Last July, when Jimmy Butler sat with Chicago Bulls brass in the event room at the United Center to announce a five-year, $92.3 million extension, nobody imagined we’d be here, with rumblings of a trade even a possibility.
After a breakout 2014-15 season where Butler won the NBA’s Most Improved Player Award and established himself as the team’s best player at both ends of the floor, the notion that his long-term future in Chicago was even a discussion was ludicrous.
Yet, here we are.
The follow-up season couldn’t have gone much worse for the Bulls or Butler—the team missed the playoffs for the first time since 2008, and Butler missed a month with a knee injury while becoming a local lightning rod for his December comments that Fred Hoiberg needed to coach the team harder.
It all culminated in Bulls general manager Gar Forman declaring at a season-ending press conference that nothing was off the table, when asked specifically about the team’s commitment to Butler as the face of the franchise.
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NBA
Article written by Sean Highkin