Los Angeles Clippers courting Caron Butler in the free agency – NBA News
The Los Angeles Clippers are interested in signing free agent Caron Butler and met with the player for the second day running on Tuesday.
Butler talked to Clippers General Manager Nick Olshey and was given a sales pitch by the executives.
The Clippers are trying to make the next level and believe that the experience and nous of Butler could help them get there. Therefore, it wasn’t only the executives, but the players too got in the act and actively lobbied for
Butler to join them.
"My selling point was that we're going to win," said Clippers guard Mo Williams. "He's coming from an organization in Dallas that won a championship.”
Butler was part of the Dallas Mavericks side that won the NBA World Championship last season, beating the heavily favoured Miami Heat in the NBA Finals. Butler got injured in mid-season and wasn’t able to play any part in the playoffs
though. He has been around a lot of successful teams and players in his time however and is a very handy small forward in his own right, adept at both the offensive and defensive ends.
Williams wanted Butler to know that the days of Clippers underachieving and falling apart at crunch time were past them and the franchise was ready to take off.
“We're all fully aware of the culture or the persona of the Clippers and I told him you can forget about that. That's no more. We're going to win. That's the selling pitch I gave to him and his response was, 'Yeah,' and I said
with this talent and with you we can go even further."
The Clippers have a number of things working for them right now. Although the side once again failed to make the playoffs last season, they discovered an elite level player in rookie sensation Blake Griffin. Surrounded by talented
youngsters such as Eric Bledsoe and Al-Farouq Aminu, Griffin could lead the Clippers into NBA relevance next season, and Williams wants Butler to be a part of that.
"I'm excited about the talent and walking by Caron and me seeing that, that's getting me more excited, knowing that we have an opportunity to get a player of his calibre. He's definitely going to help us tremendously."
Apart from the youngsters, the Clippers have some experience with Williams and centre Chris Kaman, and do indeed look set to become a major player in the NBA in the coming years. There ascent to the top though is still likely to
be gradual and it would be interesting to see if Butler is willing to commit to such a project.
Caron has just tasted NBA World Championship success with the Mavericks and he doesn’t have a lot of time left playing at the top, with injuries and age catching up with him.
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