Lakers Rumors: Los Angeles is genuinely interested in Jimmy Butler

Recent Lakers rumors are that they might have a genuine interest in signing Jimmy Butler this offseason.

With the NBA Finals done, the wild offseason will begin soon for the Los Angeles Lakers. With a lot of cap space and a Top-5 pick, there will be plenty of Lakers rumors about what will be happening.

Because of the injuries that occurred to Klay Thompson and Kevin Durant in the NBA Finals, free agency just became even more interesting. Due to each suffering major injuries, other teams might not be as interested as they were prior to the injuries.

This should help other free agents this offseason, as the injuries to those two might have driven the price up for others. One of the players that might be benefiting is Jimmy Butler.

Butler is an All-Star player and very strong on both ends of the court. Butler now might be moving up a bit in the eyes of some teams, and should be poised for a big day. According to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports, the Lakers are one of the teams that will have an interest in Butler.

"Butler’s agent, Bernie Lee, has been resolute since Butler’s trade demand out of Minnesota that any teams interested in him would be competing with multiple maximum contract offers, and that market is revealing itself to be true.The Los Angeles Lakers have genuine interest in acquiring Butler, sources said."

Butler is coming off an interesting season in which he worked his way out of Minnesota, as there was a lot of reports about turmoil in that locker room. On the Philadelphia 76ers, Butler played well as always. Unfortunately, the 76ers came up short against the Toronto Raptors in the playoffs.

While the 76ers will likely try to keep their talented combination of Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons, Tobias Harris, and Butler together, it might be difficult.

As a talented two-way player that doesn’t need the ball in his hands to succeed, Butler would be a solid addition to not only the Lakers, but many other teams. With injuries taking down Thompson and Durant, Butler’s stock in free agency should be on the rise.