Philadelphia 76ers: The Lakers’ instability could keep Jimmy Butler in Philly
While Jimmy Butler will certainly have suitors in free agency, the Los Angeles Lakers’ front office instability could keep the 29-year-old with the Philadelphia 76ers.
Until recently, it didn’t look particularly good for the Philadelphia 76ers and their upcoming free agent class.
With Tobias Harris already garnering interest from about a half-dozen playoff contenders ranging from the Jazz to the Kings and Jimmy Butler a popular mock to the Los Angeles Lakers, it seemed entirely possible that the Sixers end up losing both of the players they traded major assets for last season and have to rebuild around a ‘Big 3’ of Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons, and J.J. Redick in 2019-20.
But fortunately for fans in the 215, a recent wrinkle could take the Lakers out of the Butler sweepstakes and basically hand-deliver the fan favorite forward back to the City of Brotherly Love.
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That’s right, according to recent rumors, the Washington Wizards are incredibly high on Lonzo Ball (despite not having a President of Basketball Operations), and would be interested in trading Bradley Beal to Los Angeles for a package centered around the third-year UCLA product.
Now on the surface, flipping Ball, another prospect (Kyle Kuzma, Brandon Ingram, or maybe even Villanova product Josh Hart), and the fourth overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft for Beal doesn’t necessarily take the Lakers out of free agency entirely, as the team could conceivably sign a free agent and then make a trade (for salary cap reasons), but it’s hard to imagine any team taking up half of their salary cap on two players with basically the same skill set.
And honestly, if you were Butler (or his agent), why on earth would you want to commit the final years of your prime to an organization that’s an absolute mess?
I mean the Lakers are heading into 2019 without a President of Basketball Operations, with a very unpopular former agent as their GM, and with a head coach who’s Orlando Magic squad immediately vaulted into the playoffs after he left town; that’s not exactly a winning culture.
Philly, on the other hand, has plenty of promise, two certified stars already on the roster, and they just so happened to play in the East. Philly also had Butler on their roster for the better part of a season, making his fit on Brett Brown‘s squad a known commodity.
In Los Angeles, Butler’s role is far less defined, and could potentially involve a whole lot less ball handling, and a whole lot more catch and shoot 3s. As we’ve seen over the last year, Butler truly shines as a closer, a 3-tier scorer who thrives in iso-ball situations, but outside of Dwyane Wade in Miami and maybe Kyrie Irving in Cleveland, LeBron James doesn’t typically thrive when paired with other playmakers.
Next. A Danny Green-Brett Brown reunion just makes sense. dark
No, James has a very specific type of player he likes to play alongside, 3-and-D shooters, and while Butler can conceivably fill that role, he’s so much more. Between his playmaking abilities, his newfound role as a backup point guard, and his ability to highlight a defensive rotation, Jimmy Butler has the potential to return to his All-Star form as soon as 2019-20, and has a far better chance of doing so in his second season with the Philadelphia 76ers then by joining an up-in-the-air Los Angeles Lakers organization built on a shaky foundation.