Chicago Bulls vs. Toronto Raptors Takeaways: Jimmy Butler is Everything

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 3:13 p.m. ET

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Fansided, Daniel Coughlin/FanSided via Pippen Ain't Easy

The Chicago Bulls are on a winning streak that was extended on Saturday night when they once again beat the Toronto Raptors, almost entirely because the Bulls played Nickelback during to the Raptors player intros. Or it was because of Jimmy Butler, but I’m pretty sure it was the Nickelback.

Honestly, what more can you say about Chicago right now? They’re all over the map, on a winning streak, and slowly starting to acknowledge winning lineups. It’s been very helpful that head coach Fred Hoiberg has figured out how to play and not, but now he seems to be putting those players together in better combinations and it’s working.

Rajon Rondo sat, yet again. That didn’t stop the Bulls television broadcast from mentioning the Rondo bobblehead giveaway that is set to take place on Monday night against the Oklahoma City Thunder. At this point, it is my belief that the marketing team for Chicago is on a tight budget. Knowing that the Bulls aren’t big on spending money they don’t have to spend, they probably are hanging on to Rondo just so that they can still do the Rondo giveaway and don’t have the sunk cost of however many thousands of bobbleheads. If Chicago set Rondo free right after this game, it would be amusing and there would be no way you could convince me that he wasn’t kept on the roster expressly for this game promotion.

And that’s the 2016-17 Bulls in a nutshell. They just won their third game in a row, jumped back into the playoff picture and yet the only reason I believe that their big offseason signing that went disastrously wrong hasn’t been waived/traded is that they don’t want to waste their marketing budget.

Let’s look at several big things from this exciting win for Chicago that suddenly looking like they can go as far as Jimmy can carry them. And that looks pretty far at the moment.

Jan 7, 2017; Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago Bulls forward Jimmy Butler (21) defended by Toronto Raptors guard Kyle Lowry (7) during the first quarter at the United Center. Mandatory Credit: David Banks-USA TODAY Sports

Jimmy Butler Does It Again

It’s absolutely remarkable, isn’t it? Butler continues to put up big game after big game. He’s playing out of his mind right now and it is carrying the team.

There are a couple of different pockets of fans that haven’t quite embraced this and it seems to be clear what their hangups are when it comes to the star wing player.

First, Derrick Rose fans. I don’t understand it, but this is a very real phenomenon. There are “Bulls” fans, which are really just Rose fans. They don’t like to acknowledge that the city’s son couldn’t deliver what they expected. They don’t like to acknowledge that Rose may have been impeding the progress of Butler, who has emerged as one of the very best players in the entire league.

Second, fans who attribute issues of other players on Chicago’s roster to Butler. Since the benching of Rondo, it’s been an incredible display from Jimmy. Fans like to throw around the term “true point guard” as if that a) means anything, and b) they can correctly define it. If your definition of a true point guard is a player that struggles to implement the coach’s plays, can’t shoot, stops the offense and doesn’t force defenders to try and go over screens, you have a bad definition of true point guard.

The truth is that life has been much better without Rondo. As Kelly Scaletta of FanRag and Bleacher Report points out:

It’s a very small sample size, just a few games, but Jimmy is putting up LeBron James and Russell Westbrook type numbers. And that’s just the offense. He backs up his strong play on that end of the floor with terrific defense. Will Gottlieb of The Athletic grabbed this video of the end of the fourth quarter, noting the incredible effort from Butler to get back on defense, recognizing DeRozan getting ready to attack the rim, and makes the disruption on his drive and shot:

Jimmy had an unbelievable game. Again. He shot 10-for-25 from the field, 4-for-8 from 3-point range and was 18-for-20 at the free throw line. Just staggering numbers en route to 42 points, 10 rebounds, five assists and three steals. He just does it all.

Hidden in those numbers is just how magnificent he was late. Which is nothing new, he’s been doing this recently. In fact, he had a huge fourth quarter to push Chicago to victory in Cleveland just a couple days ago. Butler did it again on Saturday night. After a pedestrian first half, he unleashed hell in the second half. He had 32 points, nine rebounds, three assists and two steals after halftime against Toronto. He had seven of those points in overtime. It was this 3-pointer in overtime, captured by Stephen Noh of The Athletic, that put the game away:

Butler is an All-Star. Butler is the best Bull. Butler is a superstar. And this Chicago team can only go as far as Butler can take them.

