From ESPNLosAngeles:
“The Los Angeles Clippers have bought out Rasual Butler, and he plans to sign with the Chicago Bulls, a league source told ESPN The Magazine’s Ric Bucher. Butler must clear waivers before he can sign with the Bulls. Butler had the best scoring season of his career in 2009-10, averaging 11.9 points and 2.9 rebounds. This season he’s averaged 5.0 points and 1.9 rebounds. Butler is making $2.4 million in the last year of his contract.”
Other Butler notables: He’s a career 36.1 percent three-point shooter (32.6 percent this season) who has never had a Player Efficiency Rating higher than 11.8 (6.0 this season). He’s not much of a ball-handler, or an athlete, and he can’t rebound, create shots or get to the rim. On the plus side, he’s an aggressive and capable defender who makes good decisions, can hit from 16-23 feet (40+ percent the previous two seasons) and will stick the occasional triple (though not at a high percentage).
I’m not sure Butler is any better than Keith Bogans. Statistically, Bogans has been better this season, although neither player has been lighting it up. The reality is, Butler is more about veteran insurance than an actual upgrade at the shooting guard position.
So…yay?
More Rasual Butler:
ESPN Profile
Scouting Report
Basketball-Reference
Basketball Value
Hoopdata
82games
Need SF insurance! but, I haven’t caught any buyouts at SF, Troy Murphy agreed to a buyout, but he is a PF and a defensive liability….so, no thanks.
/Agreed on the addition of Rasual Butler….its very “meh”
Well…this move isn’t going to hurt our Bullies, but I can’t see how this makes us any better. Granted, I can’t seem to remember having watched Rasual Butler play in about three years or so, but doesn’t the fact that he struggled this year on the all-mighty Clippers provide some sort of indicator for us? While he is a solid to above average defender with some decent length, what else does he really bring to the table? Yeah, he can hit the mid-range J fairly consistently, but is that what we want/need? I’d rather see Korver and Brewer pick up some extra minutes if we are trying to keep Lu’s legs a bit fresher down the stretch…not some Clipper cast-off.
Not understanding this trade. The only buyout I would like is Rip Hamilton, which we all know would only have happened if he agreed to the Cavs deal.
We need a scorer, not an old vet that gets cut by the Clippers.
eh, lackluster pickup…i’m hoping he can get in there and effectively relieve Deng.
can someone listed all the players that can be bought out ?? or any website ?? thanks…
@inception, I agree. Not real excited about this potential pick up but at the very least Butler has the size to play the SF position and spell Deng during the regular season so he will be more rested come playoffs. That’s about it though.
I am very happy about this trade. Butler will also be able to give Deng some rest at the SF spot.
It sounds like there’s abit of a misunderstanding about this signing.
This is not a trade. The clippers did not give Butler a lot of minutes. They didn’t want him to be on the roster anymore so they negotiated a buyout.
Anyone can be bought out if both parties agree to terms and money. Its basically saying take this money and don’t come to work anymore.
Like what we did with Tim Thomas a few years ago under Scott Skiles (then brought him back sometime after under Del Negro for some reason)…anyways, The bulls did not need to give anything to the Clippers for him. He simply isn’t part of a team anymore. And as long as ANY player is bought out before March 1st they can go to any team that they please.
As much as Rip sounds like a better option this is a no risk move that in the end may workout for the bulls, and if not … oh well.
Rip has 20mil or more left on his contract so its a bit harder for Detroit to get him to take a few million and walk away like Butler.
This pick up would have looked a lot better had it happened at the start of the season. Butler put up pretty decent numbers the last couple of years (roughly 12 ppg, 41% FG). Not a strong 3p shooter, but the fact that he’s 6’7″ and can defend probably would have got him the starting nod over Bogans at least. The move doesn’t look great now because he was averaging only 5 ppg on a bad (western)team. But keep in mind that he was playing behind Eric Gordon and Randy Foye and probably didn’t have much motivation at age 31 to go out and play hard for a lottery team. I think we’ll see a different player in Chicago. As long as he hustles on defense, he should move Bogans to his rightful place at the end of the bench. At the end of the day, this is just a slight upgrade, but every little bit helps.
TimeT – I agree with your thoughts here…however, your assumption that he ‘probably didn’t have much motivation at age 31 to go out and play hard for a lottery team’…well, that bugs me. A lot. This is obviously a hasty assumption, one with little basis, but if this is indeed the case, I want no part of Mr. Butler on our current Bulls team. A player who doesn’t deem it important to play hard because he is on the Clippers is not someone you want in your clubhouse.
@Nicky C
I didn’t say Butler wasn’t playing hard, I said he probably is not motivated to do so. I like to think that he was doing his job, I just don’t his current situation did much for his psyche. I’m assuming that’s why they parted ways by way of buyout.
Don’t forget the fact that the Clippers have a very young core and those are the guys they’re trying to develop. They’re getting the time and the shots because the faster guys like Griffin and Gordon develop, the sooner they can compete. Once a team goes in that direction, the job of the veterans is usually to help facilitate that. Not very rewarding I’m sure, but you have a point, as a player you still have to do your job and play hard.
Gilbert Arenas just went through the same thing in Washington. They drafted Wall and he said “i’m just here to teach John what I can then I’m moving on.” The team went in a different direction. Just look at what Detroit is going through with their veterans. They don’t even want to come to practice! Even look at our old friend Ben Gordon, clearly no motivation. He was much better in Chicago. This happens all the time.
As a player, if your heart isn’t in it, for whatever reason, it’s gonna show on the court no matter how much you fight it. I don’t think Butler is any different than most veterans that deal with motivation issues because they’re on a bad team or becuase they’re not getting playing time. I don’t think you should look at that as a character flaw. Sometime it may be a sign of character flaw, but I don’t think that’s the case here.
I don’t expect Butler is going to put Bogans on the bench. I think Bulls are looking to add depth at SF, and insurance against a wing getting hurt.
Bulls did look at Butler at the start of the year, but decided on Brewer and Bogans.
do we have an extra roster spot to pick up the recently bought out corey brewer? he’s younger and more athletic than butler, plays solid defense, is athletic, and can play the 2 or the 3. i feel like he’d be the perfect fit for our team.
http://sports.espn.go.com/new-york/nba/news/story?id=6168236
Corey Brewer is agreeing to a buy-out, and according to hollinger, his problems are that he is a SF trying to play SG…
..just throwing it out there, that he is available too…and then we can have the “Brew Crew”, as we own Milwaukee anyways…/muhahahahahaha
ha
I think this is a fine pickup, overall. Butler is a good enough player and from a casual glance at the stats, he did not appreciate the move to the Clippers – whatever the reason.
I said it somewhere else, but the thing I am looking forward to with Butler is another person who can lead and/or finish on the break.
We have some weak ball-handlers in transition and from what I remember, Butler is capable in this area.
I get really frustrated when I see Brewer make three awesome defensive plays in a row and we can’t finish the job going the other way.
Matt, I heard Vinny was told to “go young” from management thus Butler’s limited minutes. You should take a look at his Hornet stats, as being a Clipper would demoralize most players Pre-Griffin era.
I shall call my crappy veteran guards Ras-eith But-gans! (If the Bulls fall short this year, I will be super-pissed that we didn’t do anything to push ourselves over the hump when we had the chance)
Oh. I hope this is not a done deal as the Knicks just cut Corey Brewer. He would be a better pickup than Butler. Defends better, is younger and can play the SF where we need a solid backup. Offensively he’s at least equal to Butler if not better.