Now Jimmy Butler didn’t say anything about the Boston Celtics, but something about the Cleveland Cavaliers' impeding blowup just gave the Chicago Bulls star pause.
According to TNT's David Aldridge, Butler reached out to Cavs brass informing them that he’d prefer to stay in Chicago rather than be traded to Cleveland.
Per source, Jimmy Butler has informed Cavs that he wants to stay in Chicago rather than be traded to Cleveland.— David Aldridge (@daldridgetnt) June 21, 2017
The Vertical had previously reported that Butler was all-in on a move to Cleveland, even facilitating via his own front office.
According to multiple sources in Cleveland, not only have Cavaliers players – including LeBron James and Kyrie Irving – been reaching out to Butler directly and through back channels over the last five days to gauge his interest, but those players liked what they heard back from the Bulls’ three-time All-Star.With LeBron James and Kyrie Irving both likely out in the summer of 2018, Cleveland winters didn’t seem that appealing anymore.
One of the sources indicated that Butler would even push his front office to get the deal done, which is a huge change of direction for Butler, who has told both general manager Gar Forman and vice president of basketball operations John Paxson numerous times over the last year that he didn’t want to be traded.
