Butler trade rumor - KC Johnson update: pg 63

[Chi town]

Butler is sitting at just a hair under 30 PER in January and that is counting his crappy 0-6 flu game.

Whatever this guy's ceiling is, I don't think we've seen it.

His ceiling is MVP convo. He will get there too. More 3s and finding his teammates will be the key.

[BahamaBull]

Kevin Durant
Lebron James
Steph Curry
James Harden
Russell Westbrook
Kahwi Leonard

Ok, these guys are or may be better than Jimmy...But who else??

I say you dont trade a top 6-8 player in this league. I believe draft picks are really overrated nowadays.

Keep Jimmy!

[BoozerRoNo]

Keep Jimmy. Trade Wade!

[Payt10]

Kevin Durant
Lebron James
Steph Curry
James Harden
Russell Westbrook
Kahwi Leonard

Ok, these guys are or may be better than Jimmy...But who else??

I say you dont trade a top 6-8 player in this league. I believe draft picks are really overrated nowadays.

Keep Jimmy!

I'd put Giannis ahead of him too. Then you could argue for Anthony Davis, Chris Paul, and Klay Thompson. There's at least 6 guys that I'd say are for sure ahead of him, but after that, I think you could make an argument for Jimmy anywhere between 7-10.

[bullslas]

Keep Jimmy. Trade Wade!

We are not trading Wade.

[RedBulls23]

Kevin Durant
Lebron James
Steph Curry
James Harden
Russell Westbrook
Kahwi Leonard

Ok, these guys are or may be better than Jimmy...But who else??

I say you dont trade a top 6-8 player in this league. I believe draft picks are really overrated nowadays.

Keep Jimmy!

I'd put Giannis ahead of him too. Then you could argue for Anthony Davis, Chris Paul, and Klay Thompson. There's at least 6 guys that I'd say are for sure ahead of him, but after that, I think you could make an argument for Jimmy anywhere between 7-10.

IMO, AD and Paul are better than Jimmy, but I wouldn't put Klay above him. I've always felt that Klay is a overrated defender, and I have always questioned his shot selection. While he's a damn good shooter, he takes questionable shots at times.

So I would put Jimmy anywhere from 8-10. Semantics really in counter to your post.

Which is why I can never think about trading him. Especially considering Jimmy is fully committed to this franchise.

A good front office would find a way to turn this franchise around to be more competitive with a player like Jimmy. Look at the Rockets for example. They were 41-41 last year, and now in running for the 2nd best record in the west.

[Jeffster81]

Kevin Durant
Lebron James
Steph Curry
James Harden
Russell Westbrook
Kahwi Leonard

Ok, these guys are or may be better than Jimmy...But who else??

I say you dont trade a top 6-8 player in this league. I believe draft picks are really overrated nowadays.

Keep Jimmy!

I could make an argument for Butler being better than most on that list, and I can make an argument that he is not. The only two players that list that ther is no argument is James and Durant. It's James and Durant then varying levels of talent.

[BahamaBull]

Kevin Durant
Lebron James
Steph Curry
James Harden
Russell Westbrook
Kahwi Leonard

Ok, these guys are or may be better than Jimmy...But who else??

I say you dont trade a top 6-8 player in this league. I believe draft picks are really overrated nowadays.

Keep Jimmy!

I'd put Giannis ahead of him too. Then you could argue for Anthony Davis, Chris Paul, and Klay Thompson. There's at least 6 guys that I'd say are for sure ahead of him, but after that, I think you could make an argument for Jimmy anywhere between 7-10.

Good call. I totally forgot the greek freak.

[ThePooh]

Kevin Durant
Lebron James
Steph Curry
James Harden
Russell Westbrook
Kahwi Leonard

Ok, these guys are or may be better than Jimmy...But who else??

I say you dont trade a top 6-8 player in this league. I believe draft picks are really overrated nowadays.

Keep Jimmy!

