Quote:
Originally Posted by jthig32
It locks up a roster spot and costs money against our budget, whatever it may be.
Even if Butler were healthy I would be reluctant to give him a significant multi-year deal. He was ineffective for us two years ago and his effectiveness last season was a small sample size based on defense and three point shooting that I don't believe he will continue.
I'm just not a believer in his fit. Marion is, and should continue to be our starting Small Forward. Also, Marion's effectiveness at PF is going to continue to decline as he gets older and loses quickness. So I don't think it makes sense to sign someone like Butler who is going to expect to play 25+ minutes a game at SF.
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I don't think that a two-year deal worth $10-14 million would be too significant for a player who could very well turn out to actually be worth it. Losing a well-liked, team-oriented guy like Butler, his potential productivity and his desirable effect on Dirk's and Marion's minutes because of unwillingness to offer him two years instead of one wouldn't exactly thrill me, to be honest.
I'd actually argue that he was a pretty good fit alongside Dirk and Marion. At the time he got hurt, he was arguably our best scorer behind Dirk and stepped up big time as soon as Dirk injured his knee (admittedly, only for a very short period of time). He's a two-way player who can easily be paired with an offensive or defensive minded shooting guard, thus providing us with a nice deal of flexibility at the wings. It's also worth noting that, while he might expect to play 25+ minutes, Caron was fine with being on the bench during crunch time and living up to Rick's "role acceptance" mantra.
Finally, it comes down to alternatives. Right now, our alternatives at the forward spots are Brewer and Cardinal. Not adding Butler to that list due to his effect on a payroll that'll be lower than last year's anyway doesn't make sense to me, assuming that we're talking about a two-year deal. Plus, we could re-sign Chandler, JJB, Butler and Cardinal and still have an open spot on our roster.
Again, I'm not preferring a two-year deal, yet it wouldn't bother me in the slightest to take that risk. The potential upside of having Caron play some decent basketball with a reasonable salary until 2013 is something I'd prefer over losing him for a mere and meaningless $6 million.