The Nets' fifth option is Joe Johnson, who outplayed Butler even with plantar fasciitis. Indy? Maybe. Nets? We need him and several other guys to step it up. IMO
What are your expectations for Butler, Denny? Jimmy's stats look relatively comparable to Johnson from the Nets series, and his were better when you include the Miami series. But that's kind of besides the point. Both Butler and Johnson were just mediocre/slightly above average starter type performances. I think I'm hoping for more from Butler though: something like Luol Deng from '10-'11. Something like 17 ppg, 46%/38%. That's pretty darn optimistic though. That would be basically Deng's best season.
I think if he hits your numbers, our #5 option is going to be way worse than Johnson on offense. Though Joe's a pretty good defender, too. That is, if he hits your numbers, he is probably our #3 option. Or #2 even.
10-12 pts per game. A bit like Brewer was for Utah and us, but more range. But I always set my expectations low.
You're probably closer than I am. So I'm hoping for a big jump. But you're right, at 17 ppg you're talking about a borderline legit go to option, at least some of the time. There are games when Deng does that. And if I have a hard time envisioning Butler being that guy, then he's probably not touching anywhere near 17 ppg.
I'm not really worried about Butlers performance this season, but his ceiling as a player is a on-going concern.
It's kinda hard to tell with the Nets since players like KG, DWill and Blatche are playing less than 25mpg. Still, I think Johnson would be surprised to hear he's the Nets 5th option since he's taking the second-most # shots/game.
Per 36 minutes, Johnson takes 5th most shots on the team. Not including Mirza Teletovic. In order: Lopez, Garnett, Williams, Blatche, Johnson. I don't expect them to play the guys sub 30 minutes the whole season, do you?
Yeah, I saw the per-36s. They didn't lead me to conclude that Johnson's the #5 offensive option any more than they caused me to conclude that Paul Pierce is their 6th offensive option. But back to Butler. Butler's been important to the Bulls this season, but not as important as I thought he'd be...I thought he'd pass Deng as the team's workhorse. The Bulls are reasonably prepared for one of their top-8 players to be out. With Butler down, Dunleavy and Hinrich will play 32+mins each, Deng's time will go up a tick and Teague and Snell should get some run. Still, if Butler's out 6 games, I expect the team to lose at least one because of Butler's absence.
I'm not so sure, transplant. If you solely rely on FGA, then Nate was our 3rd option last season. Yet, I think he was our first option when he was on the floor. I bet Teague and Snell get no more minutes than if Jimmy were healthy. Unless Kirk comes up with turf toe, too.
I think Butler is a SF. We're effectively playing one guard, 2 SFs, a PF, and a C. Basically, he's out of position playing SG in the offense. I see him standing in the corner as a kick out for 3 option. That's just not his game.
We've probably been through this before. I think he's a true "tweener," but if he's going to start at one position or the other, I'll take him at SG. He has unusually short arms for a 6-7 basketball player...he and DRose have the same 6-8 wingspan. While he's certainly shown that he can overcome this deficiency (e.g., he's been very good vs Lebron James), I think he's plenty quick enough to play SG where he can actually use his size and strength as an advantage.
I don't think it's a quickness issue. More of what the SG in Thibs play book does. He's not well suited to be the guy who runs around through screens to get an open catch and shoot look. He's not a stand in the corner for the kick out 3 guy either. He's certainly not an Iggy type tweener. Way less ball handling skills and court vision. He's a SF who's starting at SG because we have nobody better. If he can develop into an SG, it would be huge. Thibs played him 40 minutes at SF. At SG, he's getting less than 30. Yet he's shooting .385 from 3pt, which we need. His 4.8 rebounds and 1.7 assists are SF type numbers.
