Lavine to Nuggets as rumored. Bulls’ primary goal is to get off of Lavine’s long term money and have optionally going into the summer, which they will get because Butler is opting out to go to a contender.

Butler returns home to Chicago. They can either let him opt out or re-sign him for 120M over three years.

Heat go five out with shooting. Bam moves to PF. Heat replace 34 years old Butler with 26 year old Porter Jr. Butler was leaving anyway, and this is a good option to keep them competitive.

I didn’t really consider draft compensation as I believe it would be minimal.

Only issue is Bulls go slightly over the cap, which they won’t do for this uncompetitive roster. Assume there might be another piece in this trade or another contract dump to a team with cap space to get Bulls under the tax.

And for anyone who finds fault in this because you think the Bulls are “rebuilding “… Reality check from someone who grew up in Chicago, the Bulls ownership and management has never fully rebuilt with the singular exception of the premature teardown of the dynasty 25+ years ago. Why do you think they traded Caruso for Giddey instead of getting picks, not to mention all their other idiotic moves like letting people go in free agency for nothing rather than trading them when they are at their peak market value? Ownership is cash poor and therefore needs to contend for the the playoffs to keep fan interest without ever truly spending big enough to contend for a championship.

So… Butler started his career here so he might be amenable to staying, which would be fine with the Bulls because they would have a marketable name. Or they could flip him again before the deadline. Or they could have him opt in to his one year extension then trade him in the offseason when it is easier to make trades. Or they can take the the least rational path and just let him walk for nothing. I am not going to waste energy speculating on their logic here to the end because the Bulls are largely unpredictable. That, in part, is baked into my assumptions about why the Bulls would to do this in the first place, in addition to getting off of Lavine’s albatross contract.