Jimmy Butler’s time in Chicago is over. After being involved in countless trade rumors over the last couple of seasons, the Bulls traded Butler to the Timberwolves on Thursday for Zach LaVine, Kris Dunn and the No. 7 pick in the 2017 NBA Draft which became Lauri Markkanen. For a team that ranked No. 10 in offensive efficiency and No. 26 in defensive efficiency last season, the Timberwolves will look to maximize Butler’s two-way potential to improve them significantly on both ends of the floor.
It doesn’t matter that they’re still one of the youngest teams in the NBA, either. The move gives the Timberwolves a dynamic core of Butler, Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns that will be expected to end the franchise’s 13-year playoff drought — currently the longest streak in the NBA — starting from next season.
It’s no wonder Tom Thibodeau, who is both the coach and president of basketball operations in Minnesota, wanted to acquire Butler. He was the head coach of the Bulls when Butler was drafted in 2011 and saw him develop into a 20 point per game scorer as well as a member of the All-Defensive second team. The two have been linked together for several years and Thibodeau now has an All-Star who can take the Timberwolves to the next level following a season in which they failed to meet expectations.
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Since they’re usually mentioned in the same sentence, it only makes sense to compare Butler to a fellow All-Star who is currently on the trade market in Paul George. While there are many notable differences between them, the biggest one is Butler creates far more with the ball in his hands: 59.1 percent of his baskets last season were unassisted compared to 48.7 percent for George. It put Butler in a similar bracket to Isaiah Thomas (56.4 percent), Carmelo Anthony (57.4 percent) and LeBron James (62.2 percent), which should give you some indication of the type of impact he’ll make on the Timberwolves.
Butler creates most of those points for himself out of the pick-and-roll. They made up almost a third of his offense last season and he ranked in the 76.9 percentile with 0.91 points per possession. He’s not a high volume 3-point shooter off the dribble, but he relies mainly on mid-range pull-ups and drives to the basket to get his points in the pick-and-roll. He made 37.2 percent of his pull-ups inside the 3-point line last season and shot 61.2 percent within three feet of the basket. At 6-foot-7 with a 6-foot-8 wingspan, it makes his shot incredibly difficult to block when he gets to his spots from mid-range and he knows how to maximize space between himself and his defender with well-timed step backs.
Butler is also capable of playing through a lot of contact with his 231-pound frame. According to NBA Miner, he ranked No. 11 last season by making 52 baskets after being fouled. It helps that he has one of the best floaters in the league — 70.9 percent on 31 attempts — that he can make the most of when defenders knock him off of his path to the basket.
Butler and Towns have all the makings of an unstoppable 1-2 punch in the pick-and-roll. Not only is Butler one of the best pick-and-roll scorers, Towns ranked in the 88.1 percentile last season with 1.23 points per possession as the roll man. Being able to roll to the basket and pop to the 3-point line with ease will give Butler the sort of spacing he never had as a member of the Bulls and Butler’s ability to score in bunches will give Towns even more room to operate in between.
Butler’s reliance on mid-range pull-ups and ability to finish strong at the basket helps in other areas of the game. He scored only 5.9 percent of his points in the post last season, but he ranked in the 91.1 percentile with 1.07 points per possession. He scored an additional 13.8 percent of his points in isolation, where he ranked in the 57.5 percentile with 0.87 points per possession. Similar to how he operates in the pick-and-roll, Butler will make defenders pay in those situations if they give him the slightest bit of breathing room with one dribble pull-ups or step backs.
However, play him slightly closer and he’ll explode to the basket for a strong finish in the paint. He averaged 6.7 points per game off of drives on 50.6 percent shooting and he passed out to his teammates on many of those plays. Only eight players made more passes per game off of drives than Butler — seven of which were point guards — and he did so posting a low turnover rate of 5.2 percent.
Butler is also a much better shooter than he is given credit for. Some of it has to do with him not scoring as many spot-up points as others around the league seeing as he finished last season with only 187 spot-up points compared to 391 for Kawhi Leonard, 317 for Carmelo Anthony, 232 for Paul George and 224 for Gordon Hayward. While that certainly makes him a different fit than those players, Butler still ranked in the 92.0 percentile with 1.21 points per spot-up possession.
Butler ended up making 40.7 percent of his catch-and-shoot 3-pointers on the season, which was a significant improvement over the 2015-16 season when he made 29.6 percent of the same opportunities. His volume has dipped since the 2013-14 and 2014-15 season, but his efficiency has climbed. He’ll have to continue spacing the floor well in Minnesota considering Wiggins is also at his best with the ball in his hands. Wiggins scored 32.1 percent of his points in the pick-and-roll last season and another 10.0 percent of his points in isolation. Wiggins might have to spot-up more that Butler is on the team, but Butler will be expected to play off of Wiggins as well.
The Timberwolves were already a good offensive team last season without Butler. Replacing LaVine with him will give them the firepower they need to join the likes of the Raptors, Nuggets and Clippers at the top of the league. Where Butler will make the biggest impact is on the defensive end of the floor. According to NBA.com, the Bulls went from giving up 103.4 points per 100 possessions — think of the Hawks and Heat — to 107.1 points per 100 possessions — think of the Wizards and Trail Blazers — when he took a seat on the bench. Advanced statistics such as Defensive Real-Plus Minus and Defensive Win Shares paint a similar picture of someone who is one of the best defensive players in the league.
As if there was any doubt, the tape also backs up Butler’s defensive prowess, whether it’s guarding LeBron James in isolation…
…chasing Paul George around screens…
…or keeping up with Isaiah Thomas in isolation.
Wiggins and Towns aren’t the defenders they have the potential to be yet, but Butler will help them reach that level. He knows Thibodeau’s style and he’s had success in his system before. Simply leading by example should help set the tone they need to be the type of team that can eventually slow down the best offenses in the NBA.
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The Timberwolves already had a team capable of making some noise in the Western Conference in years to come before they acquired Butler. By flipping LaVine and Dunn for him instead of Wiggins or Towns, they didn’t sacrifice much of their future in the process. The Timberwolves were a better team without LaVine on the court last season and Dunn had one of the most disappointing rookie seasons in recent memory. Butler, who is coming off of his best season as a pro, will take over both of their roles as the starting shooting guard and backup point guard, doing so at a higher level.
It’s why the Timberwolves walk away from the trade as the clear winner.