The team at Dunking With Wolves got together to predict the season awards for the Timberwolves. Let’s start with the winner of our Defensive Player Of The Year award, Jimmy Butler.
When the team at Dunking With Wolves decided to predict these awards for our emerging Timberwolves this season, it probably wouldn’t have taken a rocket scientist to pick the Defensive Player Of The Year.
With three All-Defensive team selections already under his belt, Jimmy Butler was a lock to receive the most votes on a team that has been well below average on defense for far too long.
Butler joins a team that, according to basketball-reference.com, finished in the bottom ten in the league in Defensive Rating, opponent points in the paint, opponent points off fast breaks and opponents points off turnovers.
It’s fair to say there wasn’t many current Timberwolves who deserved this award.
Although Butler missed out on being named to the NBA’s All-Defensive team last season, he still put up some impressive defensive statistics.
Butler ranked 12th in the league in Defensive Win Shares and kept his opponents to a measly shooting percentage of 43.1 percent from the field. Of course, he’s taken great pleasure in reuniting with Coach Tom Thibodeau, and he is already sounding exactly like his new (and old?) coach when talking to the media.
Jimmy Butler told reporters in China the Timberwolves are getting better defensively each day.
— Jace frederick (@JaceFrederick) October 7, 2017
And as well as being able to lock down the oppositions best player, he also does push-ups…
https://twitter.com/DefPenHoops/status/917002845127356416
The Wolves are so lucky to have this man on the team.
It’s not just the individual defense that has Butler taking home the DWW Defensive Player Of The Year award, it’s his ability to lead the entire team vocally on defense that makes Jimmy G. Buckets so much more than just buckets.
Throughout the preseason, we have already seen Butler barking instructions to his teammates on defense — and giving them the Thibs treatment on the court, while Thibodeau delivers it from the sidelines.
The defensive mindset he will help install in to young stars Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns will be invaluable for a young team looking to get over the hump in a brutal Western Conference.
Butler has made a name for himself on defense, but he seems more than willing to help make other young Timberwolves just as special.
When talking to the Star Tribune, Butler showed just why this team has sorely needed someone with his toughness.
"“You may fall, you have to get up. You may take a charge, you may be hurting. You may be out of breath. If you’re the toughest team night in and night out, which I want I to be, which I think we want to be, sometimes it’s the last two minutes or the last minute of the game, but that toughness is what’s going to be what wins it for you.” he said."
And just when you think Jimmy Butler couldn’t get any better defensively, you look at the hustle stats and his name is, once again, littered among the elite.
Last season, Butler ranked sixth in the league in deflections and 13th in loose balls recovered.
Jimmy Butler rejects Klay's pass back off his face and steals it pic.twitter.com/w7tXii2Ffc
— CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) October 5, 2017
Butler, along with Coach Thibodeau and the other new veterans on this team, will be tasked with the almighty job of turning this team’s defense around.
Next: Andrew Wiggins signs five-year contract extension
Let’s all look forward to watching Jimmy G. Buckets help turn this ship in the right direction.