Basking With Butler?

The welcome sight of Jimmy Butler's return in Saturday's 108-100 win over the Houston Rockets proved to be just that.  While it was nice to see Nikola Mirotic and Taj Gibson return to the court as well, it served as reminder that Butler is the most important player on the Bulls right now.  His double-double of 24 points and 11 rebounds to go with six assists gave his team just what it needed to snap a four-game losing streak.  He also fouled out for the first time in his career, but few were talking about that afterward.

Butler led all Eastern Conference scorers in January with 24.9 points per game.  In fact, despite missing most of February, he still leads the conference in scoring since the start of the New Year.  While we'd like to say it's a coincidence that the Bulls had a three-game winning streak sandwiched between two four-game skids during his time out, there are just as many arguments that say his absence single-handedly pushed them to the playoff brink.

Now that he's back, it only adds to the debate on how the Bulls should go about their final 21 games.  At 31-30, they hold the tiebreaker over Detroit for the East's final playoff spot.  That puts them barely on the outside looking in for the draft lottery.  While the entire organization wants to return to the playoffs, most everyone else, including Tribune beat writer K.C. Johnson, find it more beneficial for the Bulls to forget about the postseason.

If Butler stayed out for a much longer period, it would be much easier for more people to say this season is for the birds.  But now, we've got a situation where barring another catastrophic injury to a key player, the Bulls have just enough talent to finish eighth or higher in the East.  You can either count on facing Cleveland so that LeBron James can bounce them again or look forward to playing Toronto, whose number the Bulls have.  Even if the Bulls eliminated the Raptors, they'd be facing either third-seeded Boston or sixth-seeded Charlotte if the playoffs started today and those teams have given them problems.

With the timing of Butler's injury, I knew he wasn't going to be out long enough for the Bulls to tumble far out of the playoff picture.  They still might, but the chance of that happening is more unlikely now.  There's simply too much talent on the roster for them to play poorly for too long.  See what kind of limbo they're in?

Missing the playoffs forces the front office's hand in significantly revamping the roster.  But they might just chalk it up to all the injuries  and do nothing.  Making them holds them back and they can also use that as an excuse to stand pat.  It's a very bad spot for any team.

All I know is whether you want the Bulls to win or lose, Butler's return should signal a return to smarter and better basketball.  Those who don't watch them regularly should at least be treated to a good game should they choose to flip it on.  Their chances of seeing that go up when you consider the Bulls' 27-22 record with him is the best for any player on the roster.  Say what you will about forcing himself to the top of the pyramid, but you can't deny he's given results and who's going to argue with that?