Are Jimmy Butler’s Minutes Sustainable?

Dec 14, 2014; Miami, FL, USA; Chicago Bulls guard Jimmy Butler (21) during the second half against the Chicago Bulls at American Airlines Arena. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

Consider the Chicago Bulls 107-100 victory against the New Orleans Pelicans as a mini-vacation for the Bulls rising star Jimmy Butler. The 36 minutes that Butler played on Saturday is 4 minutes fewer than his season average.

On Monday night against Indiana, Butler was back to his old ways accumulating a total of 44 minutes for the night. Tuesday night against Brooklyn, Butler received another mini-vacation after only being asked to play 37 minutes in a blowout loss to the vastly inferior Brooklyn Nets.

On the season, Jimmy Butler is averaging an astounding 40 minutes per game, which leads the entire NBA. Further perpetuating the difficulty of these minutes is the fact that Butler is expected to score offensively and guard the oppositions best wing player—a lethal combination that could undoubtedly lead to fatigue and reduction in quality of play down the road.

Traditionally, Tom Thibodeau has had a history of overplaying his personnel and the prime example of this phenomenon is Luol Deng. Butler’s career trajectory has followed a similar path as Deng’s, so it is useful to examine how Luol dealt with his workload in Chicago to see if this trend of 40+ minutes per game during an 82 game season is sustainable for Butler.

Jimmy Butler has emerged as a key contributor for Chicago and for all intents and purposes is the Bulls MVP thus far this season. It is important that he remains fresh for the playoffs, and I’m not sure if this is possible based on the rate he is currently going with these minutes.