Bulls guard and future Hall of Famer Dwyane Wade recently spoke about how he’ll make his decision this summer. He has a player option to opt out of his contract or stay in Chicago for the 2017-18 season. Based on Wade’s words, it sounds like he’s not interested in sticking around for a rebuild if Gar Forman and John Paxson decide to trade Jimmy Butler before the NBA’s deadline.
Cheap Labor
Speaking of contracts, the Bulls are currently stealing from their newly minted All Star starter. Compare Butler’s contract to his level of production and the new contracts that were signed when the salary cap jumped last summer. What you get is a picture of a man grossly underpaid. That’s something GarPax must weigh heavily in their decision when contemplating a trade to ship out Butler for a haul of picks and/or players. Will they be able to get equal value in return? Knowing that they have Butler under contract for $17.5 million next season and $18.6 million the following year makes it hard to see how they’d win any trade that involves him leaving. At 27, Jimmy is a superstar who’s just now hitting his prime years. And you’re paying him peanuts.
Rob Mahoney of Sports Illustrated agrees. He recently published a column highlighting the best 30 contracts (i.e. team-friendly contracts) in the NBA. Mahoney breaks the players down into subcategories based on their star status and type of contract. Under the category of “max deals”, guess which player Mahoney lists first?
Jimmy G. Buckets.
Mahoney’s take:
The 28th-highest-paid player in the NBA this season does everything. Solo shot creation? Check. Facilitating for others? Butler makes it look easy. Those defensive assignments most of the league’s load-bearing superstars pass off? Butler somehow finds the energy to handle them in between high-energy offensive possessions. Having that kind of two-way pillar is an incredible luxury for a franchise, particularly when he has another three years remaining under contract beyond this season at a rate hardly becoming of a superstar. Such is the nature of the league with a sharply rising cap. Any players locked in on long-term at just the right time will give their teams wiggle room to build around a foundational talent. Considering how much roster reshapsing Chicago still has ahead, that lasting benefit could make all the difference.
Mahoney is correct in all of this analysis. I especially like that he cites Butler’s defense as a big reason for his value. The Bulls’ franchise player is now arguably one of the top five two-way players in the game alongside Kawhi Leonard, LeBron James and Paul George. Some of the other superstar players in the league (Russell Westbrook, James Harden, Steph Curry) can make magic offensively but don’t do much on the defensive end. Jimmy’s talent on both ends is a big reason why his contract is so valuable. It’s also a big reason why GarPax should keep him in town.
There will come a day, though, when Jimmy’s services become much more expensive.
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