NBA Free Agents 2011: Ranking Rumored Destinations of Caron Butler
When Caron Butler has been on the court, he's had a good NBA career. His career averages nearly 17 points and six boards a night.
But that's the problem. Butler has never played all in all 82 games during a season, and hasn't played in 70 since the 2005-2006 season. For a guy who'll be 32 in March, that's not a small problem.
But it's not a huge problem either, at least not this season. Remember that this is going to be a shortened season and Butler is the perfect kind of player to benefit from fewer games.
Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports is reporting that Butler would like to play for the Clippers or Bulls. Either destination makes some sense, so let's take a second to look them over.
The move makes sense because of what the Clippers could potentially be. They have good players in place and money to bring in additional talent around them.
My problem with this move for both parties is that the Clippers are a team whose future is much brighter than its present. Even though the money and talent is there, this isn't a team built for making a deep playoff run right now.
That's what they would need to do for a Butler move to make sense. Right now, they're still a few years away. He's too old to go to a project like that.
Grade For Clippers: C+ Grade for Butler: B-
This move makes far more sense. The talent is in Chicago for a deep playoff run. Heck, we need to only look back at last season for proof of that.
Like the Clippers, the Bulls are a young team, but far better. That's why they made the Eastern Conference Finals a season ago.
Butler would be the kind of player to push them over the edge. He's not the biggest name in the NBA, but is the right kind of player to make a big impact.
This is where Butler should go. If he has interest, the Bulls need to welcome him with open arms.
Grade for Bulls: A Grade for Butler: A
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