So Apparently Jimmy Butler Is Going To LA Or Boston Because He's Friends With Mark Wahlberg?

I guess this is a new thing? Not Jimmy Butler’s friendship with Mark Wahlberg, that has been going on for a while now and I still don’t understand it. No the new thing here is that Marky Mark is the man pulling the strings on Jimmy Butler’s future. Ummm what? I said this yesterday and I’ll say it again, do fans of other teams understand the situation here? Jimmy Butler is not leaving Chicago this year, it’s just not happening. Yesterday the Bulls extended Jimmy Butler the qualifying offer and the max qualifying offer. What does that mean? Well it means that Jimmy Butler has 3 options.

Option 1 – Sign the Max Offer at 5 years, 90 Million. He may not do this because he wants in on the windfall that will take place in 2017 when the Salary Cap is expected to soar but a max deal is still a max deal and it can’t be easy turning down 90 million dollars of guaranteed money when who knows what will happen in the future. I’d say there is a 30% chance he signs this.

Option 2 – He signs an offer sheet from another team. This has to be at least 3 years long and because Jimmy is a RFA the Bulls have the ability to match any offer made. This is the most likely scenario, that the Bulls will sign Jimmy Butler to a 3 year 51 million dollar contract. Chances this happens 69%.

Option 3 – If Jimmy Butler really really doesn’t want to be a Bull he can sign a 1 year deal with the team for 4 million dollars. Do you think Jimmy and his agent are ready to leave anywhere between 47 and 86 million dollars on the table just so that he can be a free agent in 2016? Come on. Even if Jimmy wants out of Chicago (which I don’t think he does and am not sure where the rumor came from) he would be a fool to risk injury or a bad season while only getting paid 4 million dollars. This option has a 1% chance of happening and that’s being generous.

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So where under those 3 options does Marky Mark fit in? Nowhere. The Bulls are re-signing Jimmy Butler, most likely for 3 years and possibly for as much as 5. Anyone who is thinking otherwise isn’t paying attention to the power the Bulls have over him right now. Jimmy deserves the max money but it will be the Bulls that will pay him and no one else. Sorry to burst any dreams here but hanging with the cast of Entourage in LA is not worth over 45 million dollars, even Jimmy knows that.