After being selected 10th overall in the 2002 draft by the Miami Heat, Caron Butler was quite unhappy with the nine teams that passed on him. To quote him verbatim:
"I'm going to make them pay for the rest of my career."
Since then, Butler has been part of two trades. The second was definitely the more questionable one.
First, Butler was traded to Los Angeles along with Lamar Odom and Brian Grant as part of the Shaq deal in 2005.
Then, after a disappointing 34-48 season with the Lakers in which he averaged 15.5 PPG, Butler was promptly traded to the Washington Wizards.
That was a head-scratcher.
Butler was traded with Chucky Atkins in exchange for Kwame Brown and Laron Profit. At the time, I understood that the Lakers needed a big man who could produce...
But Kwame Brown? A guy who'll go down as one of the worst first-overall picks in sports history?
Get serious.
Now, all that's left is the hypothetical: What if the trade that sent Butler to Washington never happened?
An athletic scorer and defender, Butler seemed to be the ideal complement to Kobe Bryant and Lamar Odom in Phil Jackson's system. You have to figure the Lakers with Butler would have been better than they were in the last two seasons, when they were twice bounced from the playoffs in the first round.
Butler's consistent scoring would have made him an especially valuable asset. CB has already shown himself to be a 20 PPG scorer—even if he has other 20 PPG scorers alongside him.
Imagine a starting lineup of Derek Fisher, Bryant, Butler, Odom, and Andrew Bynum.Not too bad, if you ask me—but I guess now we can only wonder what might have been.
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6 months ago
ya man gayest trade but look at it this way on christmas day we started trevor ariza who delivered the haier play of the day on making grant suck his balls so i think we got a good team after all that 2-0 on the suns
6 months ago
The Lakers traded Caron not so much because they wanted Kwame but because they didn't want to commit to Caron while they already had a small forward in Odom. Caron was a restricted free agent. The Wizards gave him a five-year/$46 million contract. A relative bargain. That starting five would have been nice. But you couldn't really count on the circumstances that brought Fisher back. With $9 million to Butler, $20 million to Kobe, $14 million to Lamar and $5 million to Fisher, they wouldn't have the cap space to get any better. Let's see if they can parlay Kwame into that missing piece with his expiring deal.
from 6 months ago
Good point
6 months ago
Brian Grant's contract killed us...that dude set us back two years in the team developement, pat riley must of been laughing but not as much as phoenix who picked him up for almost nothing as we had to continue to pay the bulk or almost all of his salary even after he left the team...
6 months ago
The summer the Lakers traded for Kwame is the same summer they drafted Bynum. Both were high risk, high reward moves. At the time I favored both moves, knowing quite well that both could go completely bust. But the theory is a great player is far more valuable that several above average players, and both of these 7 footers had the potential to be great. All we needed is one of the two gambles to pay off and that summer's moves would be considered a great success.
Today, of course, we know that it was the teenage Bynum that payed the dividends and Kwame continued to under perform. But in my mind, those two moves will be forever linked and the overall strategy payed off. In that sense, I still support the trade. You've got to take risks to build a championship level team.
from 6 months ago
Very true
6 months ago
Kwame is a strong defensive player. He's big and powerful. The limitations of that is Kwame tends to lose focus on the offense and gets clumbsy and commits turnovers.
However with Bynum's increasing capabilities, Kwame begins to become a better fit for the Lakers. Bynum gives you a powerful scorer who can block and run and adapt quickly. He provides an offensive capability that Kwame lacks. But his weakness appears to be the better big and strong men in the league. He can have difficulties defending them and gets into foul problems. And in those circumstances, Kwame's brute physical presence fills a hole in the Laker's defense that Bynum can't (yet).
Though Caron's skills are missed. He would be a great asset especially with Lamar being so inconsistent.
6 months ago
I agree, Brian Grants contract was a killer, wasted money, useless player. Who knows what team we would have now if grant never wore a laker uniform.
6 months ago
Nice point, but keep in mind, Bynum;'s "increasing capabilities" also means he's interior defense is better, he is averaging 2.1 bpg. So as Bynum matures, his minutes go up, and his capabilities go up. Therefore, Kwame becomes even more useless, and his trade value plummets. Kwame is useful now on the defensive end, offensivly useless, no hands, no touch around the basket, and couldn't hit a free throw for his life. So, for now, the lakers are fine and will challenge for the pacific, when kwame comes back, ill b surprised and dissapointed if he gets a starting spot over bynum.
6 months ago
Kwame's developed nicely as an interior defender as he's now big enough to push opposing centers out of the block and force them into difficult shots. He still has one of the lowest IQ's in the game though. His rotations are perpetually late and his hands are some of the worst in the league. Bynum can get muscled around a bit by the NBA's behemoths, so keeping Brown as a backup isn't a bad idea at all, but like one of the posters above me said, I'd expect to see Bynum in the lineup for the rest of the season.
6 months ago
Nice work...Michael.
6 months ago
I was never in favor of the Butler/Kwame trade. I couldn't understand why the Lakers would trade their second best player. If memory serves me correctly, he also may have had the best final two months of any Laker that year. However, I do think that people tend to understate the defensive presence that Kwame brings. While I wish the deal were never made, I don't think it turned out quite as bad as most people think. I heard a commentator on ESPN radio recently refer to Kwame as the second worst NBA player in the game today. Give me a break. Not even close. I still think Kwame can be a real asset on the right team.
6 months ago
Kwame is the second-worst NBA player in the game? What does that make me?!
Mad Dog Madsen
6 months ago
Kwame Brown is no Michael Olawakandi (I'm sure I'm not close on the spelling there).
6 months ago
Gotta be the gayest trade, but they have Bynum now.I guess that's the good part.
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