Speaker 1: The Volume. All right, welcome to's tonight here the Volume.
Speaker 1: Happy Tuesday, everybody. Hope you guys are all having a
Speaker 1: good start to her week. We are live on end
Speaker 1: so if you're watching on YouTube or listening on the
Speaker 1: podcast feed, don't forget that AMP is the very first
Speaker 1: place that you guys can get these shows. We are
Speaker 1: continuing our player rankings today with number nine. Jimmy Butler.
Speaker 1: Been getting a lot of crap about putting Luca at ten.
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk a little bit about that as well.
Speaker 1: I also am gonna give a little bit of a
Speaker 1: breakdown of why I use specific shooting percentages and specific
Speaker 1: situations and give a little breakdown of what true shooting
Speaker 1: percentage means. You guys know the joke before we get started.
Speaker 1: Subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channel so you don't miss
Speaker 1: any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at
Speaker 1: underscore Jason Lts. You guys don't miss anyhow announcements. And
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Speaker 1: your podcasts. Under Hoops Tonight, all right, let's talk some
Speaker 1: basketball so really quick on the Lucas stuff, I figured
Speaker 1: this was gonna happen no matter who I put at
Speaker 1: number ten. Uh, that entire fan base was gonna be
Speaker 1: pissed off. That was just the way this was gonna work. Again.
Speaker 1: I encourage you, Luka Doncic fans or Dallas Mavericks fans
Speaker 1: to look at the people above him on this list,
Speaker 1: Like Steph one Finals MVP last year. You know, Uh,
Speaker 1: Jannis was considered the best player in the world by
Speaker 1: most people. Last year, Joki won Finals MVP. This year,
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant is Kevin freaking Durant. Everyone else deep playoff runs,
Speaker 1: you know, Lebron Western Conference Finals, Anthony Davis Western Conference Finals,
Speaker 1: Tatum Eastern Conference Finals, Jimmy Butler three wins away from
Speaker 1: an NBA championship. Joel Embi just won the league MVP award.
Speaker 1: So any one of those guys gets put below Luca
Speaker 1: and those fan bases are gonna be pissed off, which
Speaker 1: is kind of the nature of these lists, And I
Speaker 1: get it. I try to tell you guys, like I
Speaker 1: view everyone on this list super close, particularly within these tiers, right,
Speaker 1: I look at one through three is all kind of
Speaker 1: really close to each other. I look at four through
Speaker 1: twelve is really close to each other. And I look
Speaker 1: at thirteen through thirty nine with all my honorable mention,
Speaker 1: guys is really close to each other. To be honest,
Speaker 1: like I have Jimmy Butler at nine today, still don't
Speaker 1: know who I'm gonna put at number eight. I'm torn
Speaker 1: between two guys and I've literally gone back and forth
Speaker 1: on it a million times and I still don't know.
Speaker 1: And I'm gonna sleep on it one more time and
Speaker 1: we'll see how I feel tomorrow. But I see these
Speaker 1: guys as all super close. Do I think Luka Doncic
Speaker 1: is capable of out playing anybody on the higher end
Speaker 1: of this list? Of course he's Luka Doncic. I know
Speaker 1: what he's capable of. But at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: like we play the games for a reason, I everything is.
Speaker 1: If we don't value winning, then everything is theoretical. And
Speaker 1: basketball is not theoretical. It's a game that you try
Speaker 1: to win. And so for the purpose of my list,
Speaker 1: I'm going to give the nod to winning in a
Speaker 1: lot of these situations. And so with Luka don just
Speaker 1: having missed the playoffs, entirely in a field that has
Speaker 1: twenty of the thirty teams make the NBA Playoffs despite
Speaker 1: him playing in what sixty five games or whatever he
Speaker 1: played in this year, Like, I gave him the bottom
Speaker 1: spot on that list. That's just the way that I
Speaker 1: did it. I understand where you guys are coming from,
Speaker 1: but don't take it. The tenth best player in the
Speaker 1: league in the year twenty twenty three is not the
Speaker 1: same as the tenth best player in the league in
Speaker 1: the year twenty thirteen. The league is utterly stacked with talent.
