The Miami Heat have been on a surge ever since getting Jimmy Butler back. The point forward’s stats stack up well against LeBron James right now.
Advertisement
Jimmy Buckets is one of the fan favorites in the league right now. He has a laid-back demeanor off the court, never taking himself too seriously. But he’s also a killer on it, as he proved to great effect in last year’s playoffs.
Butler is currently averaging a career-high in assists at a whopping 8.0 per game this season. He’s doing this while only turning the ball over 2.3 times per game. This gives him an elite assists-to-turnovers ratio of 3.47 on the year.
The only high-volume playmaker to be averaging better numbers at the moment is Chris Paul. The Point God is averaging 8.8 assists per game while only turning the ball over 2.4 times. This give him an assists-to-turnover ratio of 3.7.
How Jimmy Butler stacks up against the likes of LeBron James, Nikola Jokic, and Luka Doncic
The Heat are, on the whole, experiencing a down year in the shooting department. Neither Tyler Herro nor Duncan Robinson – their two best shooters – is particularly on fire this season.
Despite this impediment, Butler has been able to rack up assists galore in his time on the floor. He runs great pick-and-roll actions with Bam and Achiuwa when on the floor, creating scores of scoring opportunities.
His assist percentage of 39.3% speaks for itself – it’s higher than that of LeBron James (38.6%) or Nikola Jokic (37.8%). The likes of James Harden (43%), Trae Young (42.2%) and Luka Doncic (43.4%) rank higher than him in this stat, but Butler is far more careful about turning the ball over.
Miami started this season off badly, missing tons of players through Covid or injuries. Now that they have their full complement back, they’re beginning to gain ground in the playoff race. They’ve come up from a 7-14 record and now sit tight at 20-18 – good for 4th spot in the East right now.
They have Jimmy Butler to thank for much of it, as a Heat fan noted on Reddit.
