Caron Butler, who missed the second half of the Dallas Mavericks' championship season after a New Year's injury, has drawn early free agent interest from six teams including the Chicago Bulls and Miami Heat, reports CBS Sports' Ken Berger.
In addition to the Bulls and Heat, the New Jersey Nets, L.A. Clippers, San Antonio Spurs and New York Knicks have expressed interest, Berger says. Butler, a scoring small forward whose defense has traditionally been respected but far from elite, will turn 32 before the playoffs. He made $10.5 million last season.
The Mavericks have a high payroll and a bigger priority in Tyson Chandler, though no one would be surprised to see Dallas make a push to retain Butler; Mark Cuban has never been shy about having a massive payroll, and the more punitive luxury tax rates negotiated into the new collective bargaining agreement don't go into effect until 2013.
Butler was named to the 2007 and 2008 East All-Stars as a member of the Washington Wizards.
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Butler will stay in dallas
The only team that I can see having a shot of picking up would be the Clippers, but at 32, will he want to leave a championship team for relative unknown. Forget the Nets. They can have all the money in the world, but still will never be able to catch a marginal free agent let alone at par with Butler. The alreadySpurs wasted their money resigning Richardson. Even if the Spurs relase using that “amnesty clause” they will be able to acquire Butler since they already have three player taking up close to 50$ million of their salary cap space.
by Jeffrey Thompson on Nov 30, 2011 2:05 PM EST reply actions
if caron doesn't come back to the mavs
he has indicated that he would like to come back to the wizards. But given where we are in our rebuild and also that the small forward position is locked up with Rashard Lewis, that just isn’t happening..
by thewiz06 on Dec 1, 2011 8:53 AM EST via mobile up reply actions
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