Tom Thibodeau spoke extensively about Jimmy Butler and their past relationship on Friday, two days before the Knicks’ head coach will be tasked with game-planning against the red-hot player he once helped mold into an All-Star.
It certainly felt like a “let’s get the compliments out of the way now” acknowledgment by Thibodeau, because the 33-year-old Butler clearly will become Public Enemy No. 1 at Madison Square Garden beginning Sunday during Game 1 of the Knicks’ second-round playoff series against the Heat.
Butler, who previously played on Thibodeau-coached teams with the Bulls and the Timberwolves, scorched the top-seeded Bucks for 98 points in the final two victories of the No. 8 Heat’s stunning five-game ousting in the opening round.
“I think he’s [playing] at an elite level, and it’s not just what he’s doing for himself, but it’s what he does for the team,” Thibodeau said of Butler after the Knicks practiced in Tarrytown. “I’ve said this many times: anyone you’ve coached and been around, you follow them and support them and want them to do well — except when we play them.
“So I know what he’s about; he knows what we’re about. So let’s go. Let’s see what up.”
The six-time All-Star received his first such designation under Thibodeau’s tutelage in 2014-15, Butler’s fourth NBA season after the Bulls selected him with the No. 30 overall draft pick out of Marquette in 2011. Butler also was voted the league’s Most Improved Player in 2015, an award Julius Randle copped in Thibodeau’s first season with the Knicks in 2020-21.
“I’ll be honest — I didn’t see this,” Thibodeau said of Butler’s ascension to one of the top players in the NBA. “I saw the things that stood out were his toughness, his competitiveness. He played a lot of power forward [in college].
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“But when you look at him, you say OK, we had the best team in the league [with the Bulls] — what I thought was the best team in the league — we had the best record in the league. So I felt like we were getting a rotation player. I didn’t know how good he would become.”
Thibodeau recalled a game early in Butler’s rookie season against the Knicks at the Garden in which Bulls forward Luol Deng was out and Butler stepped up to defend Carmelo Anthony.
“Really, the first opportunity he had to play was here at the Garden. It was midway, Luol was out. And he had to guard Melo,” Thibodeau said. “We started talking to the coaches before the game. I said, ‘Are we really playing him first game [in this situation]?’ And he was great. So that told me a lot about him right there. And then each year, he just got better and better.”
More than a decade later, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra this week used the adjectives “maniacal” and “psychotic” to describe Butler’s will to win. That also has been Thibodeau’s experience alongside Butler on two teams, and now as an opponent.
“I think when you look at intangibles of winning players, that’s one of the main things is competitiveness,” Thibodeau said. “The ability to think on your feet, how competitive you are, your drive, the ability to sustain great effort over a long period of time — those are the things you try to identify in players.
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“And that’s what drives winning, drives improvement. Those are winning characteristics.”
Thibodeau had said earlier this season that when the Timberwolves scouted current Knicks guard Josh Hart during the draft process in 2017, the former Villanova national champion reminded him of Butler.
“Certainly. The toughness, the competitiveness, all those things,” Thibodeau added Friday. “All the intangibles. Play-making ability of whatever the game needed. The toughness aspect of it, very similar.”
Hart now will be among the Knick defenders tasked to limit Butler, with starting shooting guard Quentin Grimes also expecting to be available for Game 1 after missing two games with a shoulder injury.
Despite the loss of rotation regulars Tyler Herro (hand) and Victor Oladipo (knee) during the Bucks series, Thibodeau insists the Heat are “a lot more than just Jimmy,” with All-Star big man Bam Adebayo and veteran guard Kyle Lowry among their supporting players.
“Any time you knock off the top seed, it says you’re a heck of a team,” Thibodeau said. “So we’re gonna have to be at our best.”
