Jimmy Butler didn't deserve ECF MVP...

[Kernewek]

For some reason this has me thinking of that game against Philadelphia where Mario Chalmers (the poster child for the Miami 'Some Guy' system) went nuclear from three to end the series. Not sure why.

[cman88]

If Caleb martin doesn't shoot 50% from 3 this whole series Boston is in the finals. So that's all you need to know.

[celticsclay]

Butler averaged more points, more rebounds, more assists, and more steals all while being the primary defensive focus of the Celtics.  Martin had an excellent series, but Butler absolutely deserved to be the MVP as he was Miami's best player and most valuable player.

Nope.

Butler also averaged more than twice as many turnovers and shot much, much worse.  And Martin was 6th on the Heat in usage, whereas Butler was 1st.  Butler's .448 eFG% was worst on the Heat among rotation players; Martin's was .727!!!  And perhaps the biggest indicator in terms of Butler's value:  the Heat were +9 overall with him on the floor this series and were outscored by the Celtics through the first six games when Jimmy was on the floor; they were +31 with Martin, with an elite +9.6 net rating.

Agreed, also not really sure how mo can argue the on off ratings when he has been using them to build a years long argument against jaylen brown being valuable to us. That being said I think this is the higher water mark for the board for people wanting to trade jb.

To the original topic seems like it has always gone ot the star player with the exception of iggy getting finals mvp one year. When was last time role player got it?

[Kernewek]

If Caleb martin doesn't shoot 50% from 3 this whole series Boston is in the finals. So that's all you need to know.

It's not just Martin. Miami hit 58% of their wide-open threes against us in the ECF, which is an absolutely historic performance:

https://twitter.com/LevAkabas/status/1663561582901891077

I don't have the numbers in front of me but Akabas linked an article from before the series ended that said all seven of their three point shooters - Butler, Martin, Vincent, Strus, Lowry, Love and Robinson - decided to shoot above league average from deep during the playoffs, rather than below average (like they did for the regular season). There's a bit of that which is coaching, but some of that is just insane - the inverse of the Rockets going 0-27 against Golden State a few years ago.

[Birdman]

If Caleb martin doesn't shoot 50% from 3 this whole series Boston is in the finals. So that's all you need to know.

Martin should gotten the MVP

[Moranis]

Butler averaged more points, more rebounds, more assists, and more steals all while being the primary defensive focus of the Celtics.  Martin had an excellent series, but Butler absolutely deserved to be the MVP as he was Miami's best player and most valuable player.

Nope.

Butler also averaged more than twice as many turnovers and shot much, much worse.  And Martin was 6th on the Heat in usage, whereas Butler was 1st.  Butler's .448 eFG% was worst on the Heat among rotation players; Martin's was .727!!!  And perhaps the biggest indicator in terms of Butler's value:  the Heat were +9 overall with him on the floor this series and were outscored by the Celtics through the first six games when Jimmy was on the floor; they were +31 with Martin, with an elite +9.6 net rating.

Butler was the focus of the C's defense.  He was the guy drawing the double teams and opening up great looks for his teammates.  He also took on tough defensive matchups.  Butler was absolutely Miami's best player in that series.  He deserved to win the award. 

The only 2 games in the series that Martin had a higher GMSC than Butler were games 3 and 7.  The other 5 games, Butler had a higher GMSC.  Say what you want about that metric, it does measure your overall impact.  Butler was Miami's best defensive player in the series by a pretty wide margin (yes even on Bam).  The 4 games Miami won was because Butler had his 4 best games.  The Heat won when Butler played well.  That is what a MVP is.  Martin was fantastic in game 7, but there were 6 other games and it isn't like Butler had a poor game 7 (28/7/6 isn't exactly bad).