Something people shouldn't forget (and people tend to...) Jimmy is the only one in this list (even with Giannis, Paul or Thompson Davis) who has been selected outside of the top 15 in the draft. You have this kind of steal every two decade and you want to trade this for a complete rebuilding on some propspect who might be a bust as we have seen lately in all these so called good drafts ? Don't test your luck...

[AirP.]

Kevin Durant
Lebron James
Steph Curry
James Harden
Russell Westbrook
Kahwi Leonard

Ok, these guys are or may be better than Jimmy...But who else??

I say you dont trade a top 6-8 player in this league. I believe draft picks are really overrated nowadays.

Keep Jimmy!

Hmm...
Even if you put those 5 players in front of Jimmy, there's a ton of players that are basically in Butler's class at the very least.
AD, Hardin, P.George, D.Green, Cousins, Lillard, Thompson, Wall, Lowery, Giannis, CP3, Blake, K.Irving, DeRozen and if he stay's healthy... Embiid. Embiid is averaging 20 and 8 in just over 25 minutes a night, that's 28 and 11 per36.

Also take in consideration if Butler was on a better team he wouldn't be doing as much and some of those players would be putting up possibly better numbers if they had worse teams(not all of them of course).

Basically, if this team was somewhat constructed for defense like they were in Rose's prime the Bulls would be a scary team lead by Butler but they're not nor are they only a couple moves away. If I had any belief that this FO could/would build a roster around Butler I'd say go for it but I don't think they will, they've already skipped one season of building around Butler in his prime.

The smartest thing the FO could have done is get a couple of very high draft picks for next year to go along with Jimmy. With trades and with tanking and hope those high 1st round picks would be ready to contribute when Jimmy is 29 or 30, he'd still have 3-4 great years left in him and then a few good years after that.

[League Circles]

For me the price to trade Butler would be two elite prospects plus a good player. Probably not going to happen.

[BloodyQ]

Kevin Durant
Lebron James
Steph Curry
James Harden
Russell Westbrook
Kahwi Leonard

Ok, these guys are or may be better than Jimmy...But who else??

I say you dont trade a top 6-8 player in this league. I believe draft picks are really overrated nowadays.

Keep Jimmy!

I'd put Giannis ahead of him too. Then you could argue for Anthony Davis, Chris Paul, and Klay Thompson. There's at least 6 guys that I'd say are for sure ahead of him, but after that, I think you could make an argument for Jimmy anywhere between 7-10.

Good call. I totally forgot the greek freak.

I'm confident that Butler will drop a big one on the Bucks the next time they play....he's due.

[Stratmaster]

I think this one has been effectively put to rest. Barring some unbelievable offer for Jimmy, or a Bulls downturn where Jimmy gets frustrated and starts melting down in front of the press, there is no reason to trade Jimmy and I don;t think the Bulls would seriously consider it. They made their choice at the end of last season and it looks like they made the correct choice.

[AirP.]

For me the price to trade Butler would be two elite prospects plus a good player. Probably not going to happen.

Not sure 2 elite prospects, I couldn't see LA saying ok "here's Russell and Ingram for Butler".

Butler is a sure thing, the assets you get back from him is not a sure thing and your FO better be damn sure they get a potentially good/great player and any draft picks better be scouted out and decided on who they want or don't want with huge upside.

Chicago's let it be known they'll listen to offers, I don't expect them to trade Butler till the lottery order is decided so they know for sure what else they'll want with whatever pick they get offered. This FO is just not that big into risks, it's the easiest path to a team fans will come out and watch, if there's a huge downside to a move they won't be doing it. Hence being stuck as a middle of the road franchise unless luck happens, it's happened a few times. MJ, Rose and now Butler but you really can't expect to build a franchise on luck, you have to make your own lucky which is what Paxson did till they got Rose.

[Pnjguy]

Only for the 2 nets picks and jaylen brown.

