Let's Not Forget What the Jimmy Butler Year Was Actually Like

It's easy to remember Jimmy's one season here as a total success -- in many ways, it was. But it was also pretty difficult and real damn weird.

Jimmy Butler has been one of my favorite NBA players, if not my very favorite for about 10 years now. I remember reading Ben Golliver’s Sports Illustrated profile of him back in 2014 about how he had spent the previous off-season living in a house with no cable or internet so that he could not possibly have any distractions from his training regimen, and thinking to myself this guy rules. I certainly was not aware at the time of Jimmy’s affinity for promoting that side of himself, but I loved reading Jimmy lore then, and I still love reading Jimmy lore now. I find everything about him entertaining. I love the aesthetics of his game, I love his mentality, and I love that he’s a quirky dude. 

I even really liked him as a Sixer. I praised them for making the trade at the time, I consistently advocated for him to have the ball more, and I said that the Sixers should keep him over Tobias Harris. And of course, I would be thrilled if he were to come back this off-season, which seems to be a realistic possibility – lots of rumors seem to suggest that he might be available for trade and that the Sixers might be interested. Keith Pompey reported yesterday that Philly would be more than willing to trade for him and offer him a max contract extension, assuming Miami were to make him available. While the cost and contract size might make it less optimal than other options, he is my favorite player in a vacuum of all their potential options. 

That being said, I think we’ve all done a little bit of revisionist history in terms of recalling what Butler’s year here was actually like. It was a really weird season, and the Butler era only became a widely-agreed-upon success when he played an excellent series against the Raptors in the playoffs. There were some great Jimmy moments prior to that, but for the most part, it was just… weird.

He first made news in early January after he “aggressively challenged” Brett Brown in a film session just six weeks into his tenure here. He bizarrely stopped shooting 3s for a large chunk of the season – he had 13 made 3-pointers in his last 23 regular season games here. It didn’t often feel like Butler was a real engine of the half-court offense; there were a ton of nights where he would somehow sleepwalk his way into 18 points via transition, off-ball cuts, and foul grifting despite hardly making an effort to attack in pick and rolls or isolations. 

In early March of that year, I did a film breakdown on his mind-boggling passivity at the rim. There was a bizarre game in New Orleans in February of that year where Butler scored just 11 points and would not even look at the rim as New Orleans kept switching awful defenders onto him. He tended to always show up in the fourth quarter of close games, but there were a lot of nights where you couldn’t stop asking yourself, “What the hell is going on with Jimmy?”

Some part of that is because of the fact that Jimmy was very clearly never on the same page as Brett Brown. And while I do think a lot of that is on Brown for failing to design more of the offense around him, Butler didn’t exactly navigate that conflict well. He criticized Brett’s play-calling in front of the media after a game in Chicago, and during that game, he was caught on the TV broadcast saying, “that shit don’t work, man” after the Sixers failed to get a stop in the waning moments of the game against the Bulls. 

All of that weirdness likely made Butler a very challenging guy to work with for some of his teammates, the coaching staff, and front office. One anecdote here: At the moment that the ESPN report about Butler “aggressively challenging” Brown came out, I was at the Sixers’ practice facility recording a podcast with Derek Bodner and Rich Hofmann. Immediately after the news broke, we paused our recording and opened the door to the media room, and Elton Brand (who certainly had no idea we were still there) was right outside having a very tense conversation on the phone. I imagine that was not the only time that season that Elton had to hop on a phone call to put out a fire related to Butler. 

And yet, despite all that, there were still some awesome Butler moments from that season. There were the game winners just after coming over against the Hornets and Nets. There was the 38-point night on national TV to lead the Embiid-less Sixers to a win over the Pistons, where he talked shit to Blake Griffin the entire fourth quarter. There was his massive fourth quarter capped off by his game-sealing turnaround jumper to beat the Celtics at home in late March. It sealed one of the best Sixers wins of this era, and the frozen pose that Butler struck after hitting the shot became a meme for months to come. And of course, there was the Toronto series, where he was (in my opinion) their best player in a series that went down to the wire with the eventual champs. 

Between the good things he brought when he was here, and the heights he reached after leaving, I would be ecstatic to see the Sixers bring Butler back. But I’m just not under any illusion that it would be smooth sailing for, well, any of it. There would be a ton of nights where he strangely excuses himself from participating in the half court offense – he’s even done this in the playoffs for Miami from time to time. There would probably be a few altercations with Nick Nurse or teammates – though I do trust Nurse to cultivate a far better relationship and use Butler far better than Brett Brown did. He’s likely to just say the wrong thing to the wrong person on more than one occasion. Elton would probably have to spend a lot more time yelling on the phone at the practice facility. 

That’s just part of the deal with Jimmy. He does all of this annoying shit, but he also wins and is a joy to watch. Hell, he tried to fight his head coach during a game when they were the No. 1 seed in the East in 2022 – and they came inches from making the NBA Finals a couple months later. It’s all just part of the Jimmy experience. And while I’m fully aware that I spent most of his time here scratching my head and wondering what was wrong, I would be thrilled to have him back in a Sixer uniform. He’s Jimmy frickin’ Butler.

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I get that some people might have concerns about Butler’s fit between Embiid and Tyrese Maxey, as Butler’s 3-point volume continues to decline year over year, and his age and injury history are quite worrisome. But I actually view Butler as someone who will age gracefully into his mid-thirties; he’s pretty much always been a player whose primary value is his IQ, skill level, and guile. His best qualities as an athlete have never really been his first step or his high-flying ability, but rather, his elite footwork, body control and balance. 

I also don’t find myself very concerned about his ability to play off the ball next to Embiid and Maxey; he’s an excellent cutter, attacks close-outs well, and remains a good shooter on wide open attempts – in fact, he shot 53.8% from 3 with 6+ feet of space last season, albeit on only 85 attempts. He shot 38.9% on those shots in 2022-23, and 36.7% the year before. 

To me, it’s not so simple to say that Butler is the worst fit out of any of the potential big name targets; with any of the guys that could be available, you’re going to have to prioritize different things in filling out the rest of the roster. If you acquire Paul George, you need to fill out the roster with tough, gritty, dirty-work players. If you acquire Bridges, you likely need some additional shot creation and athleticism to round out the roster. If you acquire Butler, you need quick-trigger 3-point shooters in between your three best players. 

And, perhaps most notably, Butler provides the most possible winner energy that any of these potential acquisitions could bring. Perhaps having someone with Butler’s playoff résumé – three conference finals and two finals appearances in the past four years – would inspire confidence in Embiid and Maxey.  He would be an absolutely beloved Sixer, even at this stage of his career, and he would give Embiid two co-stars who he is extremely close with off the floor and extremely confident in when on the floor. I think it would be great for Embiid, great for the team, and great for the fans. But as is always the case with Jimmy, just don’t expect any of it to be normal. 

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Mike O’Connor is the best O’Connor in basketball writing. Previously of The Athletic, you can find Mike on Twitter @MOConnor_NBA. Mike’s writing is brought to you by Body Bio, supplements based on science, focusing on your gut and brain health. Get 20% off E-Lyte, Gut+, and all Body Bio products with promo code FIRECJ at Body Bio’s website.