Outside of Chicago, teams are already preparing possible maximum-salary offer sheets for Butler in free agency, including the Los Angeles Lakers as one of several expected suitors, league sources told RealGM. Even Butler’s college area connection, the Milwaukee Bucks, will have cap space in July. Around the league, there’s a question: How will Chicago handle the inevitable max out of a star player not named Rose? http://basketball.realgm.com/analys...eBron-Finding-Perfect-Co-Star-In-Jimmy-Butler Real GM has been a reliable source in the past 6 or so months. I believe this report if we don't land a wing in the draft...
Bucks would only make sense if they let Middleton walk, which could benefit us. I don't see the Bulls letting Butler go, nor do I see him leaving. They can offer him the most coin and a contending window of at least a few more years. That said, I'd gladly be proven wrong and he's my top perimeter target if he's willing to come here. Okafor/Towns + Butler equals a very bright future and throws us right back into the playoffs this season.
lSmush might have pushed back Mongolian basketball a decade or so and it's the Lakers fault for giving him significance.
I tend to agree with Real about Love's injury, it made him a lock to opt out. I'm sure he was kicking around the idea of opting in & getting a bigger max deal after the salary cap balloons, but any agent worth their commission is looking at the current situation & advising Kevin to opt out & get that guaranteed max deal now with a player option so that he can cash in on the rising cap Can he get that deal in Cleveland? No doubt about it. Along with a 5th year & 7.5% raises that noone else can offer. But here's why I think he'll still leave. - First let's kill the financial argument. Cleveland having his Bird Rights most likely isn't going to be a factor. You can only add an option on the final year of the contract, so the only way he signs a 5 year or even 4 year deal is if he thinks this is his last chance at a big contract due to health. Otherwise, no matter where he signs he's going to want 1 + 1 year player option. That way he can play next seasom at his current max & then sign a longer deal under the TV Money inflated cap. So the only real difference, Cleveland can offer a 7.5% raise if he exercises his player option while all other teams can only offer a 4% raise. This applies to many other FA's also, but especially young max players like Love. The rising cap negates the usual advantage the team with bird rights has. Source: Eric Pincus - We saw good guy Lebron telling the media how much they need Love recently, but for the majority of the season he was the whipping boy. He sacrificed the most out of the big 3 & got trashed by the media & fans when he didn't figure out his new role right away. Even Lebron threw him under the bus on twitter then made up a fake story to cover it up before finally admitting the tweet was about Love. - I think Real hit it on the head again with the stuff about the playoffs. It seemed like the regular season was all about tinkering with lineups, roles, & how to motivate different guys. They were depending on them building chemistry together in Love & Kyrie's first trip to the playoffs. Win a couple series, get tested by a Chicago, Washinging, or ATL & have Bron show them how to come together as a team & win a series when you're on the ropes. Now instead of Love, it's Thompson out there building chemistry with the starters. They're learning what situations they can trust each other in. When they need to step up. Building a bond that even if they don't even make it out of the East, they will carry over to next season/other future playoff runs together. They'll work on things in the offseason to give them a better chance of succeeding with this group that they come up short with. Being a part of all of this was important for Love. To go through success & failure in the postseason with his teammates, & ultimately feel like they have something to prove as a group next season. - TT is a Bron guy, & has done a solid job as a starter this season averaging a double double while being their best defender at PF/2nd best defender at C. He's going to be a RFA & Bron will definitely pressure them to bring him back, & he isn't going to be cheap. Gilbert has deep pockets & will pay anyone it takes to keep the team contending & Bron happy. But some star players feed off knowing how much the team needs them. If Love is 1 of those guys, it doesn't seem like Cleveland is going to be - It's Bron & Kyrie's team. Bron has never been shy about putting on his GM hat, & I'd expect even less patience as he starts feeling his window closing. If Love signs on long term & they come up short & want to shake things up, is there any doubt that Love would be the first to go? - In summary, a reduced role that has caused the media/fans to blame him when they lose as well as question if he was ever really a star player. Being traded for