Does the Jimmy Butler deal kind of bother anyone else?

Now bear with me I am not here to tear down JB. He had a break out year, but is he the type of player to put us to the next level? If you sign a player to a max contract that player should be expected to help take you to the next step. I think JB is good and I believe he will get better. I don't think he will help get us to the Finals. I believe right now in a weakened east, at best we are still a second round team. Now with a new coaching regime things obviously change and I am not trying to be pessimistic. But, I don't believe Jimmy Buckets is worth a tier one contract. He is a good tier two player. I know the cap is going up and this contract won't look as heavy as it is now, but for the time being I feel wishy-washy about it.

Thoughts?

Totally agree. Jimmy had a great year, but the fact is that the Bulls are not good enough to get to the Finals as is. I am wondering if we should have used the money to get Wesley Matthews and some other key pieces to construct a championship team.

Jimmy needs to take over the team, but D-Rose would never let him have it

DaRev said:

Totally agree. Jimmy had a great year, but the fact is that the Bulls are not good enough to get to the Finals as is. I am wondering if we should have used the money to get Wesley Matthews and some other key pieces to construct a championship team.

Jimmy needs to take over the team, but D-Rose would never let him have it

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Exactly. D-Rose will never let the reigns go. Understandbly so though, he still had a MVP year. I feel like the bulls are still going to be regular season warriors and then burn out in the playoffs. If I were the bulls, I would work on moving Noah now.

Actually No one contract bothers me right now. Look at who and how many got paid big this fa so far and most don't warrant the investment. We actually have lots of bargain contracts compared to rest of league

if the Butler contract bothers you for this season then just imagine what the contracts will look like for the next few seasons for some players out there.

FireFox said:

Exactly. D-Rose will never let the reigns go. Understandbly so though, he still had a MVP year. I feel like the bulls are still going to be regular season warriors and then burn out in the playoffs. If I were the bulls, I would work on moving Noah now.

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True, gotta respect the MVP trophy but I would wait a year on Noah. Personally, I love his leadership and passion but being unbiased, his stock is lower than ever so might as well give him one more chance at a fully healthy year in a new offense and then reevaluate him next year. I guess you are risking him lowering his stock even more though

This is a good contract. His max deal now is going to be cheap. Anyone who is following the TV deal reports and cap changes for next year would know that.

FireFox said:

Now bear with me I am not here to tear down JB. He had a break out year, but is he the type of player to put us to the next level? If you sign a player to a max contract that player should be expected to help take you to the next step. I think JB is good and I believe he will get better. I don't think he will help get us to the Finals. I believe right now in a weakened east, at best we are still a second round team. Now with a new coaching regime things obviously change and I am not trying to be pessimistic. But, I don't believe Jimmy Buckets is worth a tier one contract. He is a good tier two player. I know the cap is going up and this contract won't look as heavy as it is now, but for the time being I feel wishy-washy about it.

Thoughts?

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He was the best wing available and and had 4 teams interested in him. Supply and demand. He was worth a max.

No. It absolutely does not bother me.

Gordon Hayward and Chandler Parsons got paid max deals before. Khris Middleton signed for 70M. Amir Johnson will make more than Steph Curry. That's all I have to say.

1. Butler is a top 5 SG in the nba so no he isn't overpaid.

2. Starting next year the max will be 120-145 million, year after that over 150. So it will be a bargain.

Done here.

He's worth every penny.

No, this deal will actually look good in a few years.

And on the off chance Jimmy doesn't put up a year again like last year this deal isn't so bad then.

If Jimmy is a consistent All-Star from here on out, we're gold.

Scoot26 said:

No, this deal will actually look good in a few years.

And on the off chance Jimmy doesn't put up a year again like last year this deal isn't so bad then.

If Jimmy is a consistent All-Star from here on out, we're gold.

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That is a good point. I know the cap is going up and this contract will not be bad. But, I feel like max contracts are given too freely, which in itself is an entirely different issue/complaint.

I think butler had a good year last year, but was wildly inconsistent at times. This was why I believed he was not worth a max contract.

I think the league is too eager to hand out max contracts, but as you said if butler continues to improve and become consistent this will be a great contract.

FireFox said:

That is a good point. I know the cap is going up and this contract will not be bad. But, I feel like max contracts are given too freely, which in itself is an entirely different issue/complaint.

I think butler had a good year last year, but was wildly inconsistent at times. This was why I believed he was not worth a max contract.

I think the league is too eager to hand out max contracts, but as you said if butler continues to improve and become consistent this will be a great contract.

