I don't really care about this news to be honest, but I'm bored at work and came up with that post title, so there's that.

link: https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/basketball/news/timberwolves-jimmy-butler-requests-trade/

swipe: Timberwolves' Jimmy Butler: Requests trade
by RotoWire Staff 5m ago • 1 min read UPDATE 5m ago


Butler has requested a trade from the Timberwolves, Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic reports.

Butler has reportedly given Minnesota a list of 1-3 teams that he's open to signing a contract extension with, which could give the Timberwolves a bigger return. Butler is coming off his fourth straight All-Star selection, and he averaged 22.2 points, 5.3 rebounds, 4.9 assists and 2.0 steals in 2017-18. Wherever he ends up, he'll likely continue to be a top fantasy asset.

This shitshow of an organization. There's NO reason this shouldn't have been hashed out in July, but why do that when you can put everything off until the week before training camp opens? The only silver lining is this means Thibs is gone by (at latest) the end of the 2018-19 season. There is effectively no reason to keep him on board. And hopefully it means KAT's going to reup as well. Can we just make KAT player/GM and let him pack the team with all of HIS friends? When the Vikings are out of it come mid-October, I'm going to be really mad.

Would you be happier then? I'm guessing you don't like his coaching style and want him out of town ASAP regardless of what happens.

I almost feel bad making this post before you did since I'm certain you are much more invested with what goes down than I am.

Outside of the initial trade for Butler last summer, he's been very hit or miss. The best thing you can say about the rest of the Timberbulls is at least they're not on long-term deals. He's alienated just about everyone else and it seems like his continuing presence is what's been most alienating to KAT signing an extension.

If he's alienating the guys that aren't "his" and the best of his guys wants out regardless, then what value is he really bringing to the organization?

and more importantly, you are a fan of the team while I'm not, so I'll take your word for it.

I do wonder how much capital he has with the front office given that they did make and win in the playoffs last year. Just so I'm clear, I think it was a huge mistake to give him that front office gig and I don't value him too highly as a coach.

on the last day of the season to clinch a playoff spot. Him and the owner have been butting heads since last year and the team has been pretty divided.

But yes, he never should have been given front office power. The only coach who has ever been successful at that is Pop (and Pat Riley for a little bit, though even he had to stop coaching.)

https://twitter.com/World_Wide_Wob/status/1042475158995443713

https://twitter.com/rickyrubio9/status/1042480472855437312

No word on Chandler Parson's travel plans, though.

.

I thought the rumor was that Thibs was a loyalist to his former Bulls players and valued them over KAT and Wiggins.

Is that Fake News?

growing frustration with his teammates.

https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1042479195371266050

because idk what kind of winning he thinks he's doing in those two places.

The Clippers kept it interesting at the end of last season, but even with Butler, I don't think they'd be a lock for the play-offs. And if they did make the play-offs, they sure ain't vying for a high seed.

And I'm assuming the Clippers have space for one max spot next season? If so, I wouldn't be so sure they'd go after Butler instead of Leonard.

so the Clippers should have plenty of cash for next year's free agency, right? Of the three teams, I'm guessing the Clippers would be the most likely to part with draft picks since the Knicks front office just said two or so days ago they wouldn't use picks for trades and I would hope the Nets front office would be very very leary of using picks since they got terrible return with those KG and Paul Pierce trades years ago.

Remarkable how fun the NBA free agency market is.

..along with Beverly, Harris, & Williams.

the rebuild is well under way and landing Butler would certainly help their chances @ other elite free agents (ie" Kawhi).


*skatin' the rings of saturn*


..and miles to go before i sleep...

(the inverse isnt true either btw)

because I don't see him doing enough to help the Knicks get over the hump, the only positive to that rumor is that it's entirely possible Thibs will want Noah and the Knicks could actual get something back
for his Chernobyl-like toxic contract.

That would be cool.

