Jimmy Butler bet on himself earlier in October when he elected not to sign the contract extension the Chicago Bulls laid before him.
Now he’s preparing to bet on himself again.
That initial gamble paid off. The Bulls were slinging something like $10 million annually at the time, and Butler quickly established himself as a max-contract lock this summer. The thinking has always been that he would enter restricted free agency and either sign a max sheet the Bulls would match, or ink a fat deal they placed in front him from the jump.
Apparently that’s not going to happen. Yahoo Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski (h/t SB Nation) says Butler will once again reject the Bulls’ overtures in favor of increasing his earning potential:
Chicago Bulls restricted free-agent guard Jimmy Butler has plans to pursue shorter-term offer sheets this summer, resisting the Bulls’ initial plans to offer him a five-year, maximum contract extension, league sources told Yahoo Sports.
As the NBA’s salary cap is set to dramatically rise beginning with the 2016-17 season, Butler has become far less interested in locking himself into the five-year, $90 million-plus deal the Bulls are expected to present him on July 1, league sources said. …
Unless Bulls officials bring Butler a shorter-term deal that’s more favorable to his long-term earning power, they’ll likely be waiting to match an offer sheet, league sources said.
Butler could sign a three-year offer sheet that guarantees him $50 million, but allows for a player option on the third year that could allow him to move into unrestricted free agency and re-sign for a five-year, maximum deal worth as much as $190 million. It is understandable why Chicago wants Butler locked into a five-year, $90 million max extension under the current salary structure, but that appears to be a deal Butler plans to pass on.
None of this means Butler is leaving the Bulls this summer. He’s not. They still have the right to match any offer sheet he receives.
But if he’s angling himself for free agency in 2017, the Bulls do indeed have a problem, or at least a surprise complication, on their hands. It’s not that Butler could cost a crap ton by then, though he will. Nor is it that the Bulls would be less likely to pay him two years from now either, because, assuming they’re not feeling self-destructive, they won’t.
Signing a three-year deal with a player option for 2017 simply allows Butler to enter unrestricted free agency at least two years before the Bulls would prefer. The benefit of restricted free agency for the teams is they can lock up coveted players without any hassle for between four and five years.
Two or three years less years is a big difference. And though Butler won’t necessarily leave in 2017, he would have that power. The Bulls cannot match offers to unrestricted free agents. Butler would have autonomy.
Players do tend to stick with incumbent teams, since they can offer the most money. But still, this would put the Bulls on a clock with one of their best players.
They’d have two years to convince him to stay beyond 2017, a position in which they didn’t expect to be.
