Bam also had a play in the 4th where he tried to stop Jokic from running up court by placing him in a loose sleeper hold basically. Jokic had to fight his way out by elbowing him and throwing his arms up....which of course Bam then fell backwards to try and get a call.
It's so fucking insane the amount of leeway he gets, particularly relative to someone like Tatum.
Their offensive rating was 120.2 for the first 4 games. Missing endless open 3s in game 5 really dragged it down.
Totally agree with this - and disappointed in Lowe, who is generally at the lower end of narrative guys, for being so swallowed up by this one.
I am insanely biased because I literally can't stand him but it's because the media has bought into the "Alpha Dog who won't let his teammates fail" narrative (which I think is a phony front that Jimmy tries incredibly hard to maintain).
I definitely didn't expect Zach to drag him and I know he's a long time Kool Aid drinker of "Heat Culture"...however, the narrative that he went with at the beginning is just flat out wrong.
Oh no.....have I been a closet Butlerhead this entire time and I didnt even know?!?!?!
That's why we have the regular season to give us a better gauge of a team's ability. Based on that metric, Miami was literally a slightly better than average team. They definitely overachieved this postseason.
Giannis got hurt, Randle got hurt, Tatum got hurt on first play of 7th game, no?
Agreed with every word in this post, particularly the first sentence. Stars typically have learned how to get the defender out of position and draw fouls, and they also learn flopping or exaggeration skills. And as TRic notes, flopping and exaggeration are different things. Plus, of course, guys get the star treatment from refs. What I'll never understand is why Tatum (and Brown to a lesser extent) get hacked with no call on plays where Jimmy might be getting a flagrant 1 called.
You don’t have to be a “Kool Aid drinker” to believe in “Heat culture” or something like it. Fact of the matter is, they consistently outperform their talent level in the playoffs. At this point we’ve seen it enough that it’s not a fluke.
It's not just an attitude, the numbers back this up. Jokic is the 2x MVP and posted just an insane stat line this postseason (30/14/10 with a TS% of .631) but he was just 34th in usage in the regular season (tied with Brunson and Siakam). He stuffs the box score like no one in recent memory outside of Luka and Westbrook, but those two absolutely dominated the ball in order to do so. Jokic hasn't needed the ball in his hands at all times to put up some crazy numbers.
Wouldn't the take away here be more that Butler played at an unsustainably hot level in the first round and then regressed back down to his average ability, as opposed to an injury making him merely average?
For me, persistent refereeing disparities come back to David Stern and what he was willing to do to make the NBA profitable. The major pieces go like this:
Yeah, that’s essentially what I meant - he was on a hot streak but after the injury he played more in line with what you’d expect out of him.
That's not how injuries really work though. If you are injured and it's impacting you, you don't just play your average game, you play significantly worse than your average.
This is an insane post. Among many things; please review the conversations around the refereeing in the 2001 ECF between Philly and Milwaukee if you think there was a conspiracy theory to stop Allen Iverson from reaching the Finals.
I disagree. Guys like Butler, Harden and to a lesser degree Reaves possess an elite ability to recognize when a defender is out of position and vulnerable which is created by their skill to create a positive angle. They excel at generating contact with this defender to create fouls which we saw Tatum do late in the Miami series before his injury but not something which comes naturally to him like it does to the others. That isn't leeway it is usually the correct call. Of course we all agree the Butler kick to the balls would not be classified under this umbrella....that was some Donaghy-level shit right there.
"Private Pyle"..........he was born again hard before he offed himself, so he had that going for himself, which was nice.
Do they favor star players or are star players more skilled to create these angles and advantages? I agree there is some level of subconscious where an official gets surprised that so and so could strip say and elite player without fouling and many times they are correct but the times they are wrong is magnified with slo-motion replay. I spoke of my conversations with a college official who confirms that this is necessary as they can't see everything at game speed so I am certain this is true. It's almost like it's a best guesstimate out there much of the time.
Butler is the kind of guy coaches and analysts love because he plays so hard and does all the tough guy, leadership stuff "I'll take the next trophy" and when he is hot he looks like a HOFer all-time great. But, as often as not he ends up hurting his team because he takes a high volume of shots. He is often on teams where his toughness and no-nonsense approach contrasts with (even by today's standards) whiny soft floppy (Embid, Lowry) teammates. Now Butler is a flopper, and complainer too but "dammit he does it while scowling so he is a real man, and we love him."
I agree the media fawning is over the top.
On Jimmy Bailout's defense, he almost never bitches at the ref even when he isn't getting calls. Tatum really really really REALLY REALLY needs to stop bitching to refs and showing them up.
I think there’s a difference between genuinely not caring (see Jokic with the Western Conference MVP trophy) and saying something to appear a certain way. I may be completely wrong but my read of Butler is that he’s very concerned about being perceived in a certain way and his actions don’t seem natural to me.
Yeah it's pretty nuts for Celtics fans to call Jimmy "selfish" after he tore out our hearts with his playmaking and distribution for 7 games lol.
My comment was about leeway from media; as to refs, I mostly agree with you though I think you underrate how much of that is officials anticipating calls vs players being expert at creating contact. Both matter, but the ratio is less about skill than you suggest, imo. But it certainly IS also a skill and Butler is expert at it
For someone who doesn’t flop he sure falls down a lot after almost every shot.
Jimmy isn't selfish or is he a flopper. Wing defenders make a disproportional amount of mistakes guarding Jimmy and NBA official add to by heavily disproportionally giving Jimmy calls. Like it is a ridiculous amount. Good for Jimmy for drawing the fouls but his playoff "clutchness" relies very very heavily on these calls. This is not a knock on Jimmy, it just seems he magically became one of the league leaders in getting calls when he went to Miami and his playoff calls are beyond ridiculous. There is no way Jimmy Bailout gets 186 fouls to Jokic's 139 with his usage. It is beyond ridiculous and good one him for being able to draw it without flopping.
He doesn't get caught in long drawn out ISO plays which is good but makes his foul rate even more ridiculous.
I never called him selfish, especially on court. I am just saying he tries too hard off the court to appear selfless.
Watch Lowry then watch Butler. Butler continues to drive through with his shots (he misses but so what). Lowry doesn't even bother to look to see if the ball goes in before he starts crying. Lowry is actually worse than Grant.
The dude used his mutant power to get a gazillion foul calls to drag Bam and a bunch of scrubs to the NBA finals playing two way basketball. What is selfish at all about what he did and what is he asking for. He seems ridiculously driven just to win.
I guess if you are trying to say "there's actual contact, so it isn't flopping" I don't agree that's the definition of a flop.
Butler falls to the ground after almost any contact. It’s not the same flopping as Lowry but it’s still flopping. Just look at the calls he got at the end of game 6? Of the Cs series.. he drives at Tatum.. who backs off and jumps up.. Butler fell to the ground and somehow got a call. He does that kind of thing all the time. Usually it’s after he’s run into his man.
I'm very much with you on Butler being elite at creating angles to draw fouls.
Steph Curry does the same thing. It is a way to try and sell the call, but also avoid landing on someone's foot with your full weight and rolling your ankle
Kinda crazy that a simple pump fake can work through multiple playoff games before guys talk themselves into staying grounded.
