Los Angeles Lakers: Is It Smart To Pursue Jimmy Butler?

Free agency is still nearly two months away, but that hasn’t stopped the Los Angeles Lakers from making headlines about who they will pursue. They have been linked to everyone from LaMarcus Aldridge to DeMarre Carroll, and pretty much all the notable free agents in between.

The latest object of the team’s affection? Chicago Bulls guard Jimmy Butler.

Butler fits the basic mold of players the Lakers are looking for — mostly human beings who are good at basketball — but it’s unclear how smart it would be to chase a restricted free agent who will command so much money, despite the potential impact of a successful signing.

If the Lakers can pull off a heist by stealing Jimmy Butler from Chicago, it would be a huge win for the franchise.

If the team ties up a mound of cash in a widely-coveted restricted free agent and it fails? It could derail the most important off-season in recent memory.

Jimmy Butler Is An Emerging Superstar

The benefit of pursuing Jimmy Butler is, quite obviously, what he can bring to the Lakers franchise. Bulls fans — and League Pass fanatics — saw him become a true two-way stud this season, and the rest of the world is catching up via the show he’s put on this postseason.

Jimmy Butler has been viewed mostly as a defensive-oriented player in the league, but he broke through in his fourth season en route to the NBA’s Most Improved Player award. He averaged 20 points on 14 field goal attempts per game, and turned himself into a legitimate three-point threat with 1.1 makes per game on 37.3 percent shooting from deep.

Perhaps the most impressive thing about Butler’s 2014-15 regular season was that he was able to get to the free-throw line so often. His free-throw rate (free-throws per field goal attempt) was 50.8 percent, ranking him ahead of special players like the physical-freak LeBron James (41.3 percent) and the human-cannonball Russell Westbrook (44.5 percent).

The Lakers leader in free-throw rate — among those who played at least half the 82 game schedule with the team — was Jeremy Lin at 41 percent.

The fact that Jimmy Butler has established himself as a scorer cements his status as one of the highly coveted players in free agency this off-season. All-Star scoring averages that accompany an All-NBA 2nd Team defender make it clear that we’re looking at a potential star.

Jimmy Butler is one of the few players in the league that can be trusted defensively to make life miserable for LeBron James. In 2014-15 he became one of 15 players to average at least 20 points per game.

Laker fans have absolutely every reason to be excited about potentially adding a player of this caliber to the roster — except for the one extremely obvious drawback.

Jimmy Butler Is A Restricted Free Agent

All of the reasons why Jimmy Butler looks like an up-and-coming superstar make up the rationale for why the Lakers would bother pursuing him in the first place.

Unfortunately, that same logic applies for why the Chicago Bulls won’t be letting him go anywhere.

There is skepticism because Bulls ownership is regarded as notoriously cheap, and match a max-contract offer would almost certainly lead to the team paying the luxury tax. Reportedly, they’re prepared to pay up, and Jimmy Butler wants to stay in Chicago — so there’s that.

The omniscient Adrian Wojnarowski doesn’t think he’s going anywhere, which is enough for many people to hop off of the “Butler-to-L.A.” bandwagon.

In fact nobody seems to think it’s likely that the Lakers land Butler.

Assuming that the team can get him to ink an offer sheet, the problem with the Lakers offering Jimmy Butler a contract ironically comes after he signs it.

Since he is a restricted free agent, the Bulls will have the right to match any contract that Butler were to sign with the Lakers. The worst part? Chicago gets three days to decide whether to match, essentially tying up the Lakers cap room for up to 72 hours. That type of wait could be a killer early in free agency.

Of course, there are plenty of variables in this scenario. Maybe the Bulls don’t actually want to pay the maximum amount for Jimmy Butler (unlikely), or maybe the Lakers decide to pursue the guard later in free agency.

The fact of the matter is that he’s a young, high-caliber player. Butler’s suitors are likely going to have to pursue him quickly due to demand for such a commodity.

If the Lakers enter that race, there is a great chance it could tie up their ability to enhance their roster with other impact signings. Keeping their cap space liquid is the best option, as tempting as challenging the Bulls willingness to deal with the luxury tax may be.

Another scenario to consider is whether Jimmy Butler will even take the plunge into restricted free agency. He may be better off playing on a one-year deal for the Bulls next season, allowing him to cash in on the salary-bonanza of 2016.

The Lakers’ pursuit of Butler is a complicated one. If he ends up being the top-priority this off-season, the team could find itself in a precarious situation. The team needs to have a successful summer, and whiffing on a transaction like this could cost them a shot at other top free agents.

While Jimmy Butler would be a glorious addition from a basketball point-of-view, it’s probably better that the Lakers look elsewhere to spend their wad of cash.

Next: Why Kobe Bryant Should Not Be A Factor In The Lakers' Summer Plans

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