Was Jimmy Butler's vision of conference supremacy ignored by Gar/Pax?

Was Jimmy Butler’s vision of conference supremacy ignored by Gar/Pax?

By Joe Cowley

Did the Bulls possibly give up a year too soon on becoming the top power in the Eastern Conference?

The Sun-Times first reported a connection between former Bull Jimmy Butler and the Cleveland Cavaliers’ Kyrie Irving on June 20, but now there’s more possible evidence that Butler — traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves on draft night — saw a path to conference supremacy for the Bulls that may have been ignored by general manager Gar Forman and vice president of basketball operations John Paxson.

The Sun-Times learned Monday that after his meeting June 5 with Forman and Paxson, Butler planned to return from Europe the night before the start of free agency to help with an expected meeting between the Bulls and then-free agent guard Kyle Lowry.

According to a source, if the Bulls had been unable to talk Lowry into taking far less money to join them — a likely scenario — then Butler’s hope was that Irving, a close teammate with Team USA, would be able to push a trade from Cleveland to join Butler in Chicago.

The Sun-Times reported last month that Irving had contacted other Team USA teammates to let him know he might be willing to ask for a trade and that he’d be interested in coming to Chicago. It was speculated then that a trade might have to involve a third team because of Irving’s asking price.

Last week, Irving told the Cavs he wanted to be traded and, according to ESPN. listed four places he’d prefer to go to: Miami, San Antonio, New York and Minnesota.

Chicago was on the list, too, before Butler was traded — suggesting Butler is the reason the Timberwolves are on the list now.

Butler and multiple sources have indicated he left the June 5 meeting with Forman and Paxson feeling he was going to stay with the Bulls and that they were on the same page in trying to add Irving or Lowry (who has since re-signed with the Toronto Raptors). A source said Butler especially had his sights on Irving to lessen the need for Butler to have the ball so much and to be the outside threat for Butler’s drive-and-kick game. Plus, acquiring Irving would severely weaken the Cavs in the Eastern Conference.

Butler also is said to have believed the Bulls could add a third star to the mix in 2018, when Dwyane Wade’s player-option $23.8 million would be off the books.

“[During the meeting], I said a lot of things about the future that if I could control it, I would do this,” Butler said last week on “The Bill Simmons Podcast.” “Maybe I was told some things that I took as, ‘You might be here.’ ”

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Email: jcowley@suntimes.com