Jimmy Butler Is Chicago Bulls’ Most Improved Player Heading Into 2014-15

By Kristen Fazio @Kristen_Fazio on October 17, 2014

Through five preseason games, the Chicago Bulls‘ Jimmy Butler is the team’s most improved player and appears ready to begin the 2014-15 season.

Butler was on fire in the fourth quarter of the Bulls’ preseason win last night against the Atlanta Hawks, scoring 20 points in the final 5:11 and hitting the game-winning three-pointer.

Heading into a contract year, Butler put the work in this offseason and it has showed in his play this preseason. Butler arrived at camp 10 pounds lighter with an improved jumper and soaring confidence. He has been hitting jumpers with consistency and feasting around the rim. Butler played poorly in the Bulls’ first preseason game, but since then he has not shot under 57 percent from the field and hasn’t scored less than 18 points.

Butler sets the tone on the defensive end, but the Bulls are counting on him to have a breakout year offensively. Butler played the best stretch of basketball he has even played with the Bulls last night and possibly in his playing career, and he did it by attacking the basket and drawing fouls, battling for rebounds and getting out on fast-breaks.

Last season, Butler often settled for long jumpers and three-point shots instead of putting the ball on the floor. This preseason, Butler isn’t settling for those ill-advised shots and is knocking down the mid-range jumpers in the rhythm of the offense.

Butler won’t be able to sustain the “Michael Jordan-like” play as Stacey King called it and shooting 68 percent in the last four games, but it is about the type of shots he is taking, his aggressive play and the confidence he has in taking big shots. Butler is a budding star and is primed to be the Bulls’, and perhaps the NBA‘s, most improved player.