The Bulls’ sudden trade of former MVP Derrick Rose last week may have come as a bit of a shocker from an outsider’s perspective. But the writing may have long been apparent on the walls of the Chicago locker room.
Appearing on ESPN’s “The Jump” on Thursday, Bulls swingman Jimmy Butler said that he wasn’t surprised Rose was traded, indicating an intuition that one of them was inevitably going to be shown the door by team management, per Sean Highkin of Bleacher Report.
Jimmy Butler on finding out Derrick Rose was traded on The Jump: "I wasn't surprised. I knew it had to be one of us."
— Sean Highkin (@highkin) June 29, 2016
Butler, the two-time All-Star, then proceeded to say that he had nothing but respect for Rose either way.
Jimmy: "I have so much respect for the guy. I have no bad things to say about him."
— Sean Highkin (@highkin) June 29, 2016
After an unsatisfactory 42-40 campaign in 2015-16 that saw the Bulls miss the playoffs despite an enormously talented roster on paper, it became painfully obvious that the ball-dominant backcourt duo of Rose and Butler was just not feasible for the long-term future of the team. The tandem suffered through pervasive chemistry concerns over the years, which escalated to the point that both players indeed appeared to be on the trading block (though of the two, the Bulls seemingly always maintained a preference to hang onto Butler).
In the end though, it seems to be an amicable enough split with Rose now able to reinvent himself in New York under the watchful eye of Zen overlord Phil Jackson, while the Bulls can hit the reset button and rebuild their core identity around Butler’s talents.
H/T NBA Reddit
