Rasual Butler - Part 2

Rasual Butler is being handed the starting small forward job with the Miami Heat. That raises the all important question: Can he handle it? Let's look at the numbers.

A first glance at Butler's statistics causes some concern. His points per game, assists, and rebounds all dropped from his previous rookie season. But the longer you look, the more you find some big positives in there. For as it turns out, the drop in Butler's numbers was caused by his loss in minutes, and during his time in the game, he was actually playing some damn good basketball.

Butler's minutes dropped from 21 per game to 15 a game, largely due to the influx of talent that caused the Heat's playoff run. But get a load of these shooting percentage increases:

02-03 field goal % .362
03-04 field goal % .476

02-03 3-pt % .292
03-04 3-pt % .463

02-03 free throw % .731
03-04 free throw % .762

Have you ever seen anything like that? Talk about improvement. I mean, 17% more 3-pointers? And .463 is no small number. As a matter of fact, guess how many small forwards (as listed by ESPN), with over 100 3-pointers attempted, finished with a higher percentage than Butler.

The answer is zero. That's right, Butler was the best of them all.

So it looks like the Heat may have a serious outside presence, IF Butler can keep shooting at similar rates while doubling his minutes. No guarantee for sure, but he is a young ballplayer, being handed a great opportunity, and with Shaquille O'Neal as the first option and Dwyane Wade as the second, he ought to be getting a lot of good looks. Further, having Butler, Wade, and Eddie Jones all on the floor with Shaq ought to open up some room for the Big Diesel.

I'm feeling good. Serious contenders the Heat seem to truly be.