Speaker 1: I have Damian Lillard at fourteen in my list, and
Speaker 1: like all the guys above him, have good cases to
Speaker 1: be there. That's just the nature of how stacked this
Speaker 1: league is. I do not dislike Luka Doncic. I tried
Speaker 1: to give you guys a full breakdown yesterday of all
Speaker 1: the different things that I feel about him, the things
Speaker 1: I like, the things that I'm not particularly a fan of.
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, I'm certainly aware
Speaker 1: of how incredibly good he is at basketball, and quite frankly,
Speaker 1: I expect him to be much higher on the list
Speaker 1: next year, and you know what, we'll reward him for
Speaker 1: that when we get to that point. On that note,
Speaker 1: let's move on with number nine on our list, Jimmy
Speaker 1: Butler season recap. He played in sixty four games this season.
Speaker 1: That's the most he's played in a single season since
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen. He averaged twenty three points per game, which
Speaker 1: was the second highest mark of his career. He did
Speaker 1: average twenty four points per game in twenty seventeen with
Speaker 1: the Chicago Bulls, but he played about four additional minutes
Speaker 1: per game in that season, so on a per thirty
Speaker 1: six basis, Jimmy actually averaged twenty five points per game
Speaker 1: this year, which was the highest mark of his career,
Speaker 1: so per minute scoring, the highest volume scoring season of
Speaker 1: his career, and sixty four point seven percent true shooting,
Speaker 1: which is the highest mark of his career and utterly
Speaker 1: off the charge good. That's like Steph Curry type of
Speaker 1: true shooting percentage performance from Jimmy Butler. So what I
Speaker 1: wanted to do is take a couple of minutes here
Speaker 1: to take a break from Jimmy and talk about true
Speaker 1: shooting percentage and what it means, because I've had several
Speaker 1: people ask about it, and you guys, see me always
Speaker 1: throw out all these stats on this show. You'll hear
Speaker 1: me throw out offensive rating, defensive rating. That's just points
Speaker 1: per one hundred possession. All that is is the scoreboard
Speaker 1: waited for pace. You'll hear me throw out points per
Speaker 1: possession on play types. All that does is take every
Speaker 1: single pick and roll that Steph Curry runs and how
Speaker 1: many points they score. It's just a simple equation of
Speaker 1: when Steph Curry either shoots out of pick and roll
Speaker 1: or passes out of pick and roll, how many points
Speaker 1: do they score. It's a good way for me to
Speaker 1: measure play types, right. But then we have field goal percentage,
Speaker 1: effective field goal percentage, and true shooting percentage, and all
Speaker 1: three of them I think surve a purpose. So I
Speaker 1: want to give a quick breakdown of what true shooting
Speaker 1: percentage means and why I use specific percentages in certain situations. So,
Speaker 1: first of all, true shooting percentage the actual equation. All
Speaker 1: it is is half of your total points divided by
Speaker 1: the number of true shooting attempts you had in that game.
Speaker 1: Your true shooting attempts is just the number of field
Speaker 1: goals you attempted plus the number of free throws you
Speaker 1: attempted times zero point four to four. And the simplest
Speaker 1: way I could break that down to you is to
Speaker 1: say that true shooting percentage is just a field goal
Speaker 1: percentage that is waited for both threes and free throws.
Speaker 1: Because guess what, If I beat my man off the
Speaker 1: dribble and he hacks me on the arm as I
Speaker 1: go up for a layup and I miss the layup,
Speaker 1: it doesn't count as a field goal attempt. But if
Speaker 1: I go to the line and I make both free throws,
Speaker 1: that is equally as valuable as if I drove to
Speaker 1: the basket made a left handed layup while not getting
Speaker 1: found right. So, true shooting percentage, in my opinion, is
Speaker 1: a very valuable stat first to actually factor in all
Speaker 1: the different ways that a player can score a basketball, right.
Speaker 1: So let's talk about each of the three percentages and
Speaker 1: why I think each of them have value. So, first
Speaker 1: of all, true shooting percentage is just field goal percentage
Speaker 1: waited for threes and free throws. Effective field goal percentage
Speaker 1: is just field goal percentage weighted for threes, and field
Speaker 1: goal percentage is just your total number of field goal
Speaker 1: attempts in the percentage you made those specific field attempts
Speaker 1: regardless of type. Right, here's why I value each Why
Speaker 1: would I think of it this way? Why would a
Speaker 1: field goal percentage matter? So if I went, you know,
Speaker 1: seven for twenty from the field, but I made seven threes,
Speaker 1: then I scored twenty one points on twenty shots, which
Speaker 1: is going to be a pretty good effective field goal
Speaker 1: percentage over fifty percent. Right, but I missed thirteen shots.
