The Timberwolves have lots of ways they can address Butler’s angst with the franchise. They cannot take these two paths.
Jimmy Butler will reportedly meet with Timberwolves management on Monday. The fate of the franchise hangs in the balance. No pressure.
Per The Athletic’s Jon Krawczynski and ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the meeting is intended to get all of Butler’s cards on the table with Tom Thibodeau and general manager Scott Layden. Butler is on track to become an unrestricted free agent in July 2019, having come to Minnesota via trade a year ago.
Butler is not reported to be disgruntled, per se, just unconvinced that Minnesota is in position to challenge for championships in the near-term future. Wojnarowski reports that the relationship between Butler and young Wolves star Karl-Anthony Towns — a 22-year-old center with an All-NBA nod under his belt — is strained.
Jimmy Butler will reportedly meet with Timberwolves management on Monday. The fate of the franchise hangs in the balance. No pressure.
Per The Athletic’s Jon Krawczynski and ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the meeting is intended to get all of Butler’s cards on the table with Tom Thibodeau and general manager Scott Layden. Butler is on track to become an unrestricted free agent in July 2019, having come to Minnesota via trade a year ago.
Butler is not reported to be disgruntled, per se, just unconvinced that Minnesota is in position to challenge for championships in the near-term future. Wojnarowski reports that the relationship between Butler and young Wolves star Karl-Anthony Towns — a 22-year-old center with an All-NBA nod under his belt — is strained.
The Bulls pre-empted that dance with a max offer sheet that Butler took, but everyone remembers Butler’s flirtation with LA and everyone knows the Lakers will actually be good this season. The opportunity to join LeBron James and perhaps a second all-star caliber player will be enticing.
Other good teams could be in the mix, too. Letting them talk to Butler in July 2019 opens up a real risk Minnesota loses their best player without recompense. The Wolves gave up a good bit to get Butler, and Butler is the No. 1 reason Minnesota ended the franchise’s enormous playoff drought. (Remember that this was the Wolves’ second season under Thibodeau. This wasn’t an instant turnaround from Thibs: they didn’t get good until he got Butler. Without Jimmy, it could all fall apart again.)
Thibodeau’s predecessor Flip Saunders made the tough decision to trade Kevin Love a year before free agency, despite the Wolves being on the cusp of reaching the playoffs again. That led to Minnesota bottoming out and picking up Towns in the draft.
That’s not the path here. The team around Butler is too talented to dive deep into the lottery, Thibodeau isn’t patient enough to rebuild again, and the Wolves can’t be satisfied with one playoff trip after a decade and a half of futility.
But if there’s a Butler trade that nets Minnesota some solid talent that can’t pull a disappearing act in the July 2019 offseason — even if it yields somewhat lesser players — that could be the best decision. The Wolves just can’t afford to watch Butler walk away without getting anything back.
2. Let him push the team to trade Towns
The other issue at play here is Towns’ eligibility for a supermax rookie extension. As noted, Towns made the All-NBA third team along with Butler, which makes the young center eligible for a $188 million extension. It’s shocking that Towns has not already inked an extension — usually, deals with No. 1 picks who are as good as advertised as sewn up easily and quickly.
That this extension hasn’t been signed indicates one of three things:
The Timberwolves are trying to convince Towns to sign for less than supermax.
The team wants to tie some portion of that bonus to incentives.
Minnesota is considering trading him.
That last potential explanation ties into this Butler meeting in a frightening way.
If Butler was the No. 1 reason the Timberwolves broke their playoff drought last season, Towns is right there alongside him. Plus, Towns is clearly more vital to the Timberwolves’ future than Butler, and for a few reasons.
First, Towns is six years younger than Butler. Second, he plays a position with more scarcity of quality. Third, Minnesota has the contractual advantage with Towns for longer — even if Butler were to re-sign for four years. Towns is under contract for another season, and then Minnesota can lock him up for five years using the same max offer sheet the Bulls once used on Butler.
Towns isn’t perfect. His defense has been underwhelming (Butler made the all-defense team playing under 60 games) and his attempts at leadership have taken an odd flavor. But he’s a 22-year-old All-NBA center the team can contractually control deep into his age-projected prime. He’s a prize you don’t shop lightly, if at all.
If Butler says he’ll stay in Minnesota only if the Wolves look at moving Towns, then Thibodeau and Layden need to hit the phones right away ... and find a trade for Butler. If losing Towns is the cost to keep Butler, the cost is too high. And if Butler isn’t going to be happy, the team cannot afford to lose him for nothing.
And that means trading him before the February deadline.
All hopes are that it doesn’t get to this level, that the meeting is more a chat about what Butler feels needs to happen in the locker room and on the court, and that he hopes to remain with the Wolves and build something lasting and powerful. Until this past season, with all the weird friction in the locker room, everyone in the known world thought it possible, believed that the Timberwolves were the future of the NBA.
If Butler doesn’t believe that, something’s got to give.