Should Jimmy Butler be "given" the starting job?

czman

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The one thing that the Spurs beating the Heat really drove home for me was that teams in the modern NBA cannot have defensive specialists who cannot shoot the ball. Wing players have to be able to shoot the ball.

Jimmy Butler has shot 31% from 3 for his career. The Wizards didn't even guard him on the perimeter. He was a huge liability when the Bulls had the ball in the playoffs.

From where I sit the Bulls have to bring in someone who can shoot the ball and push Butler. Even if the Bulls get Melo, they are not going to beat any of the good teams if they have a starting SG who cannot hit an open jumper. I don't think they can just hand him the starting job this season. I hope he develops 3 point range, but I don't think the Bulls should bet the season on it.

Right now the Bulls probably need both of their 1st round picks so they have a chance to bring in 2 shooters who can help open up the half court offense. Especially when you consider that Dunleavy is up after this season and DJ might not be back.

Thoughts?
 

Scoot26

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The one thing that the Spurs beating the Heat really drove home for me was that teams in the modern NBA cannot have defensive specialists who cannot shoot the ball. Wing players have to be able to shoot the ball.

Jimmy Butler has shot 31% from 3 for his career. The Wizards didn't even guard him on the perimeter. He was a huge liability when the Bulls had the ball in the playoffs.

From where I sit the Bulls have to bring in someone who can shoot the ball and push Butler. Even if the Bulls get Melo, they are not going to beat any of the good teams if they have a starting SG who cannot hit an open jumper. I don't think they can just hand him the starting job this season. I hope he develops 3 point range, but I don't think the Bulls should bet the season on it.

Right now the Bulls probably need both of their 1st round picks so they have a chance to bring in 2 shooters who can help open up the half court offense. Especially when you consider that Dunleavy is up after this season and DJ might not be back.

Thoughts?
In 2012-13 Jimmy improved and looked to be developing a decent shot. This year he really regressed and got worse offensively. I don't really know what to make of it anymore.
 

czman

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In 2012-13 Jimmy improved and looked to be developing a decent shot. This year he really regressed and got worse offensively. I don't really know what to make of it anymore.

He did. When I looked closer though he actually shot insanely well for ~30 games and that is what raised his %. If you take out that small sample size he has been pretty bad for the rest of his career.
 

RC_Skinny22

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Given the fact that he is one of the best wing defenders in this league and plays heavy minutes, I say he has to start and we have to hope that he improves his shot.

But I think he should start at SF and it´s the number one key for the FO to bring in a big time shot creator at the SG position.

Let´s not forget that Jimmy had to shoot many contested shots at the end of the shot clock. That hurt his percentage.


With another creator and him spoting up in the corners I expect him to raise his percentage again.
 

vinson555

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Given the fact that he is one of the best wing defenders in this league and plays heavy minutes, I say he has to start and we have to hope that he improves his shot.

But I think he should start at SF and it´s the number one key for the FO to bring in a big time shot creator at the SG position.

Let´s not forget that Jimmy had to shoot many contested shots at the end of the shot clock. That hurt his percentage.


With another creator and him spoting up in the corners I expect him to raise his percentage again.


With no Rose and even no Deng, there wasn't a guy to be the number 1 scoring option... Boozer, hah! All they had was the hope that Butler got better and maybe he did, but the difference between the Bulls and the Spurs is the talent around him. Butler doesn't have vets like Parker, Duncan, even Manu off the bench. All of them have an offensive game. No one in the starting lineup can even compare to one of the starters on offense.
 

ChiSoxCity

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The one thing that the Spurs beating the Heat really drove home for me was that teams in the modern NBA cannot have defensive specialists who cannot shoot the ball. Wing players have to be able to shoot the ball.

Jimmy Butler has shot 31% from 3 for his career. The Wizards didn't even guard him on the perimeter. He was a huge liability when the Bulls had the ball in the playoffs.

From where I sit the Bulls have to bring in someone who can shoot the ball and push Butler. Even if the Bulls get Melo, they are not going to beat any of the good teams if they have a starting SG who cannot hit an open jumper. I don't think they can just hand him the starting job this season. I hope he develops 3 point range, but I don't think the Bulls should bet the season on it.

Right now the Bulls probably need both of their 1st round picks so they have a chance to bring in 2 shooters who can help open up the half court offense. Especially when you consider that Dunleavy is up after this season and DJ might not be back.

Thoughts?

No offense, but it's comical that people are just now realizing this after years of poor shooting and lack of offense from the Bulls. Defense gets you regular season wins, but above average, well balanced scoring gets you championships. I've been saying this for years.
 

ChettheJet

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Not a single player on this roster should be guaranteed a starting spot.

True enough. And as soon as the Bulls acquire a player at the 2 or 3 who they think is better than Butler, he should start. I don't think Dunleavy is better, I know Snell isn't. What will be ignored here is, Thibs coaches defense. I'll bet they could find a dozen players who could out shoot and out score Butler, but they would be so far behind him on defense, Thibs wouldn't want to play them ahead of Butler. You can feed on stats until your head explodes but if you wish to ignore what your coach values, you will be wrong on a regular basis.
 

