Jimmy Butler reportedly pushing for trade to Cavs

Several teams are interested in trading for Jimmy Butler, but the Chicago Bulls superstar reportedly has one team at the top of his list of preferred destinations.

Accoridng to Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times, LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and other Cleveland Cavaliers players have reached out to Butler over the past several days to gauge his interest in joining them. Butler apparently likes the idea enough that he is willing to nudge his bosses in that direction.

One of the sources indicated that Butler would even push his front office to get the deal done, which is a huge change of direction for Butler, who has told both general manager Gar Forman and vice president of basketball operations John Paxson numerous times over the last year that he didn’t want to be traded.

But that was before the Eastern Conference powerhouse Cavaliers became a possible destination.

The Cavs would need to get a third team involved in order to be able to trade for Butler. If the Bulls are moving on from Butler, they would want a high draft pick as the centerpiece of the deal. Cleveland doesn’t have a pick in Thursday’s NBA Draft at this point.

Cowley notes that the Phoenix Suns have been mentioned as potentially being that third team, and the Los Angeles Lakers could also enter the mix if they want to acquire Kevin Love to make their roster even more enticing to Paul George next summer.

There is one team that has the assets to acquire Butler and reportedly wants to add him as part of a blockbuster offseason, but it’s impossible to separate truth from fiction with all the rumors and reports floating around.