Speaker 1: A missed shot isn't just a failure to score the basketball.
Speaker 1: It's a rebound, often a long rebound on shots that
Speaker 1: are lower percentage further away from the basket. Long rebounds
Speaker 1: give opportunities for defenses to attack and transition the other way,
Speaker 1: especially on corner three point shots or layups missed at
Speaker 1: the rim. Why because in those situations, the offensive player
Speaker 1: is all the way at the baseline in a disadvantageous
Speaker 1: position to get back in transition defense. So field goal
Speaker 1: percentage has value in the sense that if you're a
Speaker 1: score that has a really low field goal percentage but
Speaker 1: a really high true shooting percentage, often there is a
Speaker 1: defensive price to be paid for all of those missshots.
Speaker 1: So field goal percentage has value in this discussion. Effective
Speaker 1: field goal percentage in my opinion is your is the
Speaker 1: best indicator of your ability to actually put the ball
Speaker 1: in the basket. Right, So, in a scenario where you're
Speaker 1: not getting the benefit of a whistle, how good are
Speaker 1: you at actually putting the ball in the basket. It's
Speaker 1: the value of all field goals, but it only counts
Speaker 1: field goals, not free throws. I use this one particularly
Speaker 1: on specific shot types. So, for instance, pull up jump shooting,
Speaker 1: there are a lot of pull up jump shooters that
Speaker 1: shoot really high percentages but don't ever take pull up threes,
Speaker 1: and so even though they shoot good percentages on pull
Speaker 1: up jump shots, their value on them is not great.
Speaker 1: Then there are a lot of guys like Steph Curry
Speaker 1: and Damian Lillard who take a ton of pull up threes, right,
Speaker 1: And those guys are gonna have lower field goal percentages
Speaker 1: on pull up jumps shots, but they're gonna have higher
Speaker 1: effective field goal percentages. So on specific shot types, particularly
Speaker 1: pull up shooting, you're gonna you guys are gonna hear
Speaker 1: me say, effective field goal percentage a lot catch and shoots,
Speaker 1: and in pull up jump shooting situations, for example, Kevin Durant,
Speaker 1: Joel Embiid, and Shay Gil Just Alexander are all guys
Speaker 1: that take a ton of pull up twos but very
Speaker 1: rarely take pull up threes, so their field goal percentages
Speaker 1: are pretty high, but the the their effective field goal
Speaker 1: percentage on the shot on those shots is relatively low.
Speaker 1: This is the best example I can give you. Steph
Speaker 1: Curry was only a forty four percent pull up jump
Speaker 1: shooter last year. Kevin Durant was a fifty five percent
Speaker 1: pull up jump shooter in Brooklyn last year. That's an
Speaker 1: eleven percent gap. But because Steph almost exclusively takes pull
Speaker 1: up threes, his effective field goal percentage on pull up
Speaker 1: jump shots was sixty one percent to just sixty percent
Speaker 1: for Kevin Durant. So that's kind of the value of
Speaker 1: effective field goal percentage. You're gonna primarily hear me reference
Speaker 1: that one in relation to catch and shoot shooting and
Speaker 1: pull up jump shooting because there's a delinea between long
Speaker 1: twos and threes, right, true shooting percentage, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: is the best overall marker of efficiency for a score
Speaker 1: because it factors in all three and remember, getting to
Speaker 1: the foul line is immensely valuable to your basketball team.
Speaker 1: Why the exact opposite of the concept we were talking
Speaker 1: about on missed shots mishots by transition opportunities for the
Speaker 1: opposing team. Right. So the goal is to get your
Speaker 1: defense set right, because when your defense is set, you've
Speaker 1: got an on ball defender, you've got the two guys
Speaker 1: one pass away playing in the passing lanes, and you
Speaker 1: have the two guys on the back line loaded up
Speaker 1: in the paint. That's your shell drill. Right. When your
Speaker 1: defense is set, it's very hard to score on you.
