We’ll Talk
When asked about Butler’s future with the Bulls and the constant trade rumors, Paxson complimented his star but still refused to say they plan to keep him and build around him.
First, the compliment:
“First of all, Jimmy is far and away our best player. He’s an all-NBA type guy. As I just mentioned, he’s made himself into just a quality player. His work ethic, as most people know, is one of the best in the league.” – John Paxson
Next, the open-ended lack of commitment:
“We talked about last year, look our job, you always have to keep things open. We told Jimmy in our exit meeting that look, often times when the season ends, your emotions are high, they’re raw, and you want to just decompress a little bit and let him decompress. We’re going to sit down with Jimmy again. It’s going to happen. We’re going to talk to him and we’re going to define to him, with him, our thoughts, those types of things. That’s not for today.” – John Paxson
Essentially, Paxson and his pal Gar still have no idea what to do with their best player. Some close to the team don’t think management sees Jimmy as a #1 star on a championship caliber team. Other reports imply GarPax acknowledge his great skill on the court but don’t see him as a strong leader. Then, of course, there’s the fact that his skillset doesn’t mesh with the coach they chose.
“We’re going to look at, the Jimmy component, we’ve talked about. But ideally, in the system Fred wants to run we need to play with pace and push. Jimmy’s a different player than some of these other guys. He has the ball in his hands a lot.” – John Paxson
Now, Paxson slightly backtracked on that statement during an interview with ESPN1000 on Thursday. He tried to clarify that they want a fast downhill point guard to play alongside Jimmy and help alleviate some of his offensive burden. He also said in that same interview that, “We are not looking to trade Jimmy Butler.”
Okay, fine. They’re not looking to trade Butler today. Tomorrow? Who the hell knows.
There’s roughly a 99% chance that the Bulls will engage in trade talks with the Boston Celtics again between the NBA’s draft lottery and the draft. If Boston falls to Cleveland and their GM Danny Ainge sees Butler as the missing piece, he might finally pull the trigger and give the Bulls their high pick (from Brooklyn) as the centerpiece of a package. But will it be enough for GarPax, who insist they won’t trade Butler and blow up the team “just to do it”? Whatever the Celtics offered last summer, it wasn’t enough. Now, with Isaiah Thomas becoming a superstar in his own right and Butler being a year older and one year closer to free agency, the Celtics’ new offer could actually be less than the original.
Phoenix, Orlando and the Lakers have also been thrown around in potential trades for Butler, but those are all less likely than Boston. If one of those teams lucks into the #1 overall pick, however, that might change. The Bulls front office is, of course, “really high on” the top point guards in the upcoming draft class.
Bottom Line
Look, all of the Butler trade stuff is just conjecture right now. The real worry, as we sit here in early May, is how Butler reacts to this mess. Again, his bosses were given the opportunity to say clearly and decisively that they won’t trade him and plan to build around him. Again, they refused to do so. For a top-15, arguably top-10 player in the league who single-handedly won the team dozens of games this season, how do you think Butler feels about this lukewarm commitment? It hasn’t been talked about much, but more of this same treatment from GarPax could shift the situation from “will they trade Jimmy?” to “Jimmy is demanding to be traded.”
If I were to put money on it, I think Butler stays. It’s so glaringly obvious that Paxson is terrified of a full-scale rebuild.
“You guys have seen around the league, it’s 6-8-10 years before you get back in the playoffs. You have to be a little bit lucky and the year you draft it has to hit for you.” – John Paxson
The Bulls front office is scared to pull the trigger because they fear the full-scale rebuild could take as long as a decade. That’s about how long it took for the post-Jordan Bulls to fight back to relevance. The issue I have with this fear, however, is simple. If Jerry Reinsdorf is so loyal, and GarPax seemingly have unwavering job security, there should be no fear of failure or beginning a longer plan. What are you afraid of, exactly? Losing fans’ trust due to a string of losing seasons?
Sorry to burst your bubble, gents, but that trust waved bye-bye a long time ago. Most of this team’s fanbase already wants you gone. But we can’t do the firing. So if you’re going to keep your jobs, make the tough decisions that come with the job. Jesus, I don’t know why this is such a hard concept. Hypocrisy #11.
I’m sick of counting hypocrisies, so I’ll stop there. But there were definitely more.
It’s an ugly, ugly Bulls world right now. And unless GarPax finally make a bold move, we’re staring down a replicated season of “Three Alphas”, young “talent” and a soft coach who doesn’t have the right pieces.
At least we have some time to breathe. I’ll be glad to spend the next month re-watching previous seasons of Game of Thrones instead of more Bulls games. But reality isn’t too far away. Summer is coming, Bulls fans. And we have two hypocritical nincompoops sitting on the Iron Throne.
