Rasual Butler is the first, but you are going to see a rush of these stories in the next few days, followed up with speculation about where they will land.
Now is when teams try to negotiate buyouts of contracts for veterans that the team is not going to play. The player takes a little less than full value to get out of the deal, that frees him up to sign up with a contender where he might get some run.
These have to happen by March 1 or the players cannot be on a playoff roster.
The Clippers bought out Butler, according to a tweet from Marc Spears with Yahoo. He has to clear waivers now, but it is not likely anybody wants to pay.
The veteran swingman has a lot interest — Boston still wants depth at the three, Chicago is in according to CSN Chicago, plus there is New York, New Jersey, Atlanta and Oklahoma City all have interest. Someone close to Butler told Spears he was going to consider his options.
The big name expected to be bought out is Troy Murphy, the stretch four currently with Golden State. Also Rip Hamilton could be bought out, although good luck figuring out what is going on in Detroit. Other potential buyouts of interest are Mike Bibby (Washington), T.J. Ford (Indiana), Jason Kapono (Philadelphia), Mo Peterson (Charlotte) and maybe Dan Gadzuric (New Jersey).
