At his best, Jimmy Butler is an unstoppable scorer who thrives in the most valuable spot on the court: right at the rim.
Agile enough to maneuver in traffic, crafty enough to draw fouls from unwitting defenders, burly enough to finish through that contact for high-percentage shots.
“Whatever the right play is to make, that’s the play he makes,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said on Wednesday. “So I don’t ever worry about Jimmy.”
But recently, that top-notch scoring form has been absent for a Warriors team that has bobbed barely above and slightly below .500 all season.
While Butler is averaging 19.1 points per game, up from 17.5 a year ago, raw stats do not paint the whole picture.
Butler, 36, has been listed with back, glute and knee injuries already this season, which could explain the drop in his scoring effectiveness. Butler has never been a high-level 3-point shooter. Instead, he has lived at the rim in short midrange as an off-the-dribble scorer.
Last season, a re-energized Butler made 65% of his shots within 5 feet of the rim after being traded from Miami in early February.
And early on this season, he was scoring at a scintillating rate and still boasts a 62.6% rate on close shots.
However, his last 10 games tell a different story. Butler is making just 56.9% of his attempts in that same area, a more significant decline from last year.
His midrange efficiency has also taken a dip, albeit in a small sample size. Butler made 44% of his shots from 8-to-16 feet last season, but has made just 4 of 16 over his last 10 games. Core and knee issues could certainly impact a player’s ability to elevate on jump shots and layups, and at age 36, those injuries surely take a bit longer to heal.
The numbers are not all negative, however. Declining scoring efficiency has not blunted his aggression.
According to the NBA’s tracking data, Butler is still just as determined as ever when it comes to taking the ball to the basket. He averages 12.0 drives per game this season, 12.8 last season and 12.9 over his last 10.
He is also still taking a healthy 7.8 free throws per game, almost identical to the 7.7 he took last year. And Butler is still taking 11.5 shots per game, mirroring the 11.4 he was getting up last season.
So how can the Warriors help transform those drives from empty possessions into points? Well, perhaps the unhappy fan who emailed team owner Joe Lacob had a point, because the team acknowledged that Butler, who often lines up at power forward rather his traditional small forward spot, has not been playing in the right places.
Starting forward Moses Moody said it is on the rest of the team to put Butler in a position to succeed.
“I think it’s just about getting him the ball,” Moody said. “Get him the ball in ideal offensive situations and he can handle the rest.”
Draymond Green mostly agreed with Moody’s assessment, but also put some onus on the six-time All-Star, something Kerr had also done recently.
“As I do a better job of that, we need Jimmy to be more aggressive and demonstrative and take the ball, and say where he wants the ball,” Green said after Sunday’s loss in Portland. “And he will.”
Horford, Spencer out
Al Horford and Pat Spencer were both ruled out of Thursday’s game in Phoenix.
Spencer will miss the game with an excused personal absence. His younger brother, Grizzlies guard Cam Spencer, also missed his team’s game the day before.
Al Horford has played only one game in the past month while he deals with sciatica, and his return is not imminent. Horford told reporters in Phoenix at Thursday’s shootaround that he will take a week or two to build up enough physical condition to return to the court.