a kid that had a crazy ROY campaign & is expected to become the next great wing, leading most to say that trading for Love was a mistake. His backup is currently getting the playoff experience he needed, they're probably about to beat a tough Bulls team with an elite frontcourt 100% without him, TT is about to join AV as an 8 figure PF/C who Bron has more playoff experience with than Love, & they're all going to have to find some playing time to justify those contracts. Not to mention Mozgov who was a huge key to their turnaround. The only way I see Love staying is if they win a title or maybe make the finals without him. He doesn't want to be known as a guy who walked away from a title team to have his own team. Very few in history have the cajones to make a move like that or the willpower to prove to everyone that it wasn't a mistake (#8). The reasons Love would want to come here have been outlined for years since the rumors started so I won't list them. But to add to the usual reasons, every game the Cavs win without him has to make a team that actually needs him look more appealing (& he knows we've wanted him for years). As for why we should sign him, he's the best young UFA on the market. There are some older guys I'd take first like LMA & Gasol, but it's tough to see our young core being ready to compete before players that are already 30 are exiting their primes. There are some young guys I'd take first like Leonard, Butler, Middleton, but unless you have a very good idea that their team won't match the offer or Love is fine waiting 72 hours, you don't risk the offer getting matched & Love changing his mind. The options after that fall off a steep cliff. Injuries, Randle, & his dropoff in Cleveland are the only reasons there's any debate. Injuries & figuring out what to do with Randle are risks we'll just have to take, because in my opinion the Minnesota Love is the 1 we'll be getting. & that's a top 10 player with crazy stats, the type of star that attracts other stars. I don't think his numbers in Cleveland mean he's declining or can't play with other stars, it's just how he needs to play to fit with Lebron. Bosh called it before the team played a game together. Love has taken on that stretch big role even more than Bosh did because he was a better 3 point shooter to begin with, so they just leave him out on the perimeter. Signing Love doesn't leave us with much cap room to improve the team, but with a little luck in the draft we should be in good shape. A lot of luck in the draft, landing a top 2 pick to grab a franchise C to pair with Love would be amazing, but if we can just stay at 4 I still think we can put together a solid team. At 4 we're probably looking at Okafor, Towns & 1 of Mudiay or Russell being off the board. We'd need a SF more than a guard but instead of drafting by need, I think we should take advantage of the hype Mudiay or Russell have & find a team that wants to trade up. Try to get whoever Mitch likes between Winslow, Johnson, or Hezonja with a good backup PG on a rookie contract included in the deal. I personally like Hezonja a lot but in Mitch we trust. Obviously if we know Love is our target & think he's on his way & are happy with what we have at PG & SF, we'd still have big holes to fill at C. Luckily for us, with the way the draft & free agency are shaping up, we should be able to pick up multiple guys that can be our rim protector for the future. You hope Upshaw is still there at #27, & grab Dakari Johnson with 1 of our 2nd round picks even if we already got Upshaw just incase we miss out on our FA target at C. That target in my mind has to be Biyombo. Great young defender & rebounder, hasn't been able to play big minutes yet which is why it's important to draft the other guys to split time. Execs currently expect Biyombo to be available for a deal in the 4-6M range, so we need to dump atleast Sacre & possibly Kelly's contracts to create the room to sign him. Clarkson/rookie contract/FA Kobe/2nd rounder/FA Hezonja?/Young Love/Randle/Black Biyombo/Upshaw/Johnson I hate moving Randle to the bench & we might have to trade him to fill another position later on, but otherwise love this team.
Keep in mind, a lot of these stars may not actually be going after max contracts wth the whole 2016 situation. They may be just going on these Lebron Player-option type deals to see whether or not they can't get a bigger max then.
Player Options or any options can only be on the final year of a contract, so no matter what if these stars are giving themselves an opportunity to see if they can get a bigger deal, they're going to sign a shorter contract to do so. In the last CBA you could get a 6 year deal with both an ETO & player option, those deals are gone in the current CBA.
http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports....preparing-to-offer-jimmy-butler-max-contract/ Lakers preparing max contract for Jimmy Butler. Bulls are going to match the offer though.
