Scenarios That Would Bring Jimmy Butler Back to Chicago

We’ve all heard the story by now. Jimmy Butler wants out of Minnesota and prefers to be traded to either the Los Angeles Clippers, New York Knicks or Brooklyn Nets in that order. Amazingly, The Associated Press said nothing about this until Tim Reynolds wrote a column Thursday. The workplace probe that has plagued the Dallas Mavericks garnered more attention Wednesday, at least with that outlet.

Butler’s preferred destinations seem to make little sense as all three teams have little upside for the coming season. But Butler wants to be the man, something he can’t do with LeBron James grabbing hold of the Los Angeles Lakers. If he goes to the Boston Celtics, it’s almost a given he and Kyrie Iriving would clash over power. After all, Irving pulled this stunt with the Cleveland Cavaliers a year ago.

The other factor for Butler is all three teams have the room to offer him a maximum contract extension as he prepares to enter free agency next summer. The Nets have room to sign two players to maximum deals. Still, Butler sounds hesitant to leave his offseason home of Los Angeles, and the Timberwolves don’t want to deal Butler, anyway. Regardless, his trend of players seemingly only wanting go to Florida or California is discouraging for the rest of the league, but that’s a topic for another day.

Everyone and their brother knows Butler isn’t coming back to the Bulls. He’s demanding money the team doesn’t want to spend right now, and his presence surely would set the rebuild back and put the Bulls back in basketball hell. Besides that, they’re not on his list. If he ever returns, it probably will be on the back end of his career a la Dwyane Wade two years ago.

But let’s forget that entire last paragraph. Just for fun, let’s say Butler and the Bulls have a mutual interest in a reunion. That’s where the awesome tool known as the NBA Trade Machine comes in. As you probably know, it’s easy to get sucked down this rabbit hole, but for this purpose, I’m allowing myself to do just that.

Before we do this, there are some restrictions, namely players who just signed contracts. League rules state that these players cannot be moved until Dec. 15 or after three months, whichever comes first. This means the following Bulls are off the table: Jabari Parker, Zach LaVine, Antonio Blakeney and Ryan Arcidiacono. As for the Timberwolves, you can forget about Derrick Rose or Luol Deng joining Butler in a trade for the same reasons.

Enough fancy talk. Let’s put our GM hats on and run a few different scenarios:

1. Butler for Robin Lopez, Justin Holiday and a first-round pick: The Bulls dump Lopez and Holiday’s expiring contracts and give Minnesota the same pick that allowed them to select Lauri Markkanen. LaVine slides over to point guard, and Wendell Carter Jr. enters the starting lineup. Butler and Parker can switch off between small forward and shooting guard, depending on the ideal matchup.
2. Butler for Kris Dunn, Bobby Portis and Omer Asik: The Bulls get rid of Asik’s bad contract and another expiring one in Portis. They cut their losses on Dunn and decide to give Cameron Payne a closer look to see if he really is the “point guard of the future.” Payne remains on the bench to accommodate LaVine and Parker, but stays in the rotation.
3. Butler for Asik, Payne and Denzel Valentine: The Bulls punt on Payne and Valentine while also shedding Asik’s contract. Though Dunn no longer has to battle with Payne for minutes, he takes Payne’s place in the previous scenario. The Bulls aren’t going to put LaVine on the bench after paying him all that dough; ditto for Parker.
4. Three-team trade — Butler to Bulls, Holiday and Jeff Teague to Philadelphia 76ers, Asik and Robert Covington to Minnesota: I picked a random team for this one. I figured the 76ers could use some talent, and the Timberwolves could use players with more than one year left on their contracts. The 76ers aren’t really affected, merely trading one piece of what they’ve built up, and the Bulls get some cap relief to sign Butler to an extension.

Note that I didn’t really make the Timberwolves better with these trades, but that wasn’t the point here. Besides, they would get significantly worse without Butler, anyway, so it’s not easy to please everyone. The above trades strictly were for the Bulls’ benefit, and I didn’t even ask for any other Timberwolves in return. When you’re trying to acquire Butler, you don’t really have space for many other players who can provide nearly as much help as he does.

Of course, these are only a few of the possible scenarios that could bring Butler back to the Windy City. What are your ideas? You probably have some that are more finanicially sound and are fairer for all parties. Please leave them in the comments below.