Butler rumors hard to ignore

‘Don’t listen to it,’ says Bulls veteran Wade to teammates.

The latest episode of “As the Bulls Turn” brought scowls from a team that would rather focus on bettering its .500 record and staying afloat in the Eastern Conference playoff race than discuss a trade rumor.

Seemingly like clockwork, another rumor involving the Bulls — this one from Bleacher Report about a possible trade of leading scorer Jimmy Butler — has surfaced and the battle is to ignore the near-constant turmoil that seems to surround the team.

“Oh, I don’t even listen to that,” veteran guard Dwyane Wade said of rumors. “It’s nothing I listen to.”

It’s also not anything about which Wade plans on talking to Butler.

“For what?” Wade asked. “Somebody wrote an article? Who cares? You can’t control somebody waking up one day and wanting to stir something up in Chicago and write an article. The only thing you can do is bring your butt in here and work, and if they call you and say, ‘Hey, you’ve been moved,’ shake their hand and you say, ‘Thank you for everything,’ and you leave.

“I always told my teammates, because you never know what’s going to happen in this league, you never know where you’re going to be, ‘Stay professional.’ Just like you have your opportunities in free agency to decide where you want to go, they have opportunities to move you. There’s nothing you can do about it so don’t listen to it. It’s the time of the year where everybody’s name is being thrown in a hat, and most of it doesn’t happen.”

Still, why is it Bulls players often find themselves in the rumor mill?

“It’s a big market. It’s the Bulls,” Wade said. “Our best player is in a rumor right now. It has been a rumor every week but nothing has happened. It’s something to talk about, a couple of extra (Internet) hits. It’s the way the world works, the world we’re in. Someone decided to write something with no merit. And if it does have merit, way to be first in line for the scoop.”

Dirk digs deep

Dallas’ Dirk Nowitzki played more than 30 minutes in a game last week for the first time this season. He’s missed a total of 25 games this season because of a strained right Achilles and a handful of other injuries and illnesses.

“It’s still a work in progress, but it’s a lot better than I was a week ago,” Nowitzki said.

Lack of energy

Matt Woodley was fired as head coach of the NBA Development League’s Iowa Energy.

Glynn Cyprien was named interim head coach.

Cyprien joined the Grizzlies organization in 201415 as a basketball operations assistant/scout. He also had worked as a University of Memphis assistant coach from 2009-11 on Josh Pastner’s staff.

Randle uptick

The new year has seen a more aggressive and productive third-year forward Julius Randle for the Lakers. Randle has been averaging 18.3 points. “Our practices are carrying over,” Randle said. “We are locked in as a unit and just trying to take advantage.”