Speaker 1: When you're not set and the help defenders are spaced out,
Speaker 1: locating their man in transition or simply not back, there
Speaker 1: are a lot bigger gaps for the offense to attack,
Speaker 1: or a lot of times people fail to pick up
Speaker 1: the ball and the guy will drive the length of
Speaker 1: the floor and get a good look for himself in
Speaker 1: one way or another. Right, So getting your defense set
Speaker 1: is vitally important. The best way to get your defense set.
Speaker 1: Take a guess, is a dead ball situation, right, so
Speaker 1: out of bounds, time out and to the quarter, anything
Speaker 1: where the ball is being inbounded. Right. But what is
Speaker 1: the second best situation to set your defense. It's a
Speaker 1: free throw because in a free throw situation should you
Speaker 1: choose to, you could have four players back on defense.
Speaker 1: But even if you have two players in offensive rebound position,
Speaker 1: typically you're gonna put either a very gifted offensive rebounder
Speaker 1: or put your guards up there so they can pick
Speaker 1: up ball pressure. You're gonna have three guys back or
Speaker 1: two guys back ready and in a position to set
Speaker 1: your defense quicker than usual. Right, and then the third
Speaker 1: best situation to set your defense is an actual made basket.
Speaker 1: Still opportunity to push the ball and transition in those situations,
Speaker 1: but in a made basket, they have to take the
Speaker 1: ball out of the net, get behind the baseline, and
Speaker 1: then inbound it, so you buy yourself some time there. So,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, true shooting percentage, even though there's a
Speaker 1: downside to guys that are just purely foul grifters and
Speaker 1: the way that can affect your offense, overall, it's a
Speaker 1: beneficial thing for your team because if you get to
Speaker 1: the foul line, you get to set your defense, which
Speaker 1: makes it more likely for you to get a stop,
Speaker 1: which helps you get out and transition yourself. That you know,
Speaker 1: kind of chain reaction in a lot of cases can
Speaker 1: be started by getting to the foul line. Not only
Speaker 1: that it disrupts the rhythm of the opponent's offense. They're
Speaker 1: trying to get into a groove and they can't because
Speaker 1: they're constantly fouling you and sending you to the foul
Speaker 1: line and standing around for ten to fifteen seconds at
Speaker 1: a time. Right, But there are a lot of guys
Speaker 1: in the NBA you put up great true shooting percentage numbers,
Speaker 1: but they struggle to do that in the playoffs. Right,
Speaker 1: this is not exactly super uncommon. This is the Tray
Speaker 1: Young effect. This is the James Harden effect. Right? Why
Speaker 1: is that? Do you guys think? In my opinion, it's
Speaker 1: because if you have a great true shooting percentage, but
Speaker 1: a gap between your true shooting percentage and your actual
Speaker 1: shooting percentages, that implies, by the math, that you rely
Speaker 1: more on making long distance jump shots and by getting
Speaker 1: to the foul line. If you have a smaller gap
Speaker 1: between your efficiency in true shooting percentage and your actual
Speaker 1: field goal percentages, that means that you don't rely as
Speaker 1: much on long distance jump shot result and getting to
Speaker 1: the foul and getting a good whistle. Right, And so
Speaker 1: I think a lot of times you will see players
Speaker 1: that have those large gaps, really high true shooting percentages
Speaker 1: but low field goal percentages, You'll see them be much
Speaker 1: more prone to inconsistency in the playoffs because if they
Speaker 1: don't get a whistle on any given night, they suffer
Speaker 1: in the scoring. If they don't have their long distance
Speaker 1: jump shot going, they end up suffering in the scoring.
Speaker 1: The best example of this that I can give you,
Speaker 1: guys is Lebron James and James Harden. I have a
Speaker 1: couple of crazy stats that I'm going to give you guys,
Speaker 1: just kind of break this down. So Lebron is considered
Speaker 1: the most consistent playoff performer of this era. In the
Speaker 1: regular season for his career, he's fifty one percent field goals,
Speaker 1: fifty five percent effective field goals, fifty eight percent true shooting.
