In the wake of the Derrick Rose trade, there has been a bounty of rumors about the Chicago Bulls possibly moving their best player, Jimmy Butler, as well. On Bill Simmons' podcast a couple weeks back, Butler was quite confident that he would remain in Chicago, and he insisted that he's been able to block out the noise.
That noise was quite loud last night.
Marc Stein reported that the Bulls and Minnesota Timberwolves were in “advanced talks” to reunite Butler with his former head coach, Tom Thibodeau, in exchange for a package centered about their fifth overall pick. It didn't come to fruition.
Another possibility, which has swirled in rumors since the trade deadline this past season, was the Boston Celtics packaging their plethora of picks to bring Butler to Beantown.
In the end, a trade wasn't all that close to happening, according to Celtics co-owner Wyc Grousbeck.
Wyc Grousbeck: "We did not SNIFF a trade today. It was a collection of rip-off attempts, and we laughed at them." #Celtics owner heated.
— Adam Kaufman (@AdamMKaufman) June 24, 2016
The deal never really progressed into advanced stages, and for good reason; the Bulls' asking price was way too high.
I believe the Bulls ask price to the Celtics for Jimmy Butler was #3, #16, #23, next years Brooklyn pick, Smart, Bradley and Crowder.
— James Stewart (@IAmJamesStewart) June 24, 2016
That would've been quite the haul for Chicago. Butler is a fantastic player, but the Celtics were smart to back out on this one. Really, it looks like this was the Bulls' way of making Butler un-tradeable while still engaging with other teams, just in case they did something crazy.
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