And just to be clear to folks that will argue with me, I am well aware the Butler is a marked improvement over the current shooting guards on the Knicks; I just don't view him as a top level player that can result in winning results with him as the leader.

lego

>lego

link: https://www.yahoo.com/news/knicks-arent-going-trade-draft-picks-anymore-start-193952106.html

swipe:

The Knicks aren't going to trade their draft picks anymore, which is a start

Over the past 18 seasons, the New York Knicks have won a single solitary playoff series. It was a first-round victory over the Boston Celtics in 2013, coming off a 54-win regular season in which early injuries forced coach Mike Woodson to play small with Carmelo Anthony at power forward alongside a two-point-guard backcourt in an offensively potent ball-moving and 3-point-shooting attack. One round later, Woodson infamously zagged the other way during the conference semifinals against the Indiana Pacers because, well, “the East is big, man.” The move didn’t pan out; with the Knicks’ offense shackled and the bigger frontcourts unable to keep Indy off the glass and out of the paint, the Pacers eliminated New York in six games.

It feels instructive that the best Knicks season in two decades was, basically, an accident, and that once everyone went back to the intended plan, the party was over and the losing resumed. The consistent struggle to both craft a sensible plan for building and maintaining a competitive roster, and to stick with it throughout any growing pains that might arise, has been the lone constant throughout that 18-year span, during which the Knicks have employed 12 coaches and six lead basketball operations executives. (Well, there’s one other constant, but that might be a symptom/disease kind of situation.)

But after years of chasing would-be saviors at every turn, making penny-wise but pound-foolish moves that leveraged future assets and flexibility in search of better present-day fortunes, and stubbornly adhering to the ill-considered adage that You Can’t Rebuild In New York — y’know, the kind of stuff that might make a fan quit — the Knicks might finally be committing to walking a more measured path, and trying a bold new strategy: behaving like a normal NBA team.

Or, at least, that’s the way Knicks president Steve Mills, general manager Scott Perry and head coach David Fizdale made it sound during a town hall meeting with season-ticket holders on Monday night:

From Ian Begley of ESPN:

“What we’re not going to do is take shortcuts,” said Mills, who was general manager under Jackson. “We’re not going to trade our draft picks. … We’re going to build this team the right way. What we’re not going to do is trade away assets to get a that we can go get on our own later.”

It’s an approach that differs from what’s come before, and one that Mills understands browbeaten Knicks fans might not necessarily believe until they see it in action, from Marc Berman of the New York Post:

“You have a reason to be skeptical,” Mills said. “All we can do is by demonstrating what we do. We’re sticking with the plan. Since Scott’s been aboard, we’ve been true to what we said we’d do. I’m a New Yorker. I don’t want what happened in the past to happen again.”

Perry added, “You have two patient personalities up here too in Steve and I — not overreacting, staying the course.”

That tack might frustrate some fans who, after five straight sub-.500 and playoff-free seasons, just want to see the Knicks play in some games that matter, and don’t much care about what it costs the front office to make that happen sooner rather than later. But it certainly seems like a sober reading of the lay of the land for a franchise that has, over the past dozen years or so, watched a number of its first-round picks blossom into quality contributors for other teams.

The 2004 trade that brought Stephon Marbury back home sent a 2010 No. 1 to Phoenix, which was later redirected to Utah; that turned into Gordon Hayward. The 2005 deal that brought Eddy Curry to New York sent 2006 and 2007 first-rounders to Chicago; they turned into LaMarcus Aldridge and Joakim Noah.

The 2011 three-team mega-swap that landed Anthony — and busted up the guts of a pretty fun little nucleus that then-personnel chief Donnie Walsh had been building to play in Mike D’Antoni’s offense — saw the Knicks send out a 2014 first-rounder and the right to swap 2016 picks; they turned into Dario Saric and Jamal Murray. And the 2013 trade that, for reasons that remain nearly impossible to fathom, brought Andrea Bargnani to Broadway included a 2016 first-rounder; that turned into Jakob Poeltl.

Draft picks are slippery things, of course, and there’s no guarantee that the Knicks’ various front offices at the times of those selections would have made the same picks, or that the players chosen would’ve developed as well in New York as they did in the specific circumstances in which they actually wound up landing. The issue, though, is that those picks present possibilities — the chance to land special talents on cost-controlled deals, and to accumulate enough gifted youth to create the core of a team that can grow together and consistently compete for a handful of years.

