Utah Jazz: 3 pro comparisons for incoming rookie Jared Butler

Utah Jazz rookie Jared Butler median comparison: Patty Mills

First, a caveat: there is no Australian bias in this article. Apparently, low usage, game managing point guards grow on trees in the land Down Under, alongside massive spiders and various other terrifying forms of wildlife.

Aussie or otherwise, Patty Mills is a second-round success story that Utah Jazz rookie Jared Butler could stand to emulate. Imagine playing for one of the greatest coaches in the history of your sport for nine straight seasons, only to finally deflect to one of the most talented rosters ever assembled. One would have to be a very solid, reliable player to do so.

That’s exactly what Patty Mills has been throughout his entire career. Like his countryman Matthew Dellavedova, Mills is a reliable floor-spacer, boasting a career 38.8% accuracy rate from three-point land on 4.3 attempts per game. He is also a stronger defender than his diminutive 6’1, 180 pound frame may suggest. Mills’ career Defensive Rating is 109: an already-impressive figure, but also one that is dragged down by some late-career slippage.

In 2015-16, for example, Mills posted a Defensive Rating of 102. That’s an elite mark: for context, Ben Simmons (thanks again, Australia) finished the 2020-21 season with a Defensive Rating of 106, and he was the runner up for Defensive Player of the Year.

Spoiler alert: all of the players listed in this article are “game managing” point guards, meaning they haven’t been relied on to produce the bulk of their team’s offense, but they have been relied on to execute solid decisions and, effectively, not screw up.

If Jared Butler can exceed that kind of low-usage role, the Utah Jazz will be ecstatic, but if he can fill it, they won’t complain either.