can we break this out by rim attempts versus other? he's shooting more threes this year so I'd imagine it's even worse than this shows.
At rim field goal attempts blocked for Jimmy Butler, last 5 seasons, LA= League Average:
2024: 10.10% LA: 9.85%
2023: 7.8% LA: 9.12%
2022: 4.56% LA: 9.62%
2021: 7.54% LA: 10.04%
2020: 9.06% LA: 10.09%
As context, SGA is at almost 11% field goal attempts blocked at the rim this year. The better metric might be FG% and Freq% at the rim. Getting blocked at the rim probably feels worse than it actually is relative to just missing the shot. But shots at the rim obviously go in at a higher percentage than any other shot on the floor. So frequency matters more. A low FG% probably captures more of what's going on. TS% at the rim probably captures even more so let's go with that.
Here are those %s for Butler -- restricted area frequency and TS% including FTAs from shooting fouls:
Year: Frequency: TS%: LA Freq: LA TS%
2024: 36% 73% 31% 69%
2023: 40% 74% 30% 70%
2022: 38% 73% 30% 69%
2021: 42% 74% 31% 67%
2020: 38% 71% 33% 67%
By this reckoning, Butler has had a slight dip in frequency but his TS% at the rim continues to be well above average.
I'll do Tatum's numbers as well since many people might be curious:
2024: 28% 72%
2023: 29% 74%
2022: 28% 73%
2021: 26% 73%
2020: 29% 63%
Similar TS% and much lower frequency as we would probably expect. He also gets to the line at a below average rate on those attempts, for those looking for ammo.
Court factors are an issue here as official scorers determine whether a shot occurs in the restricted area or outside but in the paint, and there's been some pretty measurable bias (especially in Chase center -- the scorer there is well known to have a bias against restricted area attempts).