You still have to make the right picks, and do the hard work of helping the prospects you choose reach or exceed their expected potential. Generally speaking, though, keeping your draft capital (and, ideally, seeking more) and using it to load your roster with inexpensive players with high ceilings seems like a smart starting point for a team closer to the beginning of a rebuilding project than the end of one … which the Knicks, despite a dismal half-decade, very much are. Mills, Perry and Fizdale appear to be aware of this, and seem comfortable with allowing their growing collection of young players — rising (in more ways than one) sophomore guard Frank Ntilikina, 2018 draftees Kevin Knox and Mitchell Robinson, comparative graybeard swingman Tim Hardaway Jr., and “second draft” reclamation projects like Trey Burke, Mario Hezonja, Emmanuel Mudiay and Noah Vonleh — to take their lumps and learn on the job under Fizdale’s watchful eye, and to dip back into the lottery next summer and keep the process moving along.

That patience also appears to extend to the organization’s approach to the rehabilitation of star forward Kristaps Porzingis, who suffered a torn left ACL in February. Rumored return dates for the 7-foot-3 Latvian have varied, but a Knicks team more likely playing for pingpong balls than postseason positioning this season seems set to err on the side of caution, according to Steve Popper of Newsday:

“Our goal is not to do anything that jeopardizes K.P.’s future as being one of the foundational pieces of this team,” Mills said. “He’s back. we’ll have some medical evaluations of him this week and we’ll start to develop what the right plan is for him to come back. We’re not going to do anything that jeopardizes the future of this franchise and we’re going to be consistent and stay true to that.”

So: Porzingis will get all the time he needs, the kids will get their chance to learn by doing (and failing), and the front office will under no circumstances re-enact the ‘Melo deal to try to land an All-Star that they might be able to get in free agency in a year’s time … even if one might, y’know, hypothetically, be available pretty soon.

“Our main focus is the ’18-’19 season,” Perry told fans at the town meeting. “As much as we talked about having cap space, in all honesty, we are trying not to get too far ahead of ourselves. This team requires our undivided attention. I understand fans drifting to the future. Once it gets to ’19, we can have that conversation.”

That’s the thing about trying to build something. If you screw up a step at the beginning, you’re going to pay for it down the line.

“If our culture isn’t right, the free agent market doesn’t matter,” Fizdale said.

And if the supporting talent and financial flexibility aren’t right, the story’s the same. So the Knicks plan to keep their powder dry, hold onto their picks, develop their young guys, get their centerpiece healthy and see where things stand come the summer. That’s likely going to mean another season full of losses. Maybe this time, though, there really will be some sunshine on the other side of the storm.

– – – – – – –

Dan Devine is a writer and editor for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at devine@yahoosports.com or follow him on Twitter!

Maybe get RHJ if it's the Nets or one of the Knicks dumb PG's and see if you can get a super protected draft pick out of it and be done.

.

Ego like a mfer. Now all those Bulls stories make sense

so I don't think this rumor floats his boat to that high a level.

I could be wrong though.

Butler for being a total dickhead and a horrible leader wherever he goes while at the same time being so pressed to be considered a superstar.

And Thibs for being a horrible coach and bringing Butler and his host of loser Bulls to the Wolves.

You calling Thibs a 1950's butcher stuck out in my head so much, I thought all your hatred was strictly focused on him.

Out of curiosity, do you dislike Wiggins as much as Bags does?

guys behind him to thrive.

to act like that

______________________________________________________________________________

"To Each His Reach"

but.....

Fuck aliens.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
<---- 5....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dlgiritpmfo

=======================================

and one of the cornier ones too.

not surprised about his teams/cities of choice, even with him constantly talking about his otherworldly working ethic and will to win.

he's got more marky mark in him than true alpha dog.

but the way he tried to play the vets there was despicable.

"wanting to play for the Nets." At all

If you had everybody on this team in their peak season, and the rumors of adding Smoakeem Noah turned out to be true, Thibs would have the best team in the league on paper.

This guy is so stuck in 2008 it’s wild.

~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

or he's not resigning with the team.

They played together ONE season, wtf happened? This seems deeper than "hard ass vet with a chip on his shoulder doesn't respect younger #1 overall superstar's hustle."

That’s the play of a guy who doesn’t want to be there in the first place.

Karl Abdur Raheem

according to Wolves Twitter, we are dealing with a full on Tony Parker/Brent Barry situation. Don't compare it to the three J's in Dallas from the 90's, this is just some white lady who likes to drop the N word on social media, not Toni Braxton.

https://twitter.com/jakewatroba/status/1042535921617436674

Your thing was weirder, though, you should write about it.

let it also be known he was posting on Gabby Unions IG, and DWade probly knew about KAT...

but it sounds like Jimmy definitely got down w KATs girl.

