Jimmy Butler has spoken already about new coach Fred Hoiberg and all the crevices that have opened up on the offensive end under his inchoate regime in Chicago. The emphasis on spacing the floor, specifically with shooters — until Pau Gasol comes back and gets paired with Joakim Noah in the front court — drawing defenders to the arc, leaves a lot of hardwood for a player who’s just starting to come into his own as an offensive weapon.
While Jimmy has shot poorly in Denver through three quarters on Thursday night (2/10), he has shown off some rather impressive all-around skills, the kind that make him a de facto point guard in Derrick Rose’s absence.
While not a bucket, here he shakes off Gary Harris’ on-ball defense and goes behind his back to use the screen, something he might not have been able to muster a couple seasons ago.
But this action right here is what must have Bulls fans giddy at his future prospects on the offensive end. He splits the blitz defense on the high screen with Nikola Mirotic slipping between both Nuggets defenders, and when Denver’s Nikola Jovic steps up, Butler drops a gorgeous dime to Nico for the lefty layup.
There’s more to marvel at in this sequence from the same spot in the half court, but this time Kenneth Faried drops back to the elbow (like Tom Thibodeau is running the Nuggets defense) on a Joakim Noah screen for Butler on the wing. But Jimmy takes the space in front of Faried to attack him and then hang in mid air long enough to get a left-handed scoop to fall through.
It’s so fun to watch, we wanna show it again.
That’s an incredibly difficult continuation foul to finish using the off hand, and Faried wasn’t lackadaisical about his help defense, either. Butler is just too strong after the contact and too quick to attack the opening when Faried dropped back from the original pick.
Oh yeah, Butler can also still perform on the other end, too.
The Bulls will end up losing Thursday night (as of this writing, they’re down 109-86 with a little under three minutes left), and Butler’s box score won’t look as efficient as his opening preseason game against the Bucks, but the confidence is certainly there and dreams of reaching truly elite status are rapidly becoming the reality.
