Jimmy Butler has proven himself to be a very important asset to the Chicago Bulls and now wants to get paid like it. Butler will become a restricted free agent and several teams are hoping to swoop in and scoop him up. The Bulls have let a lot of good players go in recent years as they spend conservatively but they’re reportedly willing to put up the big bucks to retain Butler.
via David Haugh of the Chicago Tribune.
Internally, the Bulls are planning to take a proactive approach to contract negotiations with Butler next July and secure the shooting guard for a long-term spot alongside Derrick Rose.
They fully expect to sign Butler to a max deal next July before another team even gets involved to tempt him with an offer sheet, which the CBA says they can after the moratorium ends. They accept that the size of Butler’s contract will put the Bulls in position to pay the luxury tax, something Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf says he will do for a championship contender his team is.
The Bulls already have $62,590,142 committed to Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah, Taj Gibson, Pau Gasol, Nikola Mirotic, Kirk Hinrich, Doug McDermott, Jimmy Butler, Tony Snell and Richard Hamilton’s cap hit for next season. Add four minimum salaries to fill out the roster, and Chicago falls just $14,320,754 short of the projected luxury-tax line. Butler’s projected max salary is $15,856,500.
It’ll be interesting to see where the Bulls’ offer falls between the max they can pay him (projected to be$91,174,875 over five years) or the max another team can pay him ($67,707,255 over four years).