Probably was giving Kat and Wiggs the blues in that locker room.

Wolves should've stuck with their youth movement until the right player came along, and that wasn't Jimmy. He's a diva, shit leader, and as the #1 guy will dominate the team, alienate his teammates, and at best lead them to an eighth seed in the playoffs where he underperforms while getting swept.

Lauri, Lavine,Dunn >>>>>>

#PraiseBarfPacks

than anything else in that trade.

https://twitter.com/ThisIsMarlena/status/1042549134023122944

Dwight is a HOF’er, was a MVP level talent, a winner, and got injured. He also doesn’t throw teammates under the bus.

He’s also pretty famously burned every bridge on every team he’s ever been on.

It’s comparable.

He'd certainly never pull this dumb shit.

He's content with enjoying his three rings, walking his dog, and banging IG models.

And to some of the goofy Bulls fans to try so hard to fight against it especially when it was clear which direction things are going.

3rd or 4th best player on a few title teams is a fun ass career to be sure

but nah

Klay all day over Jimmy

Jimmy is an asshole. He was also a top ten player last year, something klay will never ever ever ever be.

...in front of the Chase Center. Not to mention the possibility of a few more rings

Butler better hold on tight to that ONE season, ‘cause that’s all he’s got in comparison to Klay.

and that's ok. Klay seems like a solid ass dude, but stop.

things i'll argue: carson is already a top 10 all time qb, alshon>antonio, fletcher>aaron donald. maybe we should just let hood cook.

If the Eagles win, you can say whatever you feel without repercussions. That’s how it works.

with the phils in 2008 and this one, i'm just so happy that i don't even feel like talking shit.

is somehow involved with this; does anyone know how or why? Is he Jimmy Butler's half-brother or something?

Has anyone asked Gilbert Arenas to comment?

.

i am amused by the whole "I'm from the old school" while injecting yourself into something that has ZERO to do with you

and doing it via a (actually a series of) selfie video

Wanna provide sound bites while staying friends with the current stars. Shits sad.

and eventually talks about this, I'm curious how he'll sound. I imagine the co-hosts around him will try to instigate to drive up attention.

does Stephen Jackson still have animus towards Wiggins?

and tell his hype-man/brother to chill. Full "drama" breakdown, lol:
https://clutchpoints.com/timberwolves-news-andrew-wiggins-gets-into-nsfw-beef-with-stephen-jackson-over-jimmy-butler/

Charles Oakley.

Only person who could go toe to toe with him IMO.

now he can get back to jacking up shots and losing like he likes to do

you're only one trip to the club from getting Steve Francis'd.

is that what is admired?

c'mon man

.

"they don't want that smoke" is different than "sjax, what is you doin?"

in a "burying the lede" kinda way

you clarified though

a 23y/o is BARELY an adult from a life experience perspective

especially today when folks are generally less mature

but the point is REALLY that a 40 year old man on the internet picking at a 23 year old is dumb to me

but if *thats* whats cool now, just go on and rip another page out the recipe book and tee-hee

Dude got waves right? What's the knock for?

Wiggins calling him a bum is a poor idea for real-world reasons, but it's also a poor reflection of his own self-image.

Talking about the Spurs and some 6.5 ppg, smh.

He was 18-20 ppg on some good Indiana and GS teams.

There’s no excuse for saying dumb shit like that when you can just google it.

stand down you little shit bird

That actually made me sad to see Sjax get called a bum. By anyone much less an NBA player. Wasn't dude undrafted... he had to grind harder than anyone of his time to get those contracts. That alone deserves the utmost respect. And on top of all that he averaged close to 20ppg a handful of seaaons all while playing like a dog on the defensive end. Andrew Wiggins is now shitlisted for me.

It's as if he reads Jon Gruden complaining about not having an elite pass rusher and thinks "fuck that, I'll show YOU a stuck-in-the-past coach with zero self-awareness!"

How possible is it for the ownership to 86 both Thibs and Butler? That's probably asking too much since the season is going to start soon, right?

that team folded when Butler got hurt

wolves were 3rd in the west and surging when butler got hurt.

and had the winning percentage and point differential of a bottom 5 lotto team in the 23 games he missed.

that big bitch KAT shows up when they need it and maybe their season ends differently.

and missing a guy they traded 3 pieces for?

