The 2022-23 NBA season is drawing closer and the Miami Heat are gearing up for another competitive season in the Eastern Conference. They hope their best player Jimmy Butler, who is one of the best players in the entire league, can help them make another deep push in the playoffs.
ESPN recently released their annual ranking of the NBA’s Top 100 Players and it’s safe to say they disagree with how good a player Jimmy Butler is. Butler was ranked 17th overall, which is way too low, to say the least.
To be fair, being considered the 17th best player in the NBA is a big achievement for any NBA player. However, Butler deserves to be ranked higher as a testament to his proven skills.
The only way these rankings make sense is if they were based on last year’s MVP race. Even then, 17 still feels too low.
Since Jimmy Butler missed several games last season, he missed the opportunity to compete for the MVP trophy. This seems to be stated in ESPN’s rationale, as they had this to say about his injury history:
Butler’s career has been defined in part by his ability to perform at a high level no matter what lingering injury he faces, but at 33 it remains to be seen if all the minutes he has logged since his arrival in the league in 2011-12 season took a toll. Butler has played just 109 of a possible 154 games over the past two seasons.
If this ranking is solely based on MVP voting from the previous season, then why make the list in the first place? We already know the results of last season’s MVP voting.
This means that ESPN had every intention of making it a true ranking of the top 100 players in the league. But it also means they forgot some things about Jimmy Butler.
The 2022-23 NBA season is drawing closer and the Miami Heat are gearing up for another competitive season in the Eastern Conference. They hope their best player Jimmy Butler, who is one of the best players in the entire league, can help them make another deep push in the playoffs.
ESPN recently released their annual ranking of the NBA’s Top 100 Players and it’s safe to say they disagree with how good a player Jimmy Butler is. Butler was ranked 17th overall, which is way too low, to say the least.
To be fair, being considered the 17th best player in the NBA is a big achievement for any NBA player. However, Butler deserves to be ranked higher as a testament to his proven skills.
The only way these rankings make sense is if they were based on last year’s MVP race. Even then, 17 still feels too low.
Since Jimmy Butler missed several games last season, he missed the opportunity to compete for the MVP trophy. This seems to be stated in ESPN’s rationale, as they had this to say about his injury history:
Butler’s career has been defined in part by his ability to perform at a high level no matter what lingering injury he faces, but at 33 it remains to be seen if all the minutes he has logged since his arrival in the league in 2011-12 season took a toll. Butler has played just 109 of a possible 154 games over the past two seasons.
If this ranking is solely based on MVP voting from the previous season, then why make the list in the first place? We already know the results of last season’s MVP voting.
This means that ESPN had every intention of making it a true ranking of the top 100 players in the league. But it also means they forgot some things about Jimmy Butler.