Speaker 1: In the postseason, he's fifty percent field goals, fifty four
Speaker 1: percent effective field goal percentage, and fifty eight percent in
Speaker 1: true shooting. He doesn't rely too much on getting to
Speaker 1: the fall line, and he doesn't rely too much on
Speaker 1: long distance shooting, and so the output, instead of being
Speaker 1: super up and down, is pretty consistent. Right. James Harden
Speaker 1: is considered the worst playoff performer of this era. He
Speaker 1: is a regular season career field goal percentage of forty
Speaker 1: four percent, effective field goal percentage of sixty three percent
Speaker 1: excuse me, fifty three percent, and a true shooting percentage
Speaker 1: of sixty one percent. So the gap for Lebron between
Speaker 1: is his actual field goal percentage and his true shooting
Speaker 1: percentage is only seven percent. For James Harden it's seventeen percent.
Speaker 1: So he relies a great deal on the whistle and
Speaker 1: long distance shot result to get the scoring that he needs.
Speaker 1: As a result of that, he's really inconsistent. If his
Speaker 1: step back three isn't going, he could have a bad game.
Speaker 1: If he he doesn't get the whistle that he wants,
Speaker 1: he can have a bad game. Here's the final stat
Speaker 1: I'm gonna read to you, guys. Lebron James has played
Speaker 1: in two hundred and eighty two career playoff games. In
Speaker 1: those two hundred and eighty two games, he has failed
Speaker 1: to score twenty points just thirty times. Thirty times in
Speaker 1: two hundred and eighty two games. That means he will
Speaker 1: have a bad game in terms of scoring output about
Speaker 1: one out of every ten times. In fact, even though
Speaker 1: he was in his twentieth season. This year, it happened
Speaker 1: to him just once this entire postseason. Old Lebron just
Speaker 1: one time this postseason. And what was that seventeen games?
Speaker 1: One out of seventeen times. Even if we take James
Speaker 1: Harden's Oklahoma City years completely out of the equation, when
Speaker 1: he was coming off the bench in inconsistent minutes and
Speaker 1: he was super young, right, not the player that we
Speaker 1: think of James Harden as. Now, let's take those games out.
Speaker 1: Just looking at the Houston years, in the Brooklyn years
Speaker 1: and everything since, right in the Philly years, he's played
Speaker 1: in one hundred and seventeen playoff games. James Harden has
Speaker 1: failed to score twenty points in thirty one of those
Speaker 1: one hundred and seventeen playoff games, more than a fourth
Speaker 1: of the time, more times than Lebron in about a
Speaker 1: third as many games. Think about how crazy that is.
Speaker 1: James Harden, more than a fourth of the time, is
Speaker 1: gonna go out and not score twenty points in a
Speaker 1: playoff game, because if his step back three isn't going,
Speaker 1: and if he's not getting the whistle, that's where you're
Speaker 1: seeing the gap and the true shooting percentage and the
Speaker 1: field goal percentage manifest itself in the playoffs in inconsistency
Speaker 1: of result. And so that's why, like again, you're gonna
Speaker 1: see me use them in specific situations, but each one
Speaker 1: of them has value. True shooting percentage, you're gonna see
Speaker 1: me use that for full seasons, particularly playoff runs and
Speaker 1: playoff series as well for scorers. And I'm gonna be
Speaker 1: really paying close attention to how that affects you in
Speaker 1: the postseason. Effective field goal percentage more jump shot result,
Speaker 1: long distance twos versus threes, right, so catch and shoots
Speaker 1: and pull up shooting situations. Field goal percentage, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: use that mostly on shot types. What's your field goal
Speaker 1: percentage on hooks? What's your field goal percentage on floaters?
Speaker 1: What's your field goal percentage at the rim? What's your
Speaker 1: field goal percentage on specific like, oh, a fadeaway jump
Speaker 1: shot over your right shoulder, out of the post. You know,
Speaker 1: those are the situations where I find field goal percentage
Speaker 1: more useful. Also, as a team, field goal percentage is
Speaker 1: super value. How often as a team do you have
Speaker 1: an opportunity to set your defense? But they each have
Speaker 1: specific value in these discussions. Again, it's not an exact science.
