Jimmy Butler can’t trick us anymore
Jimmy Butler isn't why the Miami Heat lost the NBA Finals to the Denver Nuggets in five games. Denver was a deeper, more complete team. But he also wouldn't have been the reason they won the series, either.
Had Miami come back from down 3-1 to beat Denver, Bam Adebayo, widely viewed as the Heat's second go-to guy, was poised to take home his first Finals MVP award.
Now that the sun has set on the Heat, who've appeared in two of the last four Finals, we ask the question: Is Butler good enough to lead a team to a championship?
The answer is no.
I've rejected the narrative that Butler has been an NBA superstar for years. I'll admit this postseason, his play had me reevaluating where he ranks amongst his contemporaries, but it's easy to fall victim to being a prisoner of the moment.
At this stage in his career, Butler, 33, is what he is. He won't jump off your screen during the regular season, but give him a stage to shine in the playoffs, and he will. He's a throwback player. His competitive fervor is what coaches and players around the league respect most about him.
But Butler has never been a superstar, even though he's had superstar moments and times when he's played like the best player in the world in the postseason. I never once thought Butler was in the same breath as LeBron James, Steph Curry, Kawhi Leonard, and Kevin Durant— the four players I considered to be on the NBA's Mount Rushmore last decade.
It sounds like I'm piling on Butler because his team came up short again in the Finals, but that's not what this is about. Butler losing to a superior Denver team isn't an indictment on his career, and Butler losing to James and Anthony Davis in six games in the NBA Bubble isn't a stain on his legacy.
Neither was the series against the Nuggets.
Denver's gentleman's sweep of Miami reaffirmed what we already knew. If Butler is the best player on your team, your team can't win a championship.
The legend of Jimmy Butler has grown over the past few seasons because of what he's accomplished with Miami and how the Philadelphia 76ers chose Ben Simmons over him. The Heat went from losing a play-in game to the Atlanta Hawks to defeating the No.1 seed Milwaukee Bucks in the first round.
Despite Giannis Antetokounmpo's injury in Game 1 against the Heat, Miami is a bad matchup for the Bucks any year. As much as I loved seeing the New York Knicks back in the postseason, Miami proved to be the better team throughout their series.
I thought the Eastern Conference Finals would end Miami's Cinderella run, but I was wrong.
Butler scored 28 points in Game 7 at TD Garden to propel Miami past the Boston Celtics. Miami became just the second eight-seed in NBA history to reach the Finals. The Knicks were the first to do it in 1999. Unfortunately, sports media has yet to accept that the Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown duo is just a taller, more talented version of Demar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry on the Toronto Raptors.
The media raved about Pat Riley for establishing the "Heat Culture" alongside Alonzo Mourning and his hand-picked coach Erik Spoelstra. But like Butler, the Heat Culture has a ceiling. As much as fans rightfully lament superteams dominating the NBA, teams still need superstars to win championships.
Spoelstra is a great coach, but there's a reason he's 0-2 in his last Finals appearances. It's because he doesn't have a LeBron on his squad. When Spoelstra won back-to-back titles with Miami, he had the luxury of coaching a prime James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh. Miami had a nice mix of veterans, Ray Allen, Mike Miller, and Shane Battier, but their superstars led them.
The Heat need a superstar. I don't know if Joel Embiid or Damian Lillard solves that problem, but acquiring either guy would take a lot of pressure off Butler. We like Miami because they're well-coached and compete to the final whistle, but they'll never win a championship if Butler is their best player.
The little engine that could story is cute until you finally realize it can't—and that's a tough pill to swallow.