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The league is indeed a little too liberal with the max contract, but I'd say of those getting max's this offseason, Jimmy has to be near the top of the list of those who are actually most deserving. Scoring 20ppg while defending the other team's best player is no laughing matter, especially when that player is Lebron. He only had 5 games where he didn't score double digits. Jimmy delivers more often than not and he was the best player on the team last year and for that reason, I'm cool giving him the max even if the cap wasn't going up.

There are very few 2 way players that are as good and as young as butler...The assumption must also be that the bulls expect butler to keep improving as he has the last few years which would make this deal look like a steal regardless of the cap increase.

The original poster had mentioned that butler does not seem like that game changing piece that gets the bulls to the finals. With that said the teams that add pieces to get to the finals already have a franchise changing player on the roster already, is leonard going to get you to the finals? if they land aldridge and duncan resigns then a very good shot if they dont land aldridge im not sure duncan plays another season he may call it a career and hang em up.

Rose unfortunately was our franchise changing player but its hard to tell if he's every going to be the rose of old. The bulls biggest problem has been a lack of a post game since the jordan era. There was a post game for a short duration during the eddy curry years but he also gave up more points than he scored. Gasol is more comfortable on pick and pops rather than posting up hes getting too old to keep banging down low. Until the bulls can consistently score on the block or suddenly rose and butler learn to shoot lights out from three the bulls are not going to get to the finals anytime soon.

DaRev said:

True, gotta respect the MVP trophy but I would wait a year on Noah. Personally, I love his leadership and passion but being unbiased, his stock is lower than ever so might as well give him one more chance at a fully healthy year in a new offense and then reevaluate him next year. I guess you are risking him lowering his stock even more though

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Yeah, maybe. Personally I believe that Noah will heal in the off-season and come back next year strong. But his value right now has lowered. That being said, he still has an upside and they should not just move him for the sake of doing something.

Chicago4Life said:

There are very few 2 way players that are as good and as young as butler...The assumption must also be that the bulls expect butler to keep improving as he has the last few years which would make this deal look like a steal regardless of the cap increase.

The original poster had mentioned that butler does not seem like that game changing piece that gets the bulls to the finals. With that said the teams that add pieces to get to the finals already have a franchise changing player on the roster already, is leonard going to get you to the finals? if they land aldridge and duncan resigns then a very good shot if they dont land aldridge im not sure duncan plays another season he may call it a career and hang em up.

Rose unfortunately was our franchise changing player but its hard to tell if he's every going to be the rose of old. The bulls biggest problem has been a lack of a post game since the jordan era. There was a post game for a short duration during the eddy curry years but he also gave up more points than he scored. Gasol is more comfortable on pick and pops rather than posting up hes getting too old to keep banging down low. Until the bulls can consistently score on the block or suddenly rose and butler learn to shoot lights out from three the bulls are not going to get to the finals anytime soon.

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I think that the Bulls are just stuck and will be stuck for a while. They still lack a playmaker and are unable to attract any free agents because no one wants to play for Reinsdork.

The Hawk said:

I think that the Bulls are just stuck and will be stuck for a while. They still lack a playmaker and are unable to attract any free agents because no one wants to play for Reinsdork.

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Its not that bad. We just signed an important piece, and by the sounds of it Butler could be enticed or will even request a Lakers trade at some point and we can acquire changes if they need to be made.

I thought letting Dunleavy go was the best thing for roster evolution and seeing if we can find the next piece from within. Still, he makes the team better standing today.

We went 6 games with the Cavs when they had a healthy Irving. Can we beat a Lebron, Irving, Love Cavs? I don't, know. I doubt anybody can.


It seems like Dunleavy's 5 and either Noah or Gibson's contract would be another max. Thats the other issue with it, is Dunleavy makes it difficult to add that missing piece even if we got rid of Gibson and/or Noah.

It appears our future is now set for quite some time so I can understand the helpless feeling. But lets let Rose come back better. Lets look at these pieces in a real offense.

We still have some trades to make, and we still have the future Sac pick if they can keep from imploding. If Karl and Cousins could just go fuck in a dirty hotel room, we might actually get that pick.

The Bulls are close and they have decided to be conservative, something we already knew. Noah wasn't healthy, Rose wasn't in total form. Butler will still get better. Gasol can do it one more time. Gibson won't be on that ankle. Dunleavy should be in better form. Though I don't know how you sign a 35 year old for 3 years that was just injured for a long stretch.

Thats the only thing that bothers me, because I don't see how it helps us too much now, but I'd have to see the trade clause agreements and the future to know exactly how I feel about this Dunleavy contract. I guess I'm glad he isn't the one replacing Smith on the Cavs.

Why are Bulls fans the only people who question Butler's contract?

I never see any analysts on ESPN or NBATV question this deal. Just Bulls fans.