After today's game against the New Jersey Nets I'm starting to think that Jimmy Butler may be the best shooting guard in the NBA right now. Well, at least so far this season, the sample size of him playing like he has been this year is only 15 games, but I'm going to look over the competition and tell you my final view on if he really is the best shooting guard in the league this season.
The first thing that has stood out about Butler this year is that he's scoring a lot more than he has in the past. He's been very aggressive on the offensive end of the floor, and has been drawing a lot of fouls, so he's gone to the free throw line a lot. Now, this wouldn't necessarily be a good thing if he wasn't shooting high percentages, but he is. Before today's game he was shooting just over 49% from the field and over 82% from the free throw line. His true shooting percentage has been a sky high .608. To put it lightly, he's been doing great on the offensive end of the floor. His only weakness has been his 3 point shooting, which was just over 30% before today's game, but at the same time, he doesn't take a whole lot of 3's, so he's not hurting the team too much by throwing up a ton of bricks from out there. The TS% really shows how little the lack of 3 point shooting hurts his game.
Butler's calling card has always been his defense though. This year has been no different. He's been very tough on the guys he's been going up against, and has shut down multiple other shooting guards that usually will put up good numbers. There's not a whole lot to be said about it, it's just simply some of the best defense in the league. Outside of all that, Butler also averages about 6 rebounds per game and 3 assists.
The first contestant will be Monta Ellis from Dallas. Ellis has been scoring slightly less and slightly less efficiently, but he does average more assists than Butler (with a much higher usage %). Butler averages more rebounds and plays much better defense. Butler is clearly the better player this year. Next up will be Wesley Matthews. Matthews is just a little less than Butler on pretty much every statistical measurement outside of assists, where they're tied. The two Marquette alums are both good defenders, but Butler holds the edge there. So overall, again, it's Butler. If this were 6 years ago, then it would be close between Butler and Joe Johnson (Johnson six years ago vs Butler this year), but Butler is better in just about every way. Lance Stephenson has been having a down year, so he's not better this year. Bradley Beal isn't too far off, he's a good defender who scores well, but again, he's not quite Jimmy Butler on defense, and his scoring numbers are mostly lower than Butler's. Eric Bledsoe is also fairly close, but his scoring isn't up to what Butler's is, although he passes the ball better. Also, Butler's the superior defender between the two.
So those were some of the outside contestants, but what about the more serious guys? We'll start with Klay Thompson. Thompson is very close. His TS% is only a few points below Butler, he scores at about the same clip as Butler, and averages .6 more assists per game (although his usage% is much higher). I brought up TS% because Thompson has a lower field goal percentage, but shoots very well from deep. On defense they're both very good, but Butler is the tougher defender. Thompson is very disruptive due to his length, but Butler still is the stronger defender, and as a whole, I think he holds a slim edge over Thompson.
So what about Dwyane Wade? Well, one thing that holds him down is that he can't play every night. Butler has missed 2 games, Wade has missed half of Miami's games, and when he does play he averages 7 fewer minutes than Butler, and yes, I do consider it a credit for a player to stay healthy better and be able to play more minutes. His scoring numbers are right there with Butler, but his TS% is about 5% lower than Butler's. However, he's averaging more than twice as many assists as Butler, and his MUCH higher usage% really doesn't take that away, as Butler would still be about 2 lower based on his assists/usage% even if he was over 30% like Wade is. So offense may actually be a slight edge to Wade. However, in the second Marquette vs. Marquette battle in this post, Butler is again the better defender, although Wade is not a horrible defender by any means. Butler's ability to stay on the court is what gives him the edge here.
James Harden is the superior offensive player, but it's not by a whole lot, and he actually gets the edge based on his assist totals, but keep in mind that his usage% is even higher than Wade's. He also turns the ball over a ton. So it's really very close when you consider all things. On defense it isn't even close though. Harden is a borderline liability on defense, putting almost no effort at all into his defense, much like a young Jamal Crawford. Butler gets the edge again since Harden's offensive edge is much smaller than Butler's defensive edge.
This last one really isn't much of a serious contender, but someone that I know I have to bring up. That's Kobe Bryant. Bryant is averaging a ton of points this year, that's for sure, but he's still shooting UNDER 39% from the field. Both his field goal and true shooting percentages are more than 10% lower than Butler's. Also, his usage% is a league high 36.6%. Butler's is 22.7. Despite this, Kobe averages only 1.4 more assists per game. Butler would average .3 more assists than Kobe, based on assist to usage% ratio. Kobe is even shooting lower from 3 than Butler is so far this year. Lastly, Kobe was once a first team all defense player, although he was really nothing more than a good defender, he had a big name, so he was going to get more recognition than he deserved. Anyway, those days are no more. At this point Bryant isn't much better than Harden is on defense. So anyway, yeah, Butler wins this one in a blowout.
So my answer to the question is yes. Of course, we must remember that this is only based on what he has done so far this year. We could always see a dropoff, and this level of play is a new thing for Butler. So would I go as far as saying he's better than all those guys? No, because he needs to prove it for a longer time, but so far this season, he has been the best shooting guard in the league. I can see a case for guys like Thompson, Harden, and Wade, but I strongly feel that Butler has been better than all three of those guys this year.
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