Getty Image / Mitchell Layton
Following the end of this year’s NBA Finals, the star that is going to be getting the vast majority of the headlines is Nikola Jokic.
There’s good reason.
He was dominant throughout the playoffs as he led the Nuggets to their first title ever without every truly appearing to be challenged to bring an end to any questions about where he stands in the league right now.
However, Jimmy Butler accomplished something pretty impressive this postseason as well.
In the era of the superteam, Jimmy Butler hasn’t had anything close to a superteam around him since joining the Miami Heat.
Despite that, Butler just took the Heat to their second Finals in 4 years and they made the Eastern Conference Finals last year.
This season’s run was particularly impressive as you could argue this Heat team was the worst one yet with Butler.
After they were eliminated by the Boston Celtics in 7 games last year, the consensus in the sports world was that the Heat needed to get Butler another star if they were going to get back to the Finals.
They didn’t get him one.
They managed to win a weak South division despite having a negative point differential in the regular season and found themselves in the play-in.
They lost their first play-in game to a mediocre Hawks team and then needed to beat the Bulls just to get a spot in the playoffs.
Then they lost Tyler Herro at the start of their first round series. Thanks to Jimmy Butler, they still took down Giannis and the Bucks.
Then they rolled through the Knicks and took down the Celtics.
This was despite having a roster loaded with undrafted talent and whose 2nd best player is Bam Adebayo.
Unfortunately, they were just outmatched in the Finals once again by a squad with a second elite player.
Now that they’ve fallen short in the Finals again after massively outperforming their playoff expectations, it looks like the Heat are going to try to get Butler another true star this offseason.
ESPN’s Brian Windhorst revealed today that the Heat will be hunting for a star this offseason during an episode of “The Hoop Collective Podcast.”
“They have draft picks at their disposal, and they potentially have tradeable contracts, and I think they’re going to go hunting for a star. I don’t know if they’ll get one, I don’t know if it’ll all break their way.”
Whoever that star is, this is absolutely what Jimmy Butler deserves at this point.
He has taken the Miami Heat well beyond where they should have been in recent years with what has been around him. Another bonafide star would give him a chance to finally get himself a ring.
Hopefully the Miami Heat can make it happen this offseason as they are running out of time to be able to truly capitalize on Playoff Jimmy.