Last offseason, Jimmy Butler took a risk. He turned down Chicago’s four-year, $40 million deal and planned to become a restricted free agent. He said, "It came down to me deciding that I want to bet on myself," through a text message with Yahoo Sports. "It was about me believing that I put the work in this summer to become a better player with the hope that my improvement will give the Bulls a better chance to win a championship." The risk paid off; Butler had a breakout season and earned himself a five-year, $95.5 million deal from the Bulls.

His big season with Chicago didn’t only improve his salary, it also skyrocketed his fantasy draft stock. Anyone with Butler on their team last year benefited massively, especially since he was ranked below number 50 on most fantasy sites. From a fifth or sixth-round pick last year to a solid second rounder this year, Jimmy is now a premier small forward (and also shooting guard) in fantasy basketball.

One major reason he’s an obvious second-round pick is due to his flawless stats. Butler in no way hurts a team’s fantasy line. He averaged 20 points a night, 15th in the league, and grabbed 5.8 rebounds, first in the league amongst shooting guards and 11th amongst small forwards. For assists, he only totaled around three or four a game, but compared to other shooting guards, he came in at 11th and with small forwards at seventh. His percentages also topped the leaderboards in his two positions, shooting 46 percent from the field, 38 percent from beyond the arc and 84 percent from the line.

Defense is where Butler stands out from the other guards and forwards in the early rounds. On average, he tallied two steals and a block per night, both placing in the top 10 for shooting guards and small forwards. Looking through his games last season, Butler rarely goose egged the steal category, and occasionally broke out with five or six, pleasing fantasy owners locked in a tight defensive battle.

Thanks to Derrick Rose’s injuries, Butler became the center of Chicago’s offense quite often. While he stays away from ball handling, lowering his turnover average (1.4 a night), Jimmy manages to be involved in the offense every trip down the floor. Behind an average of 39 minutes of play, he sees a lot of easy opportunities, helping rid of any possible bad games. In his 65 games played, he scored under 15 points in just 11 of them and didn’t record a steal in only ten.

With Butler’s extended floor time the past two seasons, his games played have been dropping. In 2013-2014, he participated in 67 of 82 games, and last year, 65 of 82. He missed those 17 games due to an assortment of issues, the major one being a ligament sprain and small bone impaction in his left elbow that sidelined him for 11 games in March. The other six absences came from minor injuries, like a sprained thumb at the start of the season, an illness in January, a right shoulder strain in February and a strained calf in April.

Jimmy Butler is looking like a sexy second-round pick though. Drafting him has no negatives. He covers the whole board with stats, hurts no categories and is rarely sidelined for long extents of time. Plus, picking up a premier player with the ability to play small forward is a win-win situation for draft night fanatics. Solid small forwards are hard to come by in fantasy basketball, especially if you miss out on Kevin Durant and LeBron James in the first round.

Durability: A-

Overall Stats: A+

Consistency: A

Mock Draft Ranking: #16