{"id":1413,"date":"2024-10-23T08:43:55","date_gmt":"2024-10-23T08:43:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hotnews.azontree.com\/?p=1413"},"modified":"2024-10-23T08:43:55","modified_gmt":"2024-10-23T08:43:55","slug":"shaq-leaves-jimmy-butler-off-of-his-list-of-top-20-current-nba-players","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hotnews.azontree.com\/?p=1413","title":{"rendered":"Shaq leaves Jimmy Butler off of his list of top 20 current NBA players.."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/heatnation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/USATSI_24483580_168403908_lowres-860x573.jpg\" alt=\"Jimmy Butler\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"s-feat-outer\">\n<div class=\"feat-caption meta-text\"><span class=\"caption-text meta-bold\">Sam Navarro-Imagn Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"s-ct-wrap\">\n<div class=\"s-ct-inner\">\n<div class=\"e-ct-outer\">\n<div class=\"entry-content rbct clearfix\">\n<p>Hall of Famer and former\u00a0Miami Heat\u00a0star Shaquille O\u2019Neal didn\u2019t put current Heat star Jimmy Butler in his list of his top 20 NBA players.<\/p>\n<div class=\"twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered\"><iframe id=\"twitter-widget-0\" class=\"\" title=\"X Post\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?creatorScreenName=Heat%20Nation&amp;dnt=true&amp;embedId=twitter-widget-0&amp;features=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%3D%3D&amp;frame=false&amp;hideCard=false&amp;hideThread=false&amp;id=1848507418159776023&amp;lang=en&amp;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fheatnation.com%2Fteam-news%2Fshaq-leaves-jimmy-butler-off-of-his-list-of-top-20-current-nba-players%2F&amp;sessionId=8736d58663bd73e469d744ad190de9b0f2aff038&amp;siteScreenName=heatnationcom&amp;theme=light&amp;widgetsVersion=2615f7e52b7e0%3A1702314776716&amp;width=550px\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-tweet-id=\"1848507418159776023\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>O\u2019Neal did have Heat big man Bam Adebayo on his list (at No. 20), but there wasn\u2019t a single other Miami player ahead of him.<\/p>\n<p>While O\u2019Neal\u2019s rankings may ruffle the feathers of Heat fans, Butler didn\u2019t have the best season of his career in the 2023-24 campaign.<\/p>\n<p>Butler averaged 20.8 points, 5.3 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game while shooting 49.9 percent from the field and 41.4 percent from beyond the arc, but he appeared in just 60 games. The six-time All-Star posted his second-lowest scoring average of his Heat career (the 2019-20 season he averaged just 19.9 points per game), and he failed to make the All-Star team.<\/p>\n<p>More importantly, the Heat ended up with just the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference for the second-straight season.<\/p>\n<p>Since coming to Miami, Butler has led the team to the NBA Finals twice (in the 2019-20 season and 2022-23 campaign) and the Eastern Conference Finals three times.<\/p>\n<p>However, it appears that O\u2019Neal believes that Adebayo has surpassed Butler as the team\u2019s top player.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s possible this ranking could be extra motivation for Butler \u2013 who is in a contract year \u2013 to perform well in the 2024-25 season. Butler can opt out of his current deal at the end of the season to become a free agent.<\/p>\n<p>It was\u00a0recently reported that he intends on doing that, even if the Heat offer him a contract extension.<\/p>\n<p>Butler seems focused heading into the 2024-25 season, as recently shared that all he cares about this season is winning with the Heat.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cIf we\u2019re being brutally honest, no matter what, nothing I do now is going to get me paid any more money,\u201d\u00a0Butler said. \u201cEven though I don\u2019t care about the money. All-NBA, dah, dah, dah, dah, none of that is going to matter. I\u2019m at a point right now that I got more than enough money. I\u2019m just here to win.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Heat fans would love it if Butler makes O\u2019Neal backtrack on his rankings by leading Miami to a big season in the 2024-25 campaign. The Heat are set to open the regular season on Wednesday, Oct. 23 against the\u00a0Orlando Magic.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sam Navarro-Imagn Images Hall of Famer and former\u00a0Miami Heat\u00a0star Shaquille O\u2019Neal didn\u2019t put current Heat star Jimmy Butler in his list of his top 20 NBA players&#8230;. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1414,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Shaq leaves Jimmy Butler off of his list of top 20 current NBA players.. - NEWS USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/hotnews.azontree.com\/?p=1413\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Shaq leaves Jimmy Butler off of his list of top 20 current NBA players.. - 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