[pb-ceo]

unfortunately jimmy is so competitive, he keeps this rag tag crew in prime treadmill territory. this is the dilemma facing fans and bulls front office.

[MrSparkle]

Kevin Durant
Lebron James
Steph Curry
James Harden
Russell Westbrook
Kahwi Leonard

Ok, these guys are or may be better than Jimmy...But who else??

I say you dont trade a top 6-8 player in this league. I believe draft picks are really overrated nowadays.

Keep Jimmy!

I'd put Giannis ahead of him too. Then you could argue for Anthony Davis, Chris Paul, and Klay Thompson. There's at least 6 guys that I'd say are for sure ahead of him, but after that, I think you could make an argument for Jimmy anywhere between 7-10.

IMO, AD and Paul are better than Jimmy, but I wouldn't put Klay above him. I've always felt that Klay is a overrated defender, and I have always questioned his shot selection. While he's a damn good shooter, he takes questionable shots at times.

So I would put Jimmy anywhere from 8-10. Semantics really in counter to your post.

Which is why I can never think about trading him. Especially considering Jimmy is fully committed to this franchise.

A good front office would find a way to turn this franchise around to be more competitive with a player like Jimmy. Look at the Rockets for example. They were 41-41 last year, and now in running for the 2nd best record in the west.

Agreed. This team would have 10 wins this season with Klay in Jimmy's place. I mean, how lax is Klay's role in GS? He's a very gifted scorer off-the-ball, but that's the thing -- his scoring is a by-product of Curry's, Green's (and now Durant's) spacing and play-making. We're talking 2 legitimate MVP talents and 1 dark horse MVP / all-star in Dray.

Jimmy is easily top-10. And rankings are a very moving thing. Last year Curry was everybody's MVP, this year I'm not sure his numbers will even justify putting him in the All-NBA 1st or 2nd teams. Kind of guessing here but here would be my predictions:

1. Westbrook-Harden-Lebron-Durant-Davis
2. Paul-Curry-Leonard-Giannis-Cousins
3. Lowry-DeRozan-Butler-Green-M.Gasol

There's a lot of competition with guards. I mean, Isaiah, Lillard, Wall, Klay are right there in terms of production. But Jimmy is a step above all of them IMO, and he's certainly having a better season than some of his rivals (George, DeRozan). He's a fringe 2nd team guy, and if he was billed as a guard, I'd even consider him in the 1st team (over Westbrook or Harden -- hard to justify this year, cause those 2 are packing the stat sheets).

The only players I think I'll take over Jimmy from a pure basketball + health perspective are Lebron, Durant, Curry, Leonard and Giannis (so not really taking future declines/age into account -- however, I do take injury proneness into account). Arguably Davis, but his durability really scares me. Beyond that, you're looking at lateral differences IMO.

Build a great supporting cast for Jimmy, and you'll have a top-5 NBA team easily. Right now, the forward position is the most dominant in basketball, and Jimmy hangs with the best (Lebron). The main issue is the length of Durant/Giannis/Leonard bothers him. That's why getting athletic tweeners should be (and should HAVE BEEN) the priority for this FO. They need to get a Mo Harkless type on the roster to help Jimmy with defensive assignments.

[sticky2009]

not sure if this is just a butler trade forum..but how about rubio/shabazz for rondo package?

[6_Rings]

Melo /green

[RedBulls23]

Report: Bulls, Celtics may rekindle trade talks for Jimmy Butler
http://www.thescore.com/news/1221137

Rumor mill: There are rival executives who believe the Bulls and Celtics will rekindle trade talks centered on Jimmy Butler before the Feb. 23 deadline. The teams held serious talks in June, and the Celtics own the same assets — Jae Crowder, Marcus Smart, the Nets' first-round picks in 2017 and 2018 — the teams discussed then.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/basketball/bulls/ct-denzel-valentine-trying-season-20170130-story.html
According to KC