Speaker 1: To quote my friend Mark Titus, basketball is an art,
Speaker 1: not a science, and so this isn't perfection. Everyone's kind
Speaker 1: of got a different way of looking at it. I
Speaker 1: don't think an equation or a stat is ever going
Speaker 1: to perfectly encapsulated basketball player. But we do the best
Speaker 1: we can with the tools we have at our disposal,
Speaker 1: and hopefully that little ran will help you guys understand
Speaker 1: how I look at things in the statistical realm. For
Speaker 1: shooting percentages, All right, let's get back to Jimmy Butler.
Speaker 1: So sixty four four point seven percent for shooting for
Speaker 1: a season. That is a truly great number, by far
Speaker 1: the best mark of his career. Solid shot creation season
Speaker 1: on a point per possession basis as well, one point
Speaker 1: zero four points per possession and pick and roll that's
Speaker 1: seventy first percentile one point one zero points per ISO
Speaker 1: on good volume. He actually qualified for our two hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty ISO lists. So out of the twenty five
Speaker 1: players to run at least two hundred and fifty ISOs
Speaker 1: this season, Jimmy Butler ranked seventh in points per possession,
Speaker 1: above the likes of Luka Doncic, Kawhi Leonard, and Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant on that list. Also one point zero one points
Speaker 1: per post up, which is slightly above average. Shot making
Speaker 1: was also really good. Fifty six percent effective field goal
Speaker 1: percentage on catch and shoot jumpers, although super low volume,
Speaker 1: kind of similar to Luca. Doesn't take a lot of
Speaker 1: catch and shoot threes, but he is super active in
Speaker 1: spot up situations. He likes to drive closeouts. Forty seven
Speaker 1: percent effective field goal percentage on pull up jump shots,
Speaker 1: mostly twos ton of mid range pull ups. His actual
Speaker 1: field goal percentage is just forty five percent, so very
Speaker 1: small gap there because he's not taking any threes, forty
Speaker 1: seven percent on floaters, fifty six percent on hooks, and
Speaker 1: sixty two percent at the rim. So as a shot maker,
Speaker 1: he's one of the better guys in the league. Then
Speaker 1: he had this super interesting playoff run completely obliterated and
Speaker 1: embarrassed Gianna Santana Kumpo in the Milwaukee Bucks. He scored
Speaker 1: ninety eight points in the final two games of the series,
Speaker 1: including a ton of clutch shots. To give you an example,
Speaker 1: they're in all the clutch minutes of the series. Jimmy
Speaker 1: Butler scored twenty one points and the Bucks as a
Speaker 1: team scored twenty four points, so Jimmy almost by himself
Speaker 1: outscored the Bucks in clutch situations in that series. He
Speaker 1: finished the series averaging thirty eight six and five on
Speaker 1: sixty percent from the field and forty four percent from three,
Speaker 1: which translates to a sixty five percent effective field goal
Speaker 1: percentage in sixty seven percent true shooting percentage for those
Speaker 1: of you guys keeping track from earlier. By the way,
Speaker 1: not a huge true shooting gap because it didn't shoot
Speaker 1: well when he got to the foul line in that series,
Speaker 1: missed a lot of free throws, but really not a
Speaker 1: bad start to a playoff run. Ridiculous stat line. Two
Speaker 1: massive games almost completely like just completely dominate the series
Speaker 1: in clutch situations, and you did it to the number
Speaker 1: one overall seed, and you did it to the guy
Speaker 1: that most people considered the best player in the world
Speaker 1: at the time. So again, Luka Doncic fans, when you're
Speaker 1: thinking about who you should put below Luca, just think
Speaker 1: about the things that the players above him accomplished in
Speaker 1: this particular season and how they would feel if the
Speaker 1: roles were reversed. Now, after that series, Jimmy Butler kind
Speaker 1: of returned back to the normal Jimmy. He's kind of
Speaker 1: a guy that also relies on a lot of pull
Speaker 1: up jump shots and getting to the foul line, and
Speaker 1: so he has a tendency to misshot some nights and
Speaker 1: not get the calls some nights, and that can hurt
Speaker 1: his scoring, and so you saw that he this year.
Speaker 1: He's failed to score twenty in four of the final
Speaker 1: eighteen playoff games, kind of similar to what happened last year.
