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Jimmy Butler on improved mental approach: 'This game is 99.9 percent confidence'

Brad Penner / USA TODAY Sports

Jimmy Butler took a gamble on himself last summer.

A year later, it appears evident that his bet paid off - figuratively and literally.

With the 2013-14 season in the rearview mirror - his third season in the NBA - Butler decided to reject a contract extension from the Chicago Bulls.

"It came down to me deciding that I want to bet on myself,” Butler told Yahoo Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski at the time.

With Butler viewing himself as more valuable than an $11 million per year man, this bold strategy placed the onus for future financial returns squarely on the 25-year-old Texan.

And so, Butler used the 2014 offseason as an opportunity to develop his skill set ahead of what would prove to be a most pivotal 2014-15 season.

"Jimmy and I started with two workouts a day," Butler's personal trainer Chris Johnson told SLAMonline.com's Christopher Cason."We would do two-a-days all summer, working on his footwork, body balance, shooting, and ballhandling. We had a strict routine that we put together that applied to on-court, NBA game-type situations."

"Wherever he went, I was there," Johnson added. "If we were out of state, we were still working out. Jimmy rarely took a day off. If we took a day off, that means we still worked out at least once that day. If Jimmy was on vacation we worked out twice, if not three times a day. I can recall us sometimes working out five times a day at Marquette."

Known primarily for his defensive acumen during his first couple of years in the NBA, he worked tirelessly on becoming a two-way player.

"Since the moment he arrived (in Chicago), he was always a hard worker," former Bulls teammate and current Miami Heat forward Luol Deng said of Butler. "He was always coming in early for extra work. We knew he was a great defender, but he really worked on his offense to get to where he is now."

Even Tom Thibodeau - former Bulls head coach - took notice of his shooting guard's burgeoning game.

"I'm not surprised he's improved," Thibodeau said last season. "But the amount he's improved? I wouldn't be honest if I said I saw that coming."

Such an evolution culminated in Butler's first All-Star nomination, his second consecutive All-Defensive Second Team selection and Most Improved Player honors - making for a stellar 2014-15 campaign for the budding superstar.

Worth noting, however, is the fact that his impressive rise to elite status has been inextricably linked to his focus on improving his mental approach to the game.

One particular backcourt running mate saw Butler's heightened self-assurance positively impact his productivity.

"His confidence," Derrick Rose explained. "It was just him going out there and translating what he had worked on and adding it to his game. He was huge."

Whatever type of mental training Butler engaged in should be packaged and sold to all young and inexperienced players looking to take their skills to the next level, since his massive strides - a PER increase from 13.5 in 2013-14 to 21.3 last season, for example - are enviable to say the least.

"I think (building confidence) was my main thing," Butler said. "Yeah, I put up a lot of jump shots, worked on my ball-handling, but this game is 99.9 percent confidence. If you think you can do something, you can do it."

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