Jimmy Butler is better then Clyde Drexler ever was

[999Guy]

And?

[ClipperRevival]

Drexler reg season stats:

20.4 PPG, 6.1, RPG, 5.6 APG, 2.0 SPG, .472 FG%, .318 3PT%, .788 FT%, 21.1 PER, 1086 games

Drexler playoff stats:

20.4 PPG, 6.9 RPG, 6.1 APG, 1.9 SPG, .447 FG%, .288 3PT%, .787 FT%, 145 games

Butler reg season stats:

17.4 PPG, 5.2 RPG, 4.0 APG, 1.6 SPG, .458 FG%, .327 3PT%, .838 FT%, 20.9 PER, 633 games

Butler playoff stats:

18.4 PPG, 5.8 RPG, 4.3 APG, .1.5 SPG, 443 FG%, .346 3PT%, .836 FT%, 80 games

The raw stats favor Drexler. And I know those saying Butler will say he peaked higher in the 2020 finals. But you can argue Drexler peaked just as high when he literally closed out the Jazz in the 1st round in 1995 when he went bananas in games 4 and 5 after being down 2-1. He averaged 36 PPG on 70% in those 2 games. And he's had other very impressive playoff series.

Drexler was "the man" on two finals teams and was the 2nd fiddle player on a championship winning team. So 3 finals appearances. He was 2nd in the MVP voting in 1992.

I give the edge in defense to Butler and maybe he was a tad better scorer in the half court but I always got the sense that Butler was underwhelming for large portions of his career and could've done more but didn't. You don't get points for potential but results.

Drexler was clearly more athletic, the better scorer, rebounder and passer. He was just better when you look at the overall picture. Now, Butler is still young and can add to his legacy but right now, it's Drexler.

[Kblaze8855]

I only now noticed the Clyde lifting argument. Clyde lifted weights. He was a hard worker far as maintaining his body. His hops came from working out not nature. He was like Steve Francis. A gym built athlete.

[Kblaze8855]

Here he is talking about it:

"There was nothing natural about my jumping ability; it was 'natural' after I spent six hours a day working on it (laughs). I had so many exercises to improve the strength of my legs: sprinting, jump rope, squats, wearing ankle weights two or three days at a time and jumping rope with those ankle weights. I did all that for a 10-year period of time, and during that time I became a pretty good jumper."

I don’t think he was doing squats in his kitchen. He was a hard worker in the gym.

[L.Kizzle]

Jimmy Butler is not even better than Alvin Robertson let alone the Glide.

[FKAri]

Here he is talking about it:




I don’t think he was doing squats in his kitchen. He was a hard worker in the gym.

Ya and Michael Jordan will tell you he got his height from hanging off of pull up bars. It's bullshit. More like Clyde went through puberty, noticed a significant increase in his vertical, and just happened to have started some kind of workout regimen at the same time.

[ClipperRevival]

I only now noticed the Clyde lifting argument. Clyde lifted weights. He was a hard worker far as maintaining his body. His hops came from working out not nature. He was like Steve Francis. A gym built athlete.

Are you suggesting that a player who has a 30 inch vertical can improve it to 40 inch if they put in the work? I hope not because vertical is mostly God given. Sure, you can make incremental improvements but like speed, it's mostly God given. Drexler was a athletic freak. You can't train what he was.

[Kblaze8855]

Can’t say. Just saying what he said. I’m certainly not gonna argue with Clyde about his own workouts and the results. Far as gym built athletic ability in general?

Dont know really. Read up on Herschel Walker and Steve Francis I’ll say.

[Jasper]

last time I looked Butler was never a top 50 all time or a 2 time ring holder.
OP needs some facts ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clyde_Drexler

[999Guy]

This has to be one of the worsr takes ever. I like jimmy but he's not as good as drexler. Butler is killing in an era where alot of guys are killing it. Fast pace, less physicality on defense and no down low rim protection.

This heat team is easily one of the worst finals teams ever. Just deal with it dude.

But they’re not all killing it. Your sense of what killing it means is just dumb and nonexistent.


In dumber words: 27 PPG is the new 20PPG. 62 TS% is the new 58 TS% and in a league where “everybody” puts up stats, that’s just means stats NEVER in NBA history perfectly measured actual game impact, and an offensive era where things are just too skillful and intelligent with all the spacing and shot selection is exposing this.


NBA fans have to stop being dumb and think they can look at PPG/RPG/APG and percentages and think they’re measuring players while ignoring styles, strengths, how they’re defended, their defense, their BBIQ.

Butler is actually very high level on strengths, BBIQ, styles effectiveness, defense and pretty much anything the box score can’t capture.

Butler’s a high level guy despite his weaknesses being perfectly exploited by Milwaukee with a clear injury on top of it.

[ImKobe]

last time I looked Butler was never a top 50 all time or a 2 time ring holder.
OP needs some facts ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clyde_Drexler

You listed his wiki but didn't even look at it . Either way, he was as good as peak Butler on a team that actually won the championship with all-time great elimination games against Utah and a solid Finals series.

[TheCorporation]

You listed his wiki but didn't even look at it . Either way, he was as good as peak Butler on a team that actually won the championship with all-time great elimination games against Utah and a solid Finals series.

Imagine Butler and Olajuwon. More than 1 chip for sure.

[ImKobe]

Imagine Butler and Olajuwon. More than 1 chip for sure.

I don't think Butler gets to the line as much in the 90s NBA and he's not good enough as a mid-range scorer to be an effective 20+ ppg scorer in that era, nor was he ever as athletic as Clyde. He'd be a great defensive player.

[RogueBorg]

last time I looked Butler was never a top 50 all time or a 2 time ring holder.
OP needs some facts ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clyde_Drexler

You didn't look very hard. Drexler made the NBA's Top 50 player list in 1997.

[CountDracula]