NBA Betting News – Heat Get Hotter, Sign Da’Sean Butler

As if the Miami Heat needed another reason to be a hot NBA championship betting pick this season, they’ve just signed a would-be Final Four hero in Da’Sean Butler. The 42nd pick of the 2010 NBA draft, Butler was a stud for the West Virginia Mountaineers before he obliterated his knee and tore his ACL against Duke. Butler offers the Heat another talented backup plan to the unworldly combination of Super Friends.

At 6-foot-7 and 230 pounds, Butler is a terrific all-purpose scorer. He has a strong post game and is a very capable perimeter shooter who produced 17.2 points per game and 6.2 rebounds in his senior year. Ultimately, Butler doesn’t impact the NBA futures market all that much, but the fact that Miami has signed him means that they have another solid talent on the roster.

Which still stuns me. After the whole moment digested (and vomited out of my system) it didn’t really shock me that LeBron James and Chris Bosh joined Dwyane Wade to form an unexpected super team in South Beach.

What shocked me is that they were able to sign even more talent in South Beach. Not only did they have the Super Friends, Miami boasts Mike Miller, Udonis Haslem, Juwan Howard, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Eddie House and Joel Anthony. What they’ve lacked is backcourt support.

That’s where Butler comes in. Though his terrifying knee injury had many of us cringing, Butler is athletic enough to return form the injury and even if he isn’t ready for the start of the season, it won’t be that far in to November before we see him getting minutes.

Why bother writing an article about Butler? Well every since he broke out in his senior year as a team player, a superb leader and a mature kid, I felt he’d have the ability to impact the NBA. The most important thing for bench players to learn is how to take over games in important third quarter and early fourth quarter minutes.

To put this simply, Butler is a gamer and knows how to use his tall long frame to get to the basket. What’s important for Miami is giving Wade and James plenty of rest heading in to the playoffs (a place they’re virtually guaranteed to be) and Butler’s progress is a key part of that development. Only Carlos Arroyo and Eddie House stand as the guard replacements, with Mike Miller and James Jones backing up LeBron on the depth chart at small-forward.

Butler can play two and three on the court, and what better name for a guy to back up LeBron James, a guy who calls himself “The King”? While Da’Sean Indentured Servant may have to take some time to become a threat off the bench in the NBA while he rehabs his ankle, his development is key to Miami becoming a force down the stretch as the NBA betting season approaches the playoffs.

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