Bulls forking over a fat new deal to keep him happy in Chicago for the foreseeable future.
Stein tweets Butler is likely to receive his award before Friday night’s home game against the Cavaliers in Game 3 of their second round series.