{"id":116269,"date":"2025-01-06T08:00:30","date_gmt":"2025-01-06T13:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=116269"},"modified":"2025-01-05T23:38:44","modified_gmt":"2025-01-06T04:38:44","slug":"lakers-trade-rumors-isiah-thomas-jimmy-butler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/01\/06\/lakers-trade-rumors-isiah-thomas-jimmy-butler\/","title":{"rendered":"Hall-of-Famer Suggests Star-Studded Landing Spot for Jimmy Butler"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the NBA trade deadline exactly one month away, rumors have been flying about <\/span>Jimmy Butler<\/span><\/a>‘s future. The disgruntled six-time All-Star made headlines last week with his <\/span>trade request<\/span><\/a>, and the Heat added fuel to the fire by <\/span>suspending him for detrimental conduct<\/span><\/a>. With plenty of suitors surely lined up for Butler\u2019s services, one Hall-of-Fame guard proposed an intriguing destination: Tinseltown.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hall-of-Famer Suggests Star-Studded Landing Spot for Jimmy Butler<\/b><\/h2>\n

Isiah Thomas: Butler Could Fit on the Lakers<\/b><\/h3>\n

During <\/span>NBA TV\u2019s \u201cGametime\u201d<\/span><\/a> show recapping the Lakers\u2019 win over the Hawks Saturday, <\/span>Isiah Thomas<\/span><\/a> noted that if the Lakers secured \u201cone more piece,\u201d they could not be counted out \u201cin this era of basketball.\u201d Co-host <\/span>Sam Mitchell<\/span><\/a> responded by asking if Butler would be a good fit on the Lakers with <\/span>LeBron James<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Anthony Davis<\/span><\/a>, citing the former\u2019s status as a leader.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mitchell: \u201cOne thing about LeBron, you go to a team with LeBron James, you understand who\u2019s the king.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Thomas: \u201cThat\u2019s what I was getting ready to say.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mitchell: \u201cAnd if you don\u2019t fall in line, you\u2019re not upsetting that apple cart, <\/span>ever<\/span><\/i>. For Jimmy Butler to go to a team, he\u2019s got to go to a team with a strong, number one leader like a LeBron James, cause LeBron checks everybody, period.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Thomas agreed with Mitchell\u2019s points, adding:<\/span><\/p>\n

“When you listen to Richard Jefferson and Channing Frye talk about their experience with LeBron James and what he was like in the locker room as a player and as a teammate, they speak of him very highly. And then on this Olympic team, all those guys came back, the coaches and everybody speaks of him very high, so if a Jimmy Butler was to get to the Lakers with LeBron James and Anthony Davis, hey man, cancel Christmas.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Why the Lakers Don\u2019t Make Sense for Jimmy Butler<\/b><\/h3>\n

Despite Thomas and Mitchell’s beliefs, the reality is that the pairing wouldn\u2019t work for either Butler or the Lakers.<\/span><\/p>\n

For starters, the Lakers already tried the three-star experiment in the James-Davis era, and it failed miserably. <\/span>Russell Westbrook<\/span><\/a>\u2019s stint in LA proved that having three big names\u2014albeit at different positions\u2014just didn\u2019t work on the court or on the payroll. Getting into a similar situation with Butler ($48.8M salary) is not worth the headache for the team’s front office.<\/span><\/p>\n

Speaking of contracts, Butler\u2019s massive salary is another hurdle toward a Lakers trade. Outside of James and Davis, the team\u2019s next highest <\/span>salaries<\/span><\/a> belong to <\/span>Rui Hachimura<\/span><\/a> ($17M), <\/span>Austin Reaves<\/span><\/a> ($12.9M), <\/span>Gabe Vincent<\/span><\/a> ($11M) and <\/span>Jarred Vanderbilt<\/span><\/a> ($10.7M) (<\/span>Dorian Finney-Smith<\/span><\/a> is making $14.9M, but his salary cannot be aggregated in a trade). Hachimura, Vincent and Reaves are playing significant roles for the Lakers, while Vanderbilt (knee) has yet to take the floor. Trading them for an aging star is not the way to go\u2014even with Butler’s impressive skill set and resume.<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, the <\/span>Lakers<\/span><\/a> have not even expressed interest in trading for Butler, electing to trade available pieces for depth. Putting all of the eggs in the Butler basket erases any previous effort to balance the current roster. The team already changed the starting lineup<\/a> and traded for a veteran wing defender (on a significantly cheaper contract). Despite last night’s loss to the Rockets, the Lakers are still 20-15 and 7-3 in their last ten games.<\/span><\/p>\n

Los Angeles may be a city of stars, but the Lakers have all the star power they need with James and Davis. The focus should be on maximizing their play with adequate pieces surrounding them, not acquiring another marquee player.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the NBA trade deadline exactly one month away, rumors have been flying about Jimmy Butler‘s future. The disgruntled six-time All-Star made headlines last week with his trade request, and the Heat added fuel to the fire by suspending him for detrimental conduct. With plenty of suitors surely lined up for Butler\u2019s services, one Hall-of-Fame […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4265,"featured_media":111828,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,26,16,62,4721],"tags":[240,4556,4921,2941,142,38,1749],"class_list":["post-116269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-lakers","category-heat","category-nba","category-trade-rumors","tag-anthony-davis","tag-austin-reaves","tag-gabe-vincent","tag-jarred-vanderbilt","tag-jimmy-butler","tag-lebron-james","tag-rui-hachimura"],"modified_by":"Jordan Pagkalinawan","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116269"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116269\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116287,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116269\/revisions\/116287"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}