Who won the Josh Richardson/Jimmy Butler trade?
The Philadelphia 76ers and the Miami Heat will square off tonight for the second time this season, as the Wells Fargo crowd will be ready to host Jimmy Butler in round two of his return to Philly.
In their first matchup, the Sixers routed the Heat, handily beating Miami 113-86 behind Josh Richardson’s season-high 32 points.
As of right now, we are about a third of the way through the NBA season and the Sixers look as expected, sitting pretty at 20-8 and holding the second seed in the Eastern Conference. However, too much of the league’s surprise, the Heat aren’t that far behind them, holding down the fourth seed at 19-8.
The Heat have been one of the NBA’s best storylines of the year so far as they came out firing to start the season, winning 10 of their first 13 games. Just like the Sixers, the Heat have struggled on the road (8-7), but have dominated on their home court (11-1), with their only home loss coming to LeBron and the Lakers.
When the Jimmy Butler trade went down, the knee-jerk reaction of most of the NBA was “here we go again with this guy.” He had a perfect situation in Philly if he wanted to win a ring, as the Sixers were basically the most absurd shot in NBA history away from making it to the Eastern Conference Finals. Instead, Butler turned down the Sixers max offer because the Heat’s culture “fits who I am, what I’m about, how I think, how I go about what I go about everyday.”
For me personally, I loved when Jimmy was here, as he brought a tenacity and a “grown man in the room” attitude when he was on the court. But, after I heard he wanted out of here, I thought, have fun wasting away your prime years in South Beach as your team struggles to make the eighth seed in the East.
Boy was I wrong.
With Butler, the Heat look like a team that’ll be competitive for years to come as they have built a team around him with players that really complement his style of play. They surrounded him with rookies like Tyler Herro, Duncan Robinson, and Kendrick Nunn, players who can all space the floor and shoot the rock, as evidenced by Butler’s career-high in assists thus far (6.8 per game).
However, Josh Richardson has been no slouch for the Sixers either. The 6’6” guard, who the Sixers received in the Butler trade, has been crucial for the Sixers on the defensive end, posting a career-best 99.9 defensive rating.
With both the Sixers and the Heat having great early starts to the season, it brings up the discussion: Who won the trade?
It’s an interesting question to propose as both Richardson and Butler have provided immense sparks to their team’s success.
From a Sixers standpoint, Josh Richardson has been as advertised, averaging 14.7 points per game while shooting a healthy 37.2 percent from three-point range. Although he’s already missed eight games this season due to injury, his defensive impact when he’s on the court has been incredible, as he’s 12th overall in the NBA in defensive win shares per game (0.159). Add in the fact that Richardson has one the best team-friendly deals in the NBA, and you got yourself a prototypical two-guard that any other NBA team would kill for.
As for the Heat, Jimmy Butler has been nothing short of fabulous, as he’s averaging 21.2 points per game with career-highs in rebounds (6.4) and assists (6.8). He’s been a menace on the defensive end too, swiping the ball at least twice per game while providing a defensive win share of 0.144 per game, just nine spots below Richardson.
In this case, this might be a rare win-win scenario, as both teams have greatly benefitted from each player’s presence.
However, in head-to-head matchups, Richardson is 1-0 against Jimmy, as he stole the show in their first meeting, dropping the aforementioned season-high 32 points while holding Butler to 11 points on 4/13 shooting from the field.
With the Sixers looking to continue their undefeated streak at home, it’ll be interesting to see how both these players matchup in this Eastern Conference battle.
So, I ask you, who do you think won the trade: the Sixers or the Heat?
