3. Nene, Power Forward/Center
Maybe the most pedestrian name on this list is the current veteran free agent big man Nene. There actually is not a single player that handed Butler more losses in his career thus far than Nene. With 20 career losses between the regular season and the playoffs to Nene, Butler had a lot of trouble against the now 37-year-old Brazilian big man.
As a whole, the Bulls are not a fan of Brazilian big men. Bulls overpaid Brazilian 6-foot-10 and 270 pound center/power forward Cristiano Felicio is another example of a native of Nene’s country that held this team up at certain point of his career.
Felicio is definitely also holding up the Bulls cap sheet in the midst of their 2020 offseason.
However, Nene holds a career 20-4 record over Butler between the regular season and the playoffs. Of those four wins for Butler in his career against Nene, two of them came in the regular season and the other two in the playoffs. And most of those losses to Nene came when he was a member of the Houston Rockets and Washington Wizards.
And the letdowns in the playoffs for Butler against Nene came once with the Timberwolves against the Rockets, and then also with the Bulls against the Wizards. In the 15 regular season games played for Nene against Butler, he averaged 11.1 points per game, 5.7 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 0.7 steals, and 0.5 blocks. In the nine games played between each other in the playoffs, Nene averaged 9.6 points per game, 4.7 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 0.8 steals, and 0.7 blocks.