Yeah I'm fine with it honestly. It would still leave us with enough money to pursue a couple other options AND when they match it, we can go hard after Carroll for less money. If the Bulls don't match it then HOT DAMN we got a nice player.
Another Lakers reference to what they're going to do..... pulled from another person's BUTT? Couple days ago it was going to be Carroll. None of these guys have a clue I'm starting to think. Except WOJ. Maybe. I get the impression he doesn't go out there with speculative blogging crap, but is more of an old school sports reporter. I hope anyway. It's like politics. You get so jaded that you believe none of them. I don't think being a top sports reporter like WOJ has the potential to corrupt like being a politician. Leaps back to ground from soapbox after rant that I'm sure no one could care less about.
As much as I like Middleton, you definitely go after Butler first if he's an option. I've always questioned the Bulls willingness to max Butler while constant injuries to Rose & Noah stop them from contending, but I've never actually pushed the agenda because everyone else seems sure they'd match. Just to add a bit to it, Butler is the definition of a Thibs guy so if Thibs is really on his way out, it may increase the odds of a max offer to Butler not being matched.
So with the Butler "rumor", comes an excuse to think up another dream offseason. Butler is in the lowest tier of max contracts, starting at 15.8M, so it leaves us with a decent amount of cap space to round out the roster. Also, playing the same position as Young makes him expendable. There are many teams with cap space/non guaranteed contracts that might have interest in Young, for the sake of making it simple I'll say we send him to Detroit for Caron Butler's non guaranteed contract. We might aswell go ahead & dump Sacre too. No point in continuing to pay a career 3rd stringer. Of course, much of what we do will depend on the draft. Assuming we stay at 4, I would hope that we luck into Mudiay, but it's more likely we're stuck choosing between Russell & the next tier of players. In this scenario I take Russell & hope he lives up to the hype. My plan after this doesn't differ much from signing Love other than keeping Kelly & playing Black at PF. Upshaw at 27, Dakari Johnson & a wing in the 2nd round. Biyombo for a deal starting at 4-6M. PG options in order, Monta, Rondo, Mo. We should have around 8-9M left so for the sake of the most talented roster, I'll say we land Monta on a multi year deal starting at 8-9. Monta/Clarkson/FA Kobe/Russell/Ellington or FA Butler/2nd rounder Randle/Black/Kelly Biyombo/Upshaw/Johnson Seems like a really crowded backcourt, but considering the things that could go wrong, annual season ending injury for Kobe, Russell not strong enough to play minutes at this level yet, I don't think the depth is a bad thing. We're set up very well for life after Kobe, with 2 combo guards at PG & Butler who can slide to SG if a certain SF comes calling in 2016 FA.
The Dallas Mavericks are expected to make a strong push for Jordan, who would essentially be a younger version of the Mavs' current defensive anchor Tyson Chandler. The Lakers would likewise love to steal Jordan away from their Staples Center rival. Portland has enough cap space to re-sign LaMarcus Aldridge and make a max offer to Jordan -- who has a similar but far superior skill set to Robin Lopez -- but he'd just be trading one third-fiddle spot for another in that scenario. http://espn.go.com/nba/playoffs/2015/story/_/id/12906433/do-los-angeles-clippers-need-big-changes
I said sign Jordan months ago... After this playoff run?... I'm not 100% sure. The guy is talented, has a lot of heart, and is surprisingly healthy... but he's a sack of bricks on the court. He's just not a smart basketball player. Maybe it's the team he's on, but really he just makes a lot of bad choices out there. I'd do it if we needed a Center and he was open to it though. Give me the 20/20 potential please. We'll just have to figure out a way to get him to make a damn free throw.
I like Jordan, but I don't think he'll sign with us. Interesting nonetheless, though. I have some interesting metrics I'll post up in a bit regarding what he does well and why he's so coveted...