PolarBear

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Who else is going to start? Tony Snell? Lol

Jimmy is going to be our starting 2 or 3 depending on if we sign or make a trade for Melo or Love...One of which is going to happen, Bulls have the everything in place to make it happen but that's besides the point.

I think Jimmy is a slightly better version of Thabo Sefolosha...There is definitely spot on your team for him because of his supreme defensive ability and he can start for your team and play 25-30mins but you better have a couple perimeter shooters who can come on and light it up when you need it. I am not saying Jimmy is totally inept offensively, I would say is a little better offensive player than Thabo and a better rebounder but I don't think he is going to be a two way player like we thought he was going to be like a Danny Green or Kawhi Leonard.
 

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Who else is going to start? Tony Snell? Lol

Jimmy is going to be our starting 2 or 3 depending on if we sign or make a trade for Melo or Love...One of which is going to happen, Bulls have the everything in place to make it happen but that's besides the point.

I think Jimmy is a slightly better version of Thabo Sefolosha...There is definitely spot on your team for him because of his supreme defensive ability and he can start for your team and play 25-30mins but you better have a couple perimeter shooters who can come on and light it up when you need it. I am not saying Jimmy is totally inept offensively, I would say is a little better offensive player than Thabo and a better rebounder but I don't think he is going to be a two way player like we thought he was going to be like a Danny Green or Kawhi Leonard.
I think he still has a chance to be kind of like Leonard lite. I think what he suffered from this year, more so than playing a crapton of minutes, is that he was moved up to like a 2nd option on offense because we had NO ONE who could score. I think Jimmy might've been the 2nd leading scorer on the team...not quite sure, but he was 2nd or 3rd. Last year, he had Nate and Marco ahead of him offensively to do most of the shot creating so he got better looks. This year, he only had DJ. He also took a lot more shots at the rim last year. That said, he still regressed a bit as his FG% indicates.

We've seen Jimmy shoot 40% from 3 before for a stretch. He's got it in his system, but I think he needs a lot less pressure on him to score for him to score efficiently. If you toss in a healthy Rose and another scorer in front of him, I think we'll like what we see.
 

Axl Rose

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i think he'll have a better year offensively next season

but yeah if his offense is as bad as it was this past year he shouldn't be playing 45 minutes a game

if he does start we should have a Ben Gordon type player off then bench to back him up so it gives a us different looks for different situations
 

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I think what happened to Jimmy was tired legs. His shot was flat this year. You can't blame him for that since he became Deng Jr. Of course your % is going to go down when you play the type of minutes he did. If we can pick up Melo I can guarantee his % will go up because it will relieve a lot of pressure for him to try and score not to mention he will find himself open as a third option when Rose collapses the D, kick to Melo and if he doesn't have shot Jimmy's man is more likely to help on Melo. I think this year though is his last chance to prove to be a two-way player. If not he will forever just be a defensive specialist and probably end up a journeyman.

As for Snell, give the poor kid a break. Gotta get used to the three ball. We all know Thibs hates playing rookies and he lost confidence because of the short leash. Was I the only one who noticed his looking at the bench like we was getting yanked after every rookie mistake. I don't care who you are you can't focus under that stress. We all have seen what he can do when he has confidence. Pretty stroke and can take it to the rack. Needs to hit the gym strong.
 

cjswan232482

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Snell is more of a natural shooter than Butler. He was just a typical rookie and Thibs dislike playing rookies. Would Snell be further along under Popovich. Probably.
 

houheffna

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If I am not mistaken (someone correct me), Butler didn't get off to some sizzling hot start. I don't think he is that great of an offensive player at this point. I can't blame his legs for that.
 

JZsportsfan

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Nobody is "given" a starting job. Especially any SG on the roster. I think there is a really good chance the Bulls either add a SG, or draft a SG that should compete with Butler to start. Not saying they will be better than Butler, but they should at least be given a chance
 

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Butler has shown glimpses of brillance on both ends of the court, and plays especially well with Rose. He is athletic and disciplined, much like Leonard of the Spurs. He is also young, and needs minutes to gain confidence and do what comes naturally to him. He and Augustine are the only two Bulls who can shoot from the perimeter with AND beat a defender off the dribble for an easy layup or free throws.
 

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If I am not mistaken (someone correct me), Butler didn't get off to some sizzling hot start. I don't think he is that great of an offensive player at this point. I can't blame his legs for that.
His first 9 games before he got injured he actually shot 38% from 3 and around 43-44% from the field. After he came back he struggled.
 

clonetrooper264

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Butler has shown glimpses of brillance on both ends of the court, and plays especially well with Rose. He is athletic and disciplined, much like Leonard of the Spurs. He is also young, and needs minutes to gain confidence and do what comes naturally to him. He and Augustine are the only two Bulls who can shoot from the perimeter with AND beat a defender off the dribble for an easy layup or free throws.
Again...he played 38 minutes per game. He got all the minutes he could want to gain confidence and whatnot. No other player on the team contested his spot in the starting lineup. You would think that would create a lot of confidence. He shot bad because he shot bad.
 

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