What exactly are the Bulls doing? Waiting for 2017 or bust

Gar Forman is paid to lie on nights like Thursday.

And the Bulls general manager is good at that aspect of his job.

So when he talks about “not shopping Jimmy Butler’’ one moment and then minutes later admits that they were looking for ways to move up from the No. 14th overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft, well, it’s hard to distinguish fact from fiction. Especially when the only asset they had to move up was Butler.

What Forman was honest about, however, was the Bulls had no intention of sending Butler to Minnesota to be reunited with former Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau. Forman admitted that he hasn’t spoken to Thibodeau since the 2011 Coach of the Year took over the Timberwolves organization, being named president of basketball operations and coach.

A league source confirmed that on Friday, stating that the Bulls were much more aggressive leading into the draft in talking to Boston at No. 3 about sending Butler there for a package that would allow them to use that top pick to select Kris Dunn before he could fall to Thibodeau.

Once the talks with the Celtics fizzled, again Thibodeau had the last laugh over the Bulls, landing Dunn at No. 5, and giving Minnesota maybe one of the best picks in the entire first round.

It also left Forman playing spin doctor on all things Butler.

“We have never made a call in regards to Jimmy Butler,’’ Forman said when the draft concluded. “We’ve talked about, we value Jimmy Butler, we’re very happy to have Jimmy Butler. We’ve got a phenomenal basketball player who was an All-Star and All-NBA defender, is still young.

“Obviously we’ve got him under contract long-term, those are all positive. He, again, is what we want to be. We’ve said this all along. We like Jimmy Butler, we did not shop Jimmy Butler. Did we receive calls? Of course we did, and that’s our job to listen to calls. We get calls on a lot of our players, and that’s stuff that happens all throughout the league.’’

So what exactly is the Bulls plan moving forward?

It would seem to be one with mixed messages, since they turned down a Pau Gasol trade that would have made them younger five months ago, sent Derrick Rose to New York to add big man Robin Lopez, as well as guards Jose Calderon and Jerian Grant, and then wouldn’t move on Butler for more youth.

“It’s all about ’17 for them,’’ a league source said.

The hope is the Bulls will be competitive this upcoming season, showing off Butler and Lopez, along with youth like Doug McDermott, Grant, and Denzel Valentine, who they landed with the 14th overall pick Thursday. And will take that package into the 2017 offseason with cap space for possibly two maximum players in a summer loaded with talented free agents such as Stephen Curry, Russell Westbrook, Blake Griffin and Kyle Lowry.

Not a bad plan, but one major flaw: This is not a front office group that has shown the capacity to land anything more than consolation prizes on the free agent market.

Carlos Boozer and Gasol were both Plan Bs, after missing out on the likes of LeBron James and then Carmelo Anthony.

But still, what choice do they have? King James and Co. aren’t going anywhere soon, and the hope is the Bulls can start opening up a new window to dethrone James in ’17, when he will be 32 years old.

Not a sound plan, but it’s a plan.