Jimmy Butler (Photo : Jonathan Daniel | Getty Images Sport)
The Jimmy Butler trade rumors would not die out even on draft day as the Chicago Bulls' wish list was revealed.
According to Shams Carania of The Vertical in his tweets, the Bulls wanted two-time slam dunk champion Zach Lavine as part of the package.
Lavine has been switching on both guard positions as he has the size and athleticism to defend taller shooting guards. Apparently, the Bulls want to position him at the "two" spot (since they're getting a point guard in Kris Dunn).
It is intriguing why the trade did not happen, as Uproxx noted.
"LaVine has the chance to be a very good player. After a quietly strong second half in 2015-16 that coincided with a move to shooting guard, it's clear the 21-year-old high-flier is much more than just a dunker," Jack Winter stated. "But holding onto he and Dunn at the expense of missing out on Butler? When a point guard of Rubio's caliber is already on the roster?"
The Wolves are not sold on Rubio as their point guard of the future, as many pundits predicted. While it seems like the trade is already dead at this point, Marc Stein of ESPN is hesitant to put the nail on the coffin just yet.
Stein said it would not happen on draft day (he was correct) even though it was already hinted that "the Wolves would be willing to trade anyone on their roster apart from Karl-Anthony Towns or Andrew Wiggins."
Still, the Wolves took Dunn despite having Rubio, Lavine and Tyus Jones at the point guard spot. It would have been ideal to have Rubio and Dunn as the starting backcourt but apparently Coach Tom Thibodeau has other plans.
In a post-draft interview, Bulls GM Gar Forman statements could offer some clues-one has to read between the lines.
"We have never made a call in regards to Jimmy Butler," Forman said. "We've talked about, we value Jimmy Butler, we're very happy to have Jimmy Butler. We've got a phenomenal basketball player who was an All-Star and All-NBA defender, is still young. Obviously we've got him under contract long-term, those are all positive. He, again, is what we want to be. We've said this all along. We like Jimmy Butler, we did not shop Jimmy Butler. Did we receive calls? Of course we did, and that's our job to listen to calls. We get calls on a lot of our players, and that's stuff that happens all throughout the league."
Forman then quoted VP John Paxson when he said last April that "Michael Jordan was the only untouchable" and ended with "for us to ever consider anything, it would have to be something that just absolutely knocked our socks off."
Is this a challenge for other teams to ramp up the offers? He did categorically and decisively close the door, only emphasized that they "value" Jimmy.
