Jimmy Butler trade ideas that probably won’t happen: Boston Celtics
Welcome to another edition of “Jimmy Butler Trade Ideas That Probably Won’t Happen” here at Pippen Ain’t Easy. Come on in, have a seat and relax, as we discuss good “younger and more athletic” moves that the Bulls won’t make in the future.
With the 2017 NBA Draft Lottery in the books and the Boston Celtics possessing the East’s top seed and the No. 1 overall pick, the curiosity of the Jimmy Butler trade rumors has consumed some of us again. (I know. I’m guilty as charged here.)
Believe me, if it was up to me as general manager, I’d follow a blueprint like the one our friend Stephen Noh at The Athletic Chicago laid out and put shooting all around Butler and make him a James Harden-type of player where he has space to operate within the offense at virtually all times.
But, for the sake of offseason discussions and debates, let’s say that John Paxson and Gar Forman want to start fresh and move on from Jimmy Butler like they did with Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah last summer (and also Taj Gibson this season).
The top two teams in the draft lottery — the Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers — each have young assets that could be used as bargaining chips to land a star like Butler moving forward.
In this edition of “Jimmy Butler Trade Ideas That Probably Won’t Happen”, we’ll look at the Celtics, who are sitting in about as good as anyone with an Eastern Conference Finals appearance and the 2017 NBA Draft’s top pick at the same time.
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Here’s the tricky thing with the Celtics, despite their pole position: it’s pretty much a foregone conclusion that a point guard (likely Markelle Fultz from Washington) will go No. 1 overall.
If the Celtics pull that trigger, what happens to current All-Star guard and All-NBA candidate Isaiah Thomas?
With one year still left on his deal, would Thomas’ days in Boston be numbered if Celtics general manager Danny Ainge kept the No. 1 pick and then took Markelle Fultz or even Lonzo Ball?
Here’s where those Butler-to-Boston rumors could heat back up. The belief is that the Celtics have been “one player away” for a while now. With Butler in the fold next to Thomas and Al Horford, that would form a formidable “Big 3” not seen in Boston since the departures of Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen.
Would the idea of Jimmy Butler being in Boston peak Ainge’s interest if they don’t get over the hump against LeBron James in the East Finals this time around?
If it does, here’s a couple ideas that could be of interest for both sides.
Disclaimer: These are just creative ideas to process. Obviously, you’d have to factor in salaries and potential trade exceptions to make a trade work.
Trade idea No. 1: Bulls get a defensive stopper, last year’s No. 3 pick and this year’s No. 1 pick to rebuild and take Fultz
Let’s glance at a hypothetical and say that Ainge wants Butler. He wants a superstar to chase that title with one more year of Thomas and Horford at least. We can even say they came close to beat Cleveland in the East Finals and it motivated Ainge to go get a star.
This trade idea could do the job. It’s a win for both sides. The Bulls would get Avery Bradley, who remains one of the league’s more underrated players and best perimeter defenders. Along with Bradley, they’d be getting last year’s No. 3 overall pick in Jaylen Brown and the No. 1 overall pick in this year’s draft, which they could use on Fultz. A point guard of the future that’s not Cameron Payne, a strong wing that’s a former top-3 pick and a defensive stopper.
That’s how you rebuild. Ask Jerry Reisndorf’s other team he owns about that.
In Boston, Ainge could put Butler on the wing and watch him work next to Thomas and Horford as a formidable contender to James and the Cavaliers and finally have that star in his lineup to give one shot before the summer of 2018 when the decision of keeping Thomas comes.
Trade idea No. 2: Bulls look even closer at the summer of 2018 and focus on the rebuild even more
Bulls general manager Gar Forman has this weird thought process that the Bulls are going to have loads of “flexibility” next summer and that a star is going to want to play in Chicago. LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Paul George are three of the bigger free agent names during the summer of 2018. (No, none of them would think to play in Chicago.)
If that’s the case and Forman and Bulls vice president John Paxson want to start the rebuild next summer, this trade could be a stop-gap idea to getting them there.
In this trade, the Celtics would get Butler’s services in exchange for Marcus Smart, a terrible shooter, but a good defender and a relentless rebounder, Jae Crowder, who plays Butler’s position, Jaylen Brown and the final of Boston’s likely lottery picks from the Nets in their 2013 trade that may be the worst NBA trade of all-time.
This trade may not feel like enough for the Bulls, but if they’re that concerned with the youth they possess and developing that part of their roster, why not pull the trigger and get Smart as a combo guard, Crowder to fill Butler’s role (in a sense) a former lottery pick in Brown and a future lotto pick with the Nets pick?
Why these trades won’t happen:
There’s a few reasons why this won’t happen. For one, the Celtics don’t seem too concerned in moving either one of their final two picks they’re receiving from Brooklyn.
Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck seem pretty content after Tuesday’s lottery about keeping their picks in the future.
“We have plenty of time to decide what to do, but I would imagine we’ll make the pick,” Grousbeck said Tuesday night after the C’s won the lottery. “In this day’s NBA, picks are very, very valuable. You’ve got a young person you can help mold and grow with. Bring him in before the max salaries kick in years later. Makes a lot of sense to keep these picks.”
It’s no secret that Danny Ainge always wants the cards stacked in his favor in terms of a deal, so Grousbeck and Ainge not wanting to pull the trigger on a deal to help the Bulls start a true rebuild makes sense. Boston also has some stored picks in Ante Zizic and Guerschon Yabusele up front, so the C’s won’t be short on prospects if they let some of their younger pieces go.
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Still, the Bulls front office is fairly stubborn in their own right and the Celtics could use their top pick this year and their extra pick next year for Isaiah Thomas insurance in case the 5-foot-9 point guard isn’t with them past the summer of 2018.