Nov 2, 2016; Boston, MA, USA; Chicago Bulls head coach Fred Hoiberg on the side line during the second quarter against the Boston Celtics at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports

Hoiberg Adjusting…Slowly

Hoiberg has not done a great job of coaching the Bulls over the past season and change. He’s an average or below-average playcaller out of time outs or play stoppage in general. But worst of all has been his strict adherence to his mundane and broken substitution patterns. It’s been the same players in the same roles at the same times in every game, barring someone unable to play, in foul trouble or currently being DNP’d into eternity.

The changes are starting to happen.

Maybe this has something to do with a fire being lit under Hoiberg and his seat getting a bit hot. After the rumors started up about Hoiberg’s job being on the line, he’s done a better job and the team has started winning. It might have been the push he needed.

It’s unlikely that Hoiberg would have benched Rondo for any reason, no matter how terrible he was, if he wasn’t feeling the pressure to survive. Since opting to make that move, he’s also starting to show some “Ah ha!” moments elsewhere in his rotations. That really started to shine through against the Raptors on Saturday night.

If it wasn’t for fouls, Cristiano Felicio would have closed the game. It was Doug McDermott and Nikola Mirotic that played with Butler and Felicio, with only some Wade sprinkled in. He’s starting to break from his habits, at least a little bit, and it’s paying off. Sure, I could have been blindfolded and still told you with some certainty excellent when McDermott sprung out of his seat and headed directly to the scorer’s table to check in. And yes, it was clear that Mirotic was going to be the next man up. But the changes happened throughout the game and it was good. When Hoiberg saw that Butler and McDermott were almost comically successful working together, they went back to that combination essentially every trip down the floor.

So here we are. Hoiberg felt the pressure. He benched the player that should have been bench. Now he’s playing the lineups that he should be playing and closing the game with the players who should be closing. And maybe it isn’t as simple as Hoiberg being a poor coach.

If I told you that a seemingly effective Chicago lineup was Butler-McDermott-Mirtoic-Felicio-Wade or that same lineup with Carter-Williams or Jerian Grant in place of Wade, you might agree. But if I told you that those players should open and close games together, you might think I’d have forgotten my meds. Here’s the thing, that lineup is getting it done. But before knowing his job was at risk, Hoiberg probably didn’t want to take the risk and make it look like he really is a poor NBA coach.

Sitting Robin Lopez for Felicio was the right thing to do. Lopez is a very good center. Well above an average defender with a strong post game on offense, but he has his issues with perimeter defense and working in all offensive situations. Wade is still useful, a major difference between he and Rondo. However, he looked very bad, very old, very tired for huge chunks of this game. He started okay with some great makes and put the exclamation mark on his night with a huge dunk in the fourth quarter, but he probably should be coming off the bench. Good luck with that, Fred.

But we’ve got progress and that’s huge. Hoiberg might be a bit better at this than we thought, but he’s also trying to manage perception, demands of Gar Forman and John Paxson, and the egos of his players. Or maybe he got lucky. Only time will tell.

The Bulls won this game in the fourth quarter overtime. Hoiberg’s lineups during that time were actually pretty much a case of if isn’t broken, don’t fix it. He played Wade the entire fourth and overtime which is kind of remarkable given Wade missed a game recently, looked dead tired early on this game and is only averaging 30.3 minutes per game this season. He played 38 minutes on Saturday night.

Butler rested the beginning of the fourth, but returned at 7:54 and finished out the game. Their supporting cast? Felicio, who played the entire fourth and all but the final 13 seconds of overtime, McDermott and Mirotic, who played the exact same shifts and essentially all but about one minute total between the fourth and overtime.

Taj Gibson and Michael Carter-Williams only played about 30 seconds each during that same time span and Lopez didn’t step back on the floor after the 2:32 mark of the third quarter.

In a strange Chicago season, all the best players on the Bulls don’t seem to play best together and what might emerge as the best Chicago lineup, might be one that is comprised of the best Bull, Butler, and a supporting cast of bench players.

Nov 7, 2016; Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago Bulls forward Doug McDermott (11) and guard Isaiah Canaan (0) celebrate during the second half of the game against the Orlando Magic at United Center. Mandatory Credit: Caylor Arnold-USA TODAY Sports

Doug Loves Dinosaurs

Yes, I’m going to turn this into a t-shirt. Doug loves dinosaurs. Doesn’t McDermott strike you as the kind of guy who has the best hangout pad with a refrigerator filled with Surge, all the Doritos and every gaming console you can imagine. He also probably has Jurassic Park sheets on his bed.

