Quote starts around the 47-minute mark

“I didn’t like it, the way he just approached the game like, I know Jimmy is a pass first guy. I know he’s about getting his teammates to ball, and want to see them shine, but it’s a point where this ain’t working. You got to go. He won’t look at the basket.

“I’ve seen this before. I’ve seen it in the Heat jersey and so you know, in the sense like when Pat come out, [and] Pat say, we won’t give you an extension, it’s not always because of injury.”

“Sometimes I need to see what you’re gonna do in every moment, not just in one moment.”

“We saw Jimmy in the Bubble. He was a dog. I saw Jimmy in another finals too, against the Denver Nuggets, and he did the exact same thing he did the other night. He did not look at the basket.”

“I don’t want to see that. Jimmy Butler is too good of a basketball player to not have his imprint on the game.”

“It’s bad offense if you’re not shooting, getting too close to that paint and not putting that ball up to that basket. That’s bad offense. Your team needs you to do it. “

40 comments

  1. Jimmy was head down to the rim anytime Divo or Naz got switched onto him. It’s just that when Jaden had the matchup or when Gobert was on the court he got hounded so much he was too intimidated to try and score.

    In Jimmy’s mind that’s probably “making the right play” because those two are elite defenders who are gonna stop him. But the passivity was an issue because he was supposed to be the number 1 guy on offence but was deferring to Podz and Dray instead.

  2. It’s almost like he was injured and playing in a horrible offensive environment against an elite defense?

    Passive Jimmy on the Heat was almost exclusively a regular season thing. This year we literally saw Jimmy at the end of the regular season, in the playin, and before his injury have several big offensive games.

  6. he literally had big offensive games all the way up until his tailbone injury. nothing to worry about fr

  7. That last Finals series against Denver Jimmy Butler was actually outscored by Bam Adebayo, just barely. Bam is a great player but I don’t think the Heat were looking for Butler to be second fiddle to anybody. 

  10. Come on, it’s obvious.

    Jimmy has been about squeezing the last amount of burst from his body for years. That’s why he’s such a playoff riser.

    You don’t get more of that as you age.

  11. Wades being so uncharitable… guess heat culture til he dies.

    Jimmys ass is in shambles and he cant beat Jaden and Gobert in the paint or off the dribble with said broken ass

  12. He’s old and have a near fractured ass that easily needed a week or twos rest, imo there’s not much he could’ve done.

  13. He’s spitting facts. I told a friend GS needed Jimmy to put up a least 25 shots for them to have a chance to win game 5 and he came nowhere near that. Really disappointing series by him. He paints himself as an alpha then pulls shit like this. I really don’t get it. Even if you lose go out on your shield. Wade is completely right he did it in the Denver series as well.

  18. The straight passiveness of Butler always pops up injury or no injury. “Oh he’s playing with a bruised coccyx” yeah but he’s getting to the basket.

  20. When I read “He wouldn’t look at the basket. I’ve seen it in a Heat jersey” I thought he was talking about 2011 finals with Lebron at first.

  21. He was hurt and gutted through it. This coming from a Wolves fan and we hate him.

  23. All these comments hyping up the injury talking about it was a tailbone injury or something more severe than what it actually was. It was a damn muscle contusion. A bruised ass and some of yall acting like it was a fractured tailbone.

    Medical fun fact for you: The tailbone is a very specific part of the pelvis area, and Jimmy’s tailbone was not injured at all

  24. He’s not wrong… there were countless number of times jimmy drove in the paint and jumped and instead of just laying it up he kicked it out. No reason for a star player not to shoot at least 15 times either. Said it in one of the game threads i’d rather see Jimmy shoot twenty 19footers than these other guys chucking and missing

    Jimmy was def hurt but if you’re in the paint no harm in throwing it up. I will say though in g4 they didn’t call any fouls for him the few times he actually did force the issue. By g5 he was spent

  26. Lakers could only get one with Luka and LeBron. Did we really expect the warriors without curry to do any better?

  27. Yeah idk. It was one series, he’s older, he’s injured, and they weren’t going to win anyways without Steph. Not sure how much stock to put in this. I am uncertain if we’ll ever see the true Playoff Jimmy again though. Hope we do

  29. It’s honestly kinda wild how many extremely talented players have this issue where they just go super passive sometimes.

    As a Kings fan I always had this issue with Fox. He had (and has) the talent to be a comfortable all-NBA guy, top 5 or so scorer in the league, etc. But he just doesn’t lock in for more than like half a quarter at a time usually. He’ll spend more than half of a game just standing in the corner on offense dumping the ball to someone else to make plays. And I’m just like… bro literally nobody can stop you if you just play fully engaged. Dude scored over 100 points in 24 hours and he could easily score 30+ basically every single game if he cared enough, but instead he coasts at like 80% most of the time, defers to his 6th man, intentionally half-asses games cuz he’s pouting…

    Seeing basically the same shit with Zach LaVine. He could also be easily one of the top 5-10 scorers in the league, his raw talent is nearly unmatched *and* he’s super athletic to boot. But then he just disappears for half a game. I ALSO had the same concern about Hali when he was on the Kings and have seen it play out plenty of times on the Pacers, but Tyrese will straight up disappear for *entire* games on the somewhat-regular.

    All of these guys could be top superstars in the league but they either just don’t care enough (Fox) or like, get scared? IDK what it is really.

    Meanwhile on the other end of the spectrum you have guys like Kuminga that are decent at best but think they’re max players and play like it damn near every possession even if they have literally all-timers on the court next to them.

    It’s probably the hardest thing about really evaluating players. Like, seeing if they have the talent is one thing, but it can be really difficult to accurately get a read on whether their confidence/mentality is a good fit to actually maximize their talent

  30. General Soreness. Jimmy mentally checks out whenever he wants to.

    For a guy who everyone says is all heart, there sure is a gigantic hole in his chest quite frequently.

  31. So weird to me how people always defend Jimmy and make up excuses for him here 😂.

  32. Didn’t know a bruised ass meant you can’t shoot more than 9 times but can still run around for 34minutes

  33. To be fair, that whole team got very timid without Steph. You’d think they’d show more character than that

  34. Wade was getting injections in his knee to be able to move and play during multiple finals’ series. Wade is not going to be giving Jimmy passes on passive play.

    Everyone is banged up.
    Jimmy was banged up against Denver. His ankle was the size of a softball after Josh Hart recklessly slid under him on a drive.

    We were limping into the finals and still stole game 2 on the road. We were not beating Denver with their size and the way they were playing.

    But Wade is right that he did defer in both cases.
    Both things can be true.

    Edited to add: Obviously, the tailbone injury affected him.

    But what Wade said is true and accurate: He did not look at the basket.

  35. Go back and watch that Heat game he played in post trade. Might as well have been a preview of the Wolves series. Bam had him in a strait jacket. Injuries don’t help but tough defensive match ups with size is the real reason he was being passive.

  38. I don’t think he’s a good to great shot creator. He doesn’t have a “bag”.

  39. Surprised D Wade came out and said this, a few other guys on here besides me brought up Jimmy in the Finals quitting the same way he did against the Twolves in game 5 and D Wade isn’t letting him use his 3 week old pelvic bruise as an excuse because he’s played more banged up so neither should fans, Jimmy was just halfway to Cancun in his mind he didn’t even try

  40. Had two great series against the Bucks and carried by his teammates in all others. Lame player.

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