Prime Jimmy Butler is back for the Heat, and he’s added a killer 3-point shot to his dangerous playoff arsenal

After losing two key starters from their NBA Finals team and replacing those minutes with another assortment of rookies and castoffs, the expectation for any other team in the league would be to take a step back.

This is the Miami Heat we’re talking about though, and they always find a way. The first half of their season was about adjusting to new personnel and injuries — their 31 starting lineups that they’ve tried is more than what the Celtics and Bucks have combined for this season.

Throughout that turmoil, they’ve actually gotten better than last year. Their 35-29 record is an improvement on last season’s 33-31 record at this same point. And they’ve proven throughout the years that playoff seeding doesn’t matter to them. They will find a way to make noise in the playoffs. Last season, they became the first No. 8 seed to reach the NBA Finals since 1999.

“8th, 7th, 6th, 5-4-3-2-1, I don’t care. We don’t care,” Butler told Brady Hawk of Five Reasons Sports earlier this month.

They currently stand at eighth in the East, with a chance to get to as high as fourth by season’s end. Given their 11-6 record since Jan. 31 and their second-easiest strength of schedule remaining, that is a possibility. 

What is even scarier for the rest of the league is that after a somewhat subdued start to the season, Jimmy Butler is starting to catch fire again. Playoff Jimmy should strike fear into every single team in the league. At age 34, here’s how he’s still maintaining his status as one of the best players in the league. 

MORE: Updated standings, brackets for 2024 NBA Playoffs

Jimmy Butler is still at his offensive peak

Three-point shooting has never been a huge component of Butler’s game. As a freshman at Marquette, he attempted (and missed) only four 3’s all year. He’s had some seasons in the NBA where he’s been a decent shooter, but he had hit only 26.6 percent of his 3’s in a Heat uniform entering this season. 

That shooting weakness is what makes his 42.5 percent from 3 this year so stunning. Butler gave an explanation to reporters on the sudden improvement.  

“If I wanted to shoot all threes I could, and I think I’d shoot a really good percentage. I just like running into the paint and running into people, seeing who’s going to fall down first.”

Butler still does maintain that physical edge too. His 8.1 free throw attempts per game ranks fifth in the league, and he’s 13th in drives per game. There is perhaps no other player better at bullying to his favorite spots on the floor. He’s used that ability to hit clutch shots year after year, including this one when he canned a game-winning step-back jumper against the Bulls. 

Jimmy Butler and the Heat are turning up the defense

The Heat have always been a pesky defensive team, but they looked off to start the season. After giving up 118 points to the Suns on Jan. 29, Butler admitted to reporters that “we’re not guarding.” The Heat found themselves sitting at 13th in the league in defense.

That was a turning point for the Heat, and Butler individually. Since Butler’s brutally honest assessment, they’ve been the no. 3 defense in the league. There hasn’t been a huge schematic or personnel shift to cause that rise. It’s been more the result of the team simply locking in. Their zone is looking sharp, they’ve given better effort, and Erik Spoelstra is always going to figure out ways to throw different looks at teams. 

Butler has also dialed way up the defensive pressure at the point of attack. 

Jimmy Butler is a menace. pic.twitter.com/xbueGxcY4K

— Steve Jones Jr. (@stevejones20) March 6, 2024

Butler has made an All-Defensive team five times in his career. He can’t quite bring it every single possession any more. But when games get tight, he is still a lockdown defender. 

Jimmy Butler is getting more help than ever

This isn’t the most talented team that Butler has played on. But it might be the most balanced.

Butler’s 24.7 percent usage is the lowest it’s ever been in a Heat uniform. He still is the engine for a lot of the stuff that the team runs, but Bam Adebayo is doing more handoffs, Jaime Jaquez is creating more in the post, and there’s more swinging the ball around to their shooters, 

The Heat have eight players averaging at least eight shot attempts per game. For comparison, Boston and Denver only have five players hitting that mark. No other team has so many contributors coming from within their system.

It took a while for Miami to find an identity. Now that they’ve figured out what works, they are going to use what they’ve learned to be one of the most dangerous playoff teams in the league. 

“You just keep a couple things in your pocket all year long,” Butler told Bleacher Report’s Chris Haynes earlier this year. “You can’t show the opponent everything now. You have to always keep people guessing.” 

Don’t let their spot in the standings fool you. This is a deep team with the best coaching in the league, an All-NBA player in Butler, and a Defensive Player of the Year dark horse candidate in Adebayo. They have shown over and over that it would be a mistake to count them out. This year should be no different.