Is Timberwolves star Jimmy Butler being too unselfish?

Like any new kid on the block, Jimmy Butler is doing is his best to fit seamlessly alongside his new teammates on the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Butler’s accommodating style of play has been calculated throughout the early portion of the season.

After a victory on Nov 4 against the Dallas Mavericks, Butler spoke to the media about doing whatever is needed in order for the team to win, in whatever capacity that may be.

"“My plan is to win. That’s all I ever want to do. I don’t care if I’m scoring, passing, if I’m just a defender, if I don’t shoot any shots or whether I shoot 100.”"

As a follow up, Butler was then asked if he thought getting his teammates involved was the best path to winning early in the season.

"“I feel like right now it is. If Wigs is open I’m going to throw him the ball. If KAT is open I’m going to throw him the ball.”"

You have to love hearing those type of comments if you are a Timberwolves fan. Everything looks to be all sunshine and rainbows. The team is now 9-5 — third in the Western Conference and Butler is making sure that all of his teammates get looks.

The Wolves’ most recent win came at home against the always-sound San Antonio Spurs. In that game, Butler struggled mightily to find his shooting touch going 2-for-13 from the floor, attempting only two shots in the first quarter.

While Butler’s unselfish style of play has lead to wins, is it affecting Butler’s ability to find a scoring rhythm throughout games?

Let’s take a look.

In games where Butler is taking four or more shots in the first quarter, he is shooting 43 percent from the floor. In games where he is shooting three or less shots in the first quarter, he is shooting 36 percent. Not a huge difference, but noticeable.

Not only is Butler’s scoring efficiency impacted, his aggressiveness getting to the foul line is as well. In those game where Butler takes three or less shots in the first quarter, he is averaging 3.5 free throw attempts per game. Compare that to a 7.8 FTA per game average where Butler shoots four or more shots in the first quarter.

Butler’s passive style of play has been slightly abnormal compared to his recent years in Chicago. The table below highlights some of the drastic statistical changes reflecting his unselfish style of play early in the season.

* FGA & FTA are per game, USG is Usage Rate

A reduction in shots is expected, but some of his play-type and tracking statistics are noteworthy as well.

• In drives to the basket, Butler passes the ball 34 percent of the time. That is more often than Jeff Teague and Tyus Jones
• Butler is shooting 55 percent in isolation, but takes less than two shots per game in this situation.
• The following players take more shots from off-ball screens than Butler: Jeff Teague, Nemanja Bjelica, Jamal Crawford, Karl Anthony-Towns and Shabazz Muhammad

Sacrificing personal gain for the better of the team is what ultimately leads to sustained success.  However, the key phrase in the above sentence is, “for the better of the team”. Not a problem, as long as the Wolves continue to win.

However, the Wolves have not played in a ton of close games yet. They have yet to play an abundance of meaningful, crunch time minutes with one another, save for a couple of close victories over the Thunder early in the season.

My concern is that when it comes time to shut the door on an opponent late in games, Butler may have placed too much emphasis on getting his teammates involved early on, neglecting his own scoring rhythm. The Wolves are going to be counting on him to close games and come through when adversity strikes.

Butler is great at getting others involved. Although, perhaps one of his greatest gift as player is the ability to take over a game offensively.

His most recent display of closing happened last season in the 2016-17 playoffs . The below highlights show Butler leading the eighth seeded Chicago Bulls to a stunning road victory in Game 1 in the first round of the Eastern Conference Playoffs against the first seeded Boston Celtics. Wolves fans have yet to see Butler take over a game like this. (Videos are credited to 3ball.io)

Or this.

Especially this.

One more for good measure.

Instead, we have seen more of this type of play from Butler.

And this one.

Is Butler making the correct basketball play in the previous two clips? Technically yes, he hits the open man for fairly uncontested 3-pointers. But, he passes up a shot at the rim and a mismatch with Pau Gasol.

Not to mention the “open man” in the above videos are Taj Gibson and Gorgui Dieng, who I am still not convinced should be shooting as many threes as they have been putting up. Obviously somewhat by design from head coach Tom Thibodeau, but that is a different conversation for a different blog. I don’t have the energy to tackle that topic in this post.

Butler makes a conscious effort to get his teammates involved. No question, that is a positive. However, when it comes down to final possessions and Butler has yet to find a rhythm due to an overly unselfish style of play, that could hurt the Wolves.

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Of course, it’s still early in the season, but it would be comforting to see Butler assert himself offensively and show what Jimmy G. Buckets is really capable of doing for the Timberwolves.