Jimmy Butler drawing playoff fouls at the rate of James Harden

The Rockets pursued Butler heavily in 2018 and 2019, with good reason. His fouls per possession in the playoffs are nearly equal to Harden.

Led by GM Daryl Morey, the Houston Rockets aggressively pursued All-Star guard Jimmy Butler in each of the previous two years.

In late 2018, the Rockets tried to land Butler via trade from Minnesota. (Ultimately, the Timberwolves preferred the proposal from Philadelphia, where he was eventually sent.) Then, with Butler set to become a free agent in the 2019 offseason, the Rockets again went after Butler… only to have him prefer Miami, instead. With the Heat now in the 2020 NBA Finals, it’s hard to find any fault in that decision.

Nonetheless, with Butler excelling on the game’s biggest stage, it’s hard for the Rockets to watch and not wonder what might have been.

In addition to Butler’s gifts as a playmaker, defender, and leader, there’s also a more niche skillset that perhaps contributes to why the 31-year-old was such a desired commodity for Morey: His ability to draw fouls.

Bryan Kalbrosky of HoopsHype has more:

He has 9.0 fouls drawn per 100 possessions during the playoffs, nearly identical to the rate that superstar James Harden (9.1 per 100) was fouled in the postseason. Similarly, his rate in the regular season (9.6 fouls drawn per 100) trailed Harden’s by just 0.3 fouls drawn per 100.

Even though Harden is the player most people think of when it comes to drawing contact from defenders, Butler has long been elite as well. He has ranked in the 90th percentile or better in this metric among wings during each of his nine seasons in the league, according to Cleaning the Glass.

Breaking it down, Butler was fouled on 24.8 percent of all shot attempts during the regular season. This led all non-big men who played at least 120 minutes in 2019-20. That rate (23.7 percent) has also been consistent in the postseason, once more leading all non-big men.

In Sunday’s Game 3 between the Heat and Los Angeles Lakers, Butler became just the third player in NBA Finals history to post a 40-point triple-double (40 points, 13 assists, 11 rebounds). In compiling those numbers, Butler was fouled 11 times during Game 3, per Synergy — and he made all 12 of the resulting free-throw attempts. For the 2020 playoffs as a whole, Butler leads all players with 123 fouls drawn thus far.

Now, imagine combining Butler’s foul-drawing prowess with that of Harden. That’s what Morey and the Rockets tried to pursue on multiple occasions in 2018 and 2019, and it should be easy to understand why.

Through three games of the NBA Finals, Butler is averaging 29.3 points (58.0% shooting), 10.3 assists, and 7.0 rebounds in 41.0 minutes per game. Game 4 tips off at 8:00 p.m. Central on Tuesday night, with the Lakers still holding a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.

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