If the Chicago Bulls have their way, they’ll trade the one year left on Derrick Rose’s contract before they move Jimmy Butler.
The Butler rumor mill has received new life over the last few days with a report coming from ESPN.com’s Marc Stein and Chad Ford that the Minnesota Timberwolves are looking to send the No. 5 pick, among other assets, to Chicago in exchange for Butler. According to Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders, though, the Bulls themselves are more focused on trading Derrick Rose:
Yesterday, ESPN’s Chad Ford and Marc Stein revealed that the Minnesota Timberwolves are gearing up for a hefty offer to the Chicago Bulls for guard Jimmy Butler, suggesting a package built around the fifth overall pick and several roster players.
There is little doubt that sounds attractive to the Timberwolves. But, as the report points out, the Bulls are not actively considering trading Butler – at least not yet. League sources in Italy say the Bulls are actively open to moving guard Derrick Rose and that seems to be the first choice rather than shopping Butler.
Good luck with that Chicago.
Rose will earn more than $21.3 million in 2016-17. So even as an expiring contract, he is a salary-cap detriment. That he will hit free agency in 2017, amid another cap climb, isn’t all that enticing, either. To potential suitors, he is either an expensive rental or someone whom they must reinvest in over the next year.
The Bulls’ best shot at moving Rose is to hope some team with incredible amounts of cap space is willing to absorb his deal once all the other free-agency dust settles. There is no feasible scenario, after all, in which Rose nets Chicago a collection of above-average assets. He has been on the decline since tearing his ACL in 2012 and still wields an inconsistent jumper.
Simply put, he’s not a point guard around which teams would try to build anymore. Bake in his astronomical salary, and it would be surprising to see him start the year anywhere but Chicago.
