Sixerscan wrote:LloydFree wrote:Sixerscan wrote:Butler do what he had to do in the Nets series. He was the only one that showed up in game 1 and the rest of the games he didn’t get kicked out of were blowouts.
Butler, who is supposedly a great defender, couldn't guard anybody in either series. Ben Simmons had to do his work for him in both series.
I don’t really care to defend Jimmy Butler at this point, but I think you’re being a little hard on the guy. He had a great post season run for us.
I thought Butler had a great run for us and really was the offensive centerpiece that you hope Jojo is next season, but I agree with his defensive point. He's still a smart, tough defender, but for a guy who has 4 second team all defense selections he's definitely past his prime on that side of the ball. There's no more taking a teams best wing and locking them down. Bigger guys like Kawhi, Lebron, Paul George, etc. overpower him and he can't keep up with smaller guards like Irving and Kemba.
His most redeeming qualities at this point are his ability to score at every level and offensive versatility, the ability to create for himself and others, and just being that guy you want with the ball in his hands in crunch time.
At the end of the day you're rendering Ben useless and mitigating Tobias if that's the case though. And in my opinion Tobias is a probably one of the best fits as a 3rd guy to make the Jojo/Ben thing work going forward, and finding a way for that to work is our best route for long-term success.