Chicago's starting small forward knows all about the challenge of defending King James, after various playoff series' against him and many regular season battles. Jimmy has evolved himself from a solid defender to one of the best two-way players in the NBA. This season Jimmy "Buckets" is averaging 23.5 PPG (career-high), 6.2 RPG (career-high), 5.5 APG (career-high), 1.9 SPG (career-high) and 0.4 BPG. This most defiantly being the best season of his career so far, although his team is sitting in the 9th seed, fighting to reach the playoffs. If Butler can lead his team to the playoffs this season, he may very well have to face off against LeBron James again.
A man who he recently talked about as being one of the hardest players to guard in the league.
Jimmy Butler comments on the difficulty of guarding LeBron
While previewing the Cavaliers-Bulls game on Thursday night, Jimmy "G" Butler was asked who the toughest player in the NBA to guard was. Jimmy Butler has two players in mind, LeBron James, and Kevin Durant. He couldn't seem to decide between the two star forwards, though. Jimmy on LBJ being the toughest to guard "If I say he is, then next time I play Durant, he's going to try to score 60."
It seems that Jimmy can't decide between the two as who is the toughest player to guard in the league, but he does hint at LeBron James being his conclusive answer.
But he doesn't want to say it; he doesn't want to light a fire under KD. Either way, I can't argue with Butler, LBJ and Durant are the two hardest players to guard in the league.
What makes LeBron so hard to guard?
LeBron James is not only one of the best scorers in the league, but he's also one of the best passers in the NBA.
So when a player tries to guard him, they have also to be alert on defense about the pass. If you focus too much on LeBron, you will most likely leave another player open, in which LeBron will find for a bucket. But if you focus too much on the pass, King James will drive by you or shoot over you for a basket. The overall game that The Chosen One possesses makes him one of the hardest players to guard in NBA history.
