Originally Posted by
Pelicanidae
Sure but at the same time, why was he ''run off'' by those teams?
Bulls let him go because he wasn't a mega-star yet and they're a famously horrible franchise run by morons.
Wolves moved on from him because he was too much of an overbearing personality and was making KAT feel bad - nothing to do with his play, as he had been excellent during his time there and was part of leading them to their first playoff berth in over a decade.
Then he left the Sixers because they chose Tobias Harris over him, again in part because there was tension between him and Embiid because Embiid is a big baby and Butler is notoriously abrasive as a figure. Nothing to do with his play, as he had again been an all-star level player and provided them with several key playoff moments.
Saying he was ''run off'' makes it sound like he was some mediocre player that we could've never predicted this Miami level of play from - that's simply not true, at least not for MIN and PHI. Maybe that's the case for Chicago, though I think that's more down to them than him. The issue is, and always has been, that he's kind of a jerk, a little too intense for most people, and abrasive.
That works in Miami, a franchise that has spent the last 15 years crowing about its gruelling workouts, intense practices, physical play style, win-at-all-costs mentality, etc, but would it have worked in New Orleans? Remember, when the Heat acquired him it was 2019-20, we still had Alvin Gentry as a head coach at the time.
I don't even think that I disagree with your overall point, which is that you can make big waves with an 04-Pistons style of team where everyone is good and versatile more-so than a league defining star. There's some truth in that. I just think you're vastly underrating the impact that Butler has on Miami, and therefore using them as an example when they don't fit that category.
That said, I do think that introduces a problem: the 04 Pistons were the last time a team won a chip that way. It's been nearly 20 years. Every single championship team since has had a HoF talent leading the pack: Timmy, Lebron, Kawhi, Curry, Kd, Nowitzki, and this year it may well be Jokic. It's pretty hard to buy ''we don't need a star, we just need high quality versatile depth'' when the last team to win that way did it when Blockbuster was still a routine destination.