The Cleveland Cavaliers received a piece of rough news on Tuesday night, as Chicago star Jimmy Butler reportedly told the Cavs that his preference is to stay in the Windy City. The news was first reported by Marc Stein of ESPN, who said that Butler was hesitant to commit to staying in Cleveland if he was traded.
Sources told ESPN on Tuesday that the Cavaliers have been notified that Butler hopes to stay with the Bulls and would be reluctant to commit his long-term future to Cleveland. Butler, sources said, remains intent on trying to lead the Bulls back to Eastern Conference prominence.
Shortly after, David Aldridge of TNT reported that Butler told the Cavaliers that he didn’t want to leave his current team.
Per source, Jimmy Butler has informed Cavs that he wants to stay in Chicago rather than be traded to Cleveland.
— David Aldridge (@davidaldridgedc) June 21, 2017
This is great news for Chicago, especially in light of the news that Dwyane Wade will opt in to the final year of his contract for the 2017-18 season. On the other hand, this is awful news for the Cavaliers. It looked like the team was willing to part with Kevin Love if it meant they would acquire Butler, and earlier reports indicated that Butler would have embraced a move to Cleveland.
It’s especially brutal in light of a report by Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com. Vardon reported earlier on Tuesday that David Griffin left the Cavaliers with potential moves for both Butler and Paul George after he and the team parted ways.
Former Cavaliers general manager David Griffin left for his successors potential trades to bring either Chicago’s Jimmy Butler or Indiana’s Paul George to the team, sources told cleveland.com, and one or more deals Griffin constructed could happen without him.
In either case, a third team would be involved and would take All-Star forward Kevin Love in exchange for the mix of picks and role players the Bulls and Pacers seek to rebuild in the event they choose to deal their franchise player.
Vardon indicated that Griffin was working the phones all the way up until the decision was made that the two sides would part ways, so it’s not surprising that he had a few things worked out that he could bring to the front office in the event they wanted to keep pursuing these deals. But it’s still pretty cool that Griffin decided to leave behind his blueprints to a move and help the team out even though he’s leaving, even if the ones for Butler now appear to be off the table.
But back to Butler’s decision, it is important to consider Aldridge’s phrasing here — Butler wants to stay in Chicago rather than get traded to Cleveland. This does seem to keep the door open in case a team like Boston wants to swoop in and make a move should Butler sign off on becoming a Celtic, but for now, it looks like the Cavaliers will need to go in a different direction if they want to shake up their roster.
