Butler in middle of his best offensive season
Corey Robinson breaks down Jimmy Butler's fantastic season so far and how he has been able to elevate his game in several key categories before diving into the veteran's huge fantasy contributions.
Video Transcript
COREY ROBINSON: The question about Heat forward Jimmy Butler and fantasy basketball has never focused on the production. He's been a top 20 player in 9-cat per game value each of the last three seasons. And the 2022-2023 campaign, should extend that run to four. The issue has always been availability with Butler last appearing in at least 60 games during the 2018-2019 campaign.
He appears well on his way to hitting that 60 game threshold this season. And Butler is currently having the best offensive season of his NBA career. While his scoring average of 22.3 points per game isn't a career high, this is the first season in which Butler shot better than 50% from the field. He's making 52.7% of his attempts. Most recently, shooting 12 for 16 in a March 10 overtime loss to the Magic.
Since the All-Star break, Butler's shooting 64.5% from the field and 83.7% from the foul line, averaging 25.0 points, 6.4 rebounds, 5.3 assists, and 1.3 steals in 31.5 minutes per game. For the season, he's providing first round value in 9-cat formats despite limited 3-point production. As long as fantasy managers can get 55 games out of Butler, he has been productive enough to justify being selected within the first two rounds of drafts.