“We didn’t see Jimmy Butler as a superstar”: Former Chicago Bulls head coach Tom Thibodeau says they didn’t view the Heat star as a franchise piece

Former Chicago Bulls head coach Tom Thibodeau says that the Bulls didn’t view Jimmy Butler as a superstar in his stint with Chicago. 

After being drafted in 2011 with the 30th pick in the NBA Draft, Jimmy Butler was deemed as more of a project than a player who could contribute to a contending team immediately. The Chicago Bulls, at the time, were at the peak of the Derrick Rose era. 

They had the youngest-ever MVP in Rose, a DPOY in Joakim Noah and a plethora of stellar pieces surrounding the two. Jimmy Butler wasn’t really a priority for the Bulls and it was telling with the 8.5 minutes he received per game in his rookie year. 

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However, as that 2011 Bulls team started to disband either due to injuries or guys asking for trades, Jimmy Butler stepped up to the plate. Butler become a star with the Bulls but the then head coach Tom Thibodeau thought otherwise. 

Coach Thibs didn’t believe Jimmy Butler was a superstar with the Bulls

Jimmy Butler had his best statistical regular season during his stint with the Bulls. He averaged 24 points, 5.5 assists, and 6.4 rebounds in the 2016-17 season. It would be assumed that with numbers like this, Chicago would have loved to build around their new two-way star. 

Head coach Tom Thibodeau didn’t believe in Jimmy the way that he would’ve liked to. He said, “To say we saw him as a superstar, we didn’t see that.” 

More Tom Thibodeau on Butler in Chicago: “To say we saw him as a superstar, we didn’t see that.” Now sees Butler as, “One of the elite players in the league.”

— Ira Winderman (@IraHeatBeat) February 7, 2021

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This holds some validity to it, as Butler definitely was nowhere close to being an All-Star at the time. However, fast forward to the present day, and you’ll find Butler averaging nearly a 30 point triple-double in the NBA Finals. This came against the cream of the crop in the Lakers, all while taking them to 6 games. 

Thibs admits that he now sees the Marquette graduate as, “one of the elite players in the league.”