Chicago Bulls deny shopping Jimmy Butler

Jimmy Butler was receiving a massage at the Chicago Bulls' practice facility as trade speculation swirled during the NBA Draft.

But there was no need for any awkward knocks on the door to tell the All-Star guard he had a new employer.

Despite a flurry of rumors, the first-time U.S. Olympian is still a member of the Bulls after nothing came to fruition during Thursday night's draft.

There was heavy interest from the Minnesota Timberwolves, who are coached by former Chicago head man Tom Thibodeau. The Boston Celtics were reported to have interest. Same for the Orlando Magic.

But according to Chicago general manager Gar Forman, all that chatter was nonexistent. He said there weren't any draft-night talks involving Butler despite the heavy dose of reports that claimed there was plenty of trade banter.

"During the draft, we started getting some texts and saw something on TV that we were in heated talks with somebody, I don't know what it was saying," Forman told reporters after the draft. "We were in no talks with anybody. There was no discussion during the entire draft this evening as far as Jimmy Butler was concerned.

"We have never made a call in regards to Jimmy Butler. We've talked about, we value Jimmy Butler, we're very happy to have Jimmy Butler. We've got a phenomenal basketball player who was an All-Star and All-NBA defender, is still young, obviously we've got him under contract long-term, those are all positive.

"We've said this all along. We like Jimmy Butler, we did not shop Jimmy Butler. Did we receive calls? Of course we did, and that's our job to listen to calls. We get calls on a lot of our players and that's stuff that happens all throughout the league."

Chicago traded former MVP Derrick Rose the day before the draft and a trade of Butler would have indicated a full rebuilding situation was on the docket.

Butler and Rose didn't have good chemistry on the court last season with Butler having supplanted Rose as the team's best play. But also complicating matters was that Butler's relationship with coach Fred Hoiberg wasn't all that strong, either.

That led to the circulation of rumors shortly after Chicago's poor season concluded. Butler's name was popping up as a player who would soon be on the move.

The draft-night fodder had the Timberwolves making one last run at prying Butler loose after they drafted promising guard Kris Dunn of Providence with the fifth overall pick.

Reports said Minnesota offered Dunn, young athletic combo guard Zach LaVine and a second-round pick for Butler.

But Forman insists there was no discussion about such a package.

"I think when you have a special player like Jimmy, in order really to take a hard look at something it's got to be something you think is going to knock your socks off, something that's really special," Forman said. "And we never felt we were presented with anything where we would consider moving Jimmy."

Boston was reportedly shopping forward Jae Crowder -- Butler's former college teammate at Marquette -- and guard Avery Bradley in addition to having extra draft picks to spice up a deal.

Regardless, the Bulls stayed put and chose Michigan State combo guard Denzel Valentine with the 14th overall pick.

And for now, Valentine has the 26-year-old Butler as a teammate. The question might be "for how long?"

"All I can tell you is exactly what happened," Forman said. "We never made a single call. We're not looking to move Jimmy."