He can tell you everything about Saurischia, the lizard hipped dinosaurs, though he’s clearly not impressed with the Theropods of the Saurischia family, because he absolutely destroys the Raptors. I’m guessing his favorite is probably of the Ornithischia, the bird hipped dinosaurs. He’s got to think Cerapods rule. He probably has a Parasaurolophus tattoo. Man, Doug loves dinosaurs.

McDermott played 38 minutes on Saturday night. That’s a regular season career high for him according to the NBA.com stats page. He put up a double-double of 17 points on 17 shots and pulled in 10 rebounds. He also tacked on an assist and a steal. In short, it was a Dougie kind of night. And like Wade, he also put home a slam dunk late in this one.

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This could be called a bit of a breakout game for Doug, based on his high level of involvement in this game, but it really wasn’t at all. McDermott really enjoys playing Toronto. Last season, over the course of three games, he averaged 26 minutes and 19.7 points on 68.8 percent shooting.

All of this is good news for McDermott and his fans. He got big minutes and he played well. But it was mostly encouraging because of the time that he got on the floor when it mattered – in the fourth quarter and overtime. He’s reaching a point with Chicago and Coach Hoiberg where his minutes are going up and so are the trust levels. I can only speculate, and hope, that the best is yet to come for McDermott. Or maybe it’s just because Doug loves playing against these particular dinosaurs, the ones from Toronto.

Mar 14, 2016; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Chicago Bulls forward Jimmy Butler (21) talks to forward Doug McDermott (3) against the Toronto Raptors at Air Canada Centre. The Bulls beat the Raptors 109-107. Mandatory Credit: Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports

Jimmy-Robin vs. Jimmy-Doug

I’ve mentioned a lot about Butler already. I’ve mentioned a lot about McDermott already. However, those were just pieces that built to this – Jimmy and Doug together.

There’s something about this combination on the court in general, and in pick-and-roll combinations specifically, that really works. I don’t think it’s rocket science, it’s actually pretty simple and it’s important for the future of the Bulls and any success the team hopes to have.

Butler works extremely well as the lead player and primary ball-handler. I believe it was Will Gottlieb who went so far on Twitter after Saturday night’s game to drop in the James Harden reference. He’s right. Butler might not be Harden, but he is Harden for Chicago. The system and the roster dictate much of how a star player will operate and Jimmy is doing point forward things right now.

But it works really well when it is with Doug. And I noticed something else over the past 10-15 games and it really stuck out in the first half of the Raptors game, too. Lopez and Butler is a bad screen combination. Lopez sets good screens, but it often ends up disjointed. Lopez doesn’t roll hard or Butler will go the opposite direction and into a double where he can’t quickly recognize and hit Lopez.

Robin has another problem going against him. He’s a great defender when near the rim, but his offense is similar. He did knock down a very nice long 2-point shot in this game, but that’s not where he is most comfortable or getting his best looks. He’s better off backing down his opponent for old school hook shots, just flipping the ball barely over his defender and the front of the rim.

McDermott does a good job of offensive movement through cuts and screens or standing at the perimeter, but he’s really good from out there when his game is going well. That’s why he was able to dive and put down the slam dunk that we so rarely see from Doug. When he’s not dunking, which is about 99 percent of the time, he’s creating a problem for defenses. That problem is what forces a defender to stay with him, be mindful, give Butler room to operate. That room to work allow Butler to have huge games and carry the team. It also leads to better looks for McDermott so that he can be utilized as the shooting is supposed to be.

Most of the takeaways from this game seem to tie in. Butler is playing some kind of Golden Oozaru final form Super Saiyan basketball right now, but he’s been freed to do so by Hoiberg adjust personnel and rotations, even if not perfectly and still struggling with playcalling at the NBA level. It’s these rotations that help bench playings, like McDermott gets his game going and he seems to enjoy playing against the Raptors in particular. And that creates a full-circle benefit as he played fantastic basketball in a nearly unstoppable pick-and-roll combination with Butler, which looks much better than the disjointed pick-and-roll/pop that they try to run with Butler and Lopez.

And Lopez didn’t play at all during the fourth quarter and overtime because of Hoiberg’s rotations, electing to go with Felicio for the entire fourth and up until he racked up one foul too many at the very end of overtime. And so the circle continues and goes on and on and on, hopefully leading to many more amazing performances from Butler, McDermott and the rest of the Bulls along with many more wins for Chicago.

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