Hot start earns Butler nod as Player of Week
The Miami Heat’s success as a team is beginning to translate into individual honors.
Heat star wing Jimmy Butler was named the NBA Eastern Conference Player of the Week on Monday for games played from Oct. 25 through Oct. 31, with Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert earning the Western Conference Player of the Week award.
Butler is one of 16 different players to receive the award as a member of the Heat in franchise history.
It also marks the sixth time Butler has earned the Player of the Week award in his NBA career after earning it once in his first season with the Heat in 2019-20, three times during the 2016-17 season and once during the 201415 season with the Chicago Bulls.
To win the award, Butler averaged 28 points on 58.6 percent shooting from field, 40 percent shooting on threes, 93.3 percent shooting from foul line, eight rebounds, 5.3 assists and 3.3 steals during a perfect 4-0 week for the Heat that included double-digit wins against the Orlando Magic, Brooklyn Nets, Charlotte Hornets and Memphis Grizzlies.
Next up for the Heat is a matchup against the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday at American Airlines Center (7:30 p.m., TNT).
For the season, Butler is averaging 25.3 points on 52.9 percent shooting, seven rebounds, 5.5 assists and 2.8 steals to lead the Heat to a 5-1 start. It’s still very early, but that would set new career highs in points, rebounds and steals for Butler.
How impressive are those numbers? The only player in NBA history who has finished a season averaging at least 25 points, five assists and two steals while shooting at least 52 percent from the field is Michael Jordan, who did it in four separate seasons.
Butler, 32, has also limited those he has defended to 37.5 percent shooting from the field this season — 8.2 percent worse than those players’ shooting percentage. During the Heat’s win over the Memphis Grizzlies on Saturday, Grizzlies emerging star Ja Morant scored just two points on 1-of-5 shooting and committed two turnovers in the 29 possessions that he was defended by Butler, according to NBA tracking stats.
“I think he’s one of the most unique players in this association for that very reason,” Heat coach
Erik Spoelstra said of Butler. “He’s extremely efficient offensively. He makes the right play over and over and over. It’s not about him wanting to stack up stats. He’s just making the right plays offensively to help your team, whether that’s scoring or playmaking or facilitating.
“And then you add his will and competitiveness to be able to take on the biggest challenges in this league, to guard different
guys, and that’s basically one through five.”
The other finalists for the Eastern Conference Player of the Week award that went to Butler: Heat’s Bam Adebayo, New
York’s RJ Barrett, Chicago’s DeMar DeRozan, Brooklyn’s Kevin Durant, Cleveland’s Darius Garland and Washington’s Montrezl Harrell.