Oh my bad this is the same Jimmy that valiantly led all those Bulls contenders.

and also with "that team ain't sniffed the playoffs since spree was feeding his family, and butler in his first year there had them 3rd in the west and surging, and when he got hurt they turned right back into pumpkins"

it's just facts.

>Oh my bad this is the same Jimmy that valiantly led all those
>Bulls contenders.

if only he could be more like wall. and KAT. and AD. and cuz. all that winning they've done.

>if only he could be more like wall. and KAT. and AD. and cuz.
>all that winning they've done.

Lemme know.

its kinda weird that youre still mad enough about stuff that happened 2 years ago to party on a dude thats missed 100 games since then

Lmao!

No, he’s just trash.

bc after Wall commented on Reggie Jacksons contract, Reggie won a few EC player of the month awards and led his team to the playoffs while Wall stayed home

he hasnt been healthy since then, so...

while playing embarrassingly bad and like the garbage can he is. And ever since that crowning achievement of getting swept in the playoffs you've been tying his shit performance to his injury?

You meant that right?

KAT 22.

Boogie was winning and got hurt.

So let’s talk about it fam. Jimmy pushing 30 and ain’t done shit in the league.

>Boogie was winning and got hurt.

if that's your standard of "winning" then so was jimmy, dumb nigga.

>So let’s talk about it fam. Jimmy pushing 30 and ain’t
>done shit in the league.

ummm no. marquis teague ain't done shit in the league.

jimmy a 30th pick that actually overachieved like a motherfucker. done just as much as your top 5 guys.

>>Boogie was winning and got hurt.
>
>if that's your standard of "winning" then so was jimmy, dumb
>nigga.

the winning actually increased post-achilles

lolz

i know KAT and them was trash without jimmy tho

not to mention Jimmy came back at less than 100% for their last 3 games so that KAT and Wiggins didnt blow the lead he left them

he did 21/3/3/3 on 51% shooting. +30. 3-0.

in the month before butler got hurt, dec 18 thru jan 18, minnesota won 12 of 17, lifting them to 3rd in the west behind houston and the warriors. over that stretch butler averaged 26/5/5/2 on 50/40/90 shooting splits, and every basketball site on the interwebz had him in their mvp top 5.

then he goes down and their scoring differential per 100 possessions drops from +10, one of the best in the league, to a +1, the same as the lakers.

these are just facts.

i actually like KAT, but fuck that loser ass nigga. dude ain't about to blame butler for everything that goes wrong with that team just because he don't like him. foh.

Weird

Alienate players on every team he’s played on?

Led teams to advance in the playoffs once at Age Twenty Fucking Nine?

Oh he blew a 2-0 lead going that Rondo gifted him and Wade to the Celtics.

And he also let James Harden set his dumbass on fire for a playoff series.

He did all of that.

well... except the playoffs part.

https://tinyurl.com/thibsfaultright

ain't none of them cats been past rd 2. same as jimmy.

2015 butler - best player on a 50 win team

wall ever done that? nope
AD? nuh uh
KAT? lulz

where's all the winning?

if butler (aka what mkg was SPOSED to be) was a UK alum and had the exact same career you'd be in here sucking farts out his ass.

You holding your hat on the one time they won 50 games... for real fam?

Jimmy been the best player on a team the at has gotten out of the first round ONCE.

Jimmy has finished at best in the Top 10 in MVP voting once.

That's not Anthony Davis who just finished Top 3.

That's not John Wall who last year finished in the Top 7.

Karl Towns already has half as many All NBA appearances as Jimmy at age 22.

>
>You holding your hat on the one time they won 50 games... for
>real fam?
>
>Jimmy been the best player on a team the at has gotten out of
>the first round ONCE.
>
>Jimmy has finished at best in the Top 10 in MVP voting once.
>
>That's not Anthony Davis who just finished Top 3.
>
>That's not John Wall who last year finished in the Top 7.
>
>Karl Towns already has half as many All NBA appearances as
>Jimmy at age 22.

so they haven't won more. cool.

>Boogie was winning and got hurt.

Is that enough?

you sure about that?

best regular season win total:
butler - 50
wall - 49

+.500 seasons:
butler - 7 