Last year’s experiment with Jimmy Butler as a point guard and slowing the Chicago Bulls’ offense down was a disaster that the coaching staff and GarPax can fix next season.
The Chicago Bulls running a pick-and-roll with Jimmy Butler walking the ball into the front court was a pain to watch last year.
Teams who had scouted Butler know he does not have court vision like a point guard and will only look around for an open teammate if he can’t get a shot off. Teams like the Boston Celtics and the Charlotte Hornets ran a blitz at Butler all-game long and had Isiah Thomas picking off every Jimmy Butler pass from his blind side.
Elite teams like the Cleveland Cavaliers also knows Butler isn’t as point guard and they either run a blitz at him or at Pau Gasol when Butler plays point guard. The weakest and slowest play the Bulls had last year was the pick-and-roll with Butler and Gasol and we should see a different half-court attacking set with different people next year.
After putting all their eggs in one basket, the Bulls should finally groom Doug McDermott as the one of the clutch shooters for the team alongside a healthy Derrick Rose to close out games and to start games strong. A change of priorities from last year’s roster shuffling tryouts.
If GarPax really do keep Jimmy Butler, how does he fit in the offense of a faster Bulls team?
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What Really Works for Jimmy on Offense? Lobs do.
The point-center offense is a better half-court set with Butler posting up and switching back for the lob or having Jimmy dive to the rim when a teammate is posting up for a strong putback option or drop off to him.
Plus, getting opposing bigs in foul trouble is an intangible stat that may work for the Bulls. Watch Doug McDermott flash outside and throw a lob to Butler as he dives to the rim into the video below to score unopposed.
If the offense is initiated with the shooters, Butler is freed to have easier baskets and is way deadlier in movement traps that get him to the rim unopposed. It isn’t as exhausting as getting by a player in front of him at the top of the key and worrying about the help defense if he gets by his man.
Butler can get 6-8 points easy off lob plays spread out in a game so that the opposing teams can’t adjust. If the opposing teams wise up to this and assign big rebounders in the paint, Butler can and must swing the ball back to the shooters set up outside the paint like McDermott or Bobby Portis, or hand off to a diving Cristiano Felicio.
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Fast breaks Off Turnovers
Running a blitz at the opposing ball handler also allows Butler to pick off bad passes, which he can score off. The Bulls already have Portis and Justin Holiday to initiate a half-court press on the ball handler or blitz the pick-and-roll player like Cleveland does with Tristan Thompson and Iman Shumpert as their athletic defenders.
Butler can pick off passes on one end and have McDermott trained to play the other passing lane. If not McDermott, whoever they get for the wing spot via the draft or free agency. Butler is quick out on the fast break after steals and is a strong finisher who can score through contact at the rim.
Posting Up Against Smaller Defenders
Posting up against smaller defenders, Butler got better mileage using his strength to muscle his way to the rim. Sets must be quick and close to the rim for this to work. Movement traps can lure opponents’ bigs away from Butler. He’s quick enough to spin around his defender and also has a decent first step to drive to the post off the dribble if he is close enough to the rim. This gives him 8-10 points the tougher way, but Hoiberg has plays to make this work too.
In the Atlanta game below, watch how Butler brutalizes smaller players posting up. He also shows his rep as a defensive specialist by working the passing lanes and again getting easy scores. When Butler hovers in the paint, the Bulls also have an extra rebounder down low for putbacks for missed lay-ups and jump shots.
He is also a good free throw shooter and will get fouled more being a beast in the paint. All in all, Jimmy Butler can still score a good 20 points or more just playing off-ball or post up offense within Hoiberg’s flow attacking system.
Hero-Ball Doesn’t Win
Jimmy Butler’s weakest play on offense is walking the ball up and running an isolation for a jumper or a pick-and-roll way out above the three-point line where his handles don’t allow him to adjust to a blitz, a double-team trap or an athletic, long-armed defender staying in front of him to slow him down.
If Butler is initiating the offense, it devolves to a one-on-five affair where the opposing team has a chance to set up fast breaks off misses and evaporate any Bulls lead.
Really, the Bulls don’t want Butler playing point guard anymore next season to hog jump shots. Personally, I want him to evolve like the proverbial Larry Johnson-type monster, but more explosive and stronger attacking the rim off-ball.
This doesn’t mean Butler can’t shoot a mid-range jumper or three-pointer anymore. It just means the team works better with a pass-first point guard who swings the ball to the tall shooters (while Butler gets into position for easy baskets and rebounding like he used to in the course of the game). McDermott and Nikola Mirotic have enough passing smarts to swing the ball back to Butler when they are covered like in the first video with McDermott.
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Butler can help the team win easy and help his teammates evolve into a lethal scoring machine. His points will come, but he has to fit into Hoiball and know that the system works better if he allows a point guard to run the offense and work his game withing the system. Raining threes on opponents or running out for fast scores is the theme that must work next year. Butler can’t play point guard for this to work out.
This idea alone may inspire GarPax not to trade Jimmy Butler and have him earn back his All-Star slot next year if he can fit with Hoiball.
If he can’t, that is another story altogether.