Shooting Guard: Jimmy Butler vs Bradley Beal
Oct 6, 2014; Chicago, IL, USA; Washington Wizards guard Bradley Beal (3) dribbles the ball against Chicago Bulls guard Jimmy Butler (21) during the first quarter at the United Center. Mandatory Credit: Mike DiNovo-USA TODAY Sports
Butler’s scuffle may have been with Nene last post-season, but his positional battle was fought against Beal. Beal absolutely killed the Bulls in that series along with many of his teammates. Here are each player’s stats from that series:
- Jimmy Butler: 13.6 points, 5.2 rebounds, 2.2 assists, 1.2 steals, 38.6% from the field and 78.3% from the free throw line
- Bradley Beal: 19.8 points, 4.6 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 1.0 steals, 44.0% from the field and 88.5% from the free throw line
We don’t know whether Jimmy took offence to being outplayed by Beal in this series or used it as motivation in the off-season, but his improvements this year have made him a completely different player.
Jimmy Butler from the 2014 playoffs will not be the same Jimmy Butler in the 2015 playoffs. How about a visual comparison of their respective 2014-2015 seasons?
I got this off of the Fantasy Pros website, and it very clearly shows how much better Butler has been than Beal this season. They have played basically the same number of games, but Jimmy has performed better in every statistical category other than 3-pointers made per game, which happens to be Beal’s specialty.
Advantage: Jimmy Butler
Next: Mike Dunleavy Jr. vs Paul Pierce