Speaker 1: Remember where he had two random single digit scoring games
Speaker 1: in the Eastern Conference finals. The Heat in this postseason
Speaker 1: were undefeated when Jimmy scored thirty or more points. That
Speaker 1: was in five games, but they were two and four
Speaker 1: when he scored twenty one points or fewer. So that
Speaker 1: inconsistency did directly translate to the Heat losing some games
Speaker 1: as well. That also dropped his numbers after the Bucks series.
Speaker 1: So in the final three rounds of the playoffs, he
Speaker 1: averaged twenty three point eight points per game, forty two
Speaker 1: percent from the field and thirty one percent from three.
Speaker 1: So that drop off and that inconsistency is the main
Speaker 1: reason why I had him down at nine on this list,
Speaker 1: despite being just three wins away from the NBA Championship.
Speaker 1: I but like, honestly, as I was staring closely at it,
Speaker 1: and again I was just just on the fence for
Speaker 1: almost every single guy in this top ten. I'm still
Speaker 1: on the fence as we move on day by day.
Speaker 1: But I just think the guys above Jimmy on this
Speaker 1: list are better than him right now and had enough
Speaker 1: playoff success or winning success during the season to justify
Speaker 1: having them there for the time being. But again, as
Speaker 1: it pertains to Luca, like, I just can't because even
Speaker 1: with all of that, even with the inconsistency, even with
Speaker 1: the somewhat average final three playoff rounds, he finished the
Speaker 1: playoff run averaging twenty seven, seven and six on fifty
Speaker 1: seven percent true shooting, and was the clear best player
Speaker 1: on a team that got three wins away from an
Speaker 1: NBA championship, knocked out the two best records in the league,
Speaker 1: knocked out two guys above him on this list, Like,
Speaker 1: come on, man, how can I put him below Luca?
Speaker 1: How in my right mind can I watch him actually
Speaker 1: do that in games and put him below Luca? Again,
Speaker 1: if we just look at the skill sets, it's all theoretical.
Speaker 1: We play the games to determine results, and for me,
Speaker 1: on my list, I'm always gonna reward guys who win
Speaker 1: basketball games, and I'm going to at least for the
Speaker 1: at least temporarily give guys lower spots on the list
Speaker 1: when they have seasons where the winning doesn't follow for
Speaker 1: one reason or another. Why does Jimmy Allway seem to
Speaker 1: go up a level in the postseason. I think this
Speaker 1: is a super interesting topic because every year when this happens,
Speaker 1: everyone freaking loses their mind and goes, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: it's playff Jimmy. It's playoff Jimmy. But it's super unique
Speaker 1: to me. But at the same time, it's explainable with
Speaker 1: basketball concepts. So I want to dive into that a
Speaker 1: little bit. I want to start on the defensive end here,
Speaker 1: because I think it's the most important element. Jimmy's postseason
Speaker 1: numbers really aren't that impressive, right, Like, even as I
Speaker 1: had read those number twenty seven to seven and six, like,
Speaker 1: that's pretty on par with like what what Jamal Murray
Speaker 1: averaged in this playoff run, right, So, like, what is
Speaker 1: it statistically that's impressive? Nothing particularly right, But at the
Speaker 1: same time, he keeps winning these huge playoff games and
Speaker 1: series against guys that we've always thought were better than him.
Speaker 1: So in the basketball game, not the box score. In
Speaker 1: the basketball game, Jimmy stays winning. And why do we
Speaker 1: think that is? I think we have to start with
Speaker 1: the defensive end of the floor. Jimmy is a defensive
Speaker 1: playmaker on the perimeter. He gets compared to Michael Jordan
Speaker 1: a lot, and I don't really see that much offensively,
Speaker 1: but I do see it on the defensive end of
Speaker 1: the floor. Michael Jordan was a super aggressive defensive playmaker
Speaker 1: on the perimeter that forced a ton of turnovers and
Speaker 1: got out in transition. That is Jimmy's bread and butter.
Speaker 1: Whether it's poking the ball away from ball handlers in
Speaker 1: the dribble pocket to playing passing lanes, he is constantly
Speaker 1: jumping things, forcing turnovers and leading to easy baskets the
Speaker 1: other way. Here's another crazy stat for you. Since the
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen bubble, Jimmy Butler leads the entire NBA in
Speaker 1: playoff steals by a mile. He has one hundred and
Speaker 1: thirty eight steals in that span. Nobody else in the
Speaker 1: league has even cracked one hundred. Take a guess. Who's
Speaker 1: number two. If you guessed Kawhi Leonard, you were correct.
Speaker 1: But in my opinion, he's arguably the best defensive playmaker
Speaker 1: in the league, which is why it was so genius
Speaker 1: to put him on Jlen Brown to break his confidence
Speaker 1: in Game seven of the Eastern Conference Finals. It's why
Speaker 1: him and bam at a We're by far the most
Speaker 1: effective duo guarding the Jamal Murray Nicole Jokic pick and
Speaker 1: roll in or two man game in this postseason. Just
Speaker 1: Jimmy's ridiculous ability to chase over the top, which allowed
Speaker 1: Bam at A bio to stay home and battle with Jokic,
Speaker 1: and he pressured Jamal Murray into a lot of tough shots.
Speaker 1: In fact, four of the Nuggets' lowest scoring games in
Speaker 1: this postseason were against Miami, and I thought Jimmy and
Speaker 1: Bam were the key driving force behind that defensive success.
Speaker 1: I also thought that played a pretty significant role in
Speaker 1: Miami's offense sputtering and Jimmy and BAM's offense sputtering. At times.
Speaker 1: I thought I had a lot to do with the
Speaker 1: amount of energy they were expending to slow down Denver
Speaker 1: successfully compared to their peers. Although in a loss. He
Speaker 1: was also super valuable in Miami's zone, playing in gaps
Speaker 1: and baiting the Celtics into making bad passes, enforcing turnovers.
Speaker 1: That defense development is a legit advantage that Jimmy has
Speaker 1: over his peers, and it's a big part of why
Speaker 1: he keeps beating them in these big games. And that
Speaker 1: is a big part of why I have him as
Speaker 1: high on this list as I do. On the offensive end,
Speaker 1: it's all the usual stuff. He's an excellent athlete at
Speaker 1: his position, especially when it comes to strength, so he
Speaker 1: does not have trouble getting to his spots in the
Speaker 1: physical environment of the NBA playoffs. He is a versatile
Speaker 1: and creative scorer that very rarely does the same thing twice.
Speaker 1: He's got variety. As you're guarding him, you don't go, oh,
Speaker 1: I know he's going to this move next, You're like,
Speaker 1: oh shit, what's he gonna do next? And that variety
Speaker 1: is a huge part of his success. He's a rim,
Speaker 1: pressuring forward that can make plays for his teammates. Everyone
Speaker 1: looks at Miami's shooting success is just random hot shooting,
Speaker 1: but a lot of it has to do with Jimmy
Speaker 1: setting up his teammates for great looks out of rim pressure.
Speaker 1: He passed out of pick and roll ISO or post
Speaker 1: up situations to spot up shooters one hundred and twenty
Speaker 1: one times in this postseason run, and the Heat scored
Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty three points on those possessions. That
Speaker 1: is off the charge good. That is one point two
Speaker 1: six points per possession. That's worth almost as much as
Speaker 1: a Michael Porter junior catching shoot three when he's open
Speaker 1: like that is. That is ridiculous performance down the roster
Speaker 1: for the Byam Heat because of the playmaking ability of
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler. He is a super active off ball player.
Speaker 1: He scored one hundred and six points in this playoff
Speaker 1: run either cutting to the basket or spotting up on
Speaker 1: the perimeter, and he bolsters his numbers with easy baskets
Speaker 1: in dirty work. He had eighty points in transition during
Speaker 1: this playoff. He had thirty one points just on offensive
Speaker 1: rebound put backs and fouls in this postseason run. So
Speaker 1: you know, at the end of the day, Jimmy is
Speaker 1: just a winning basketball player. It will never be properly
Speaker 1: displayed in box score numbers or in the awards that
Speaker 1: he wins, but it'll be resoundingly displayed in the simple
Speaker 1: fact that he's always playing in late May and June.
Speaker 1: He wins basketball games, which is the entire reason why
Speaker 1: we do this, and that is why I have him
Speaker 1: as the ninth best basketball player in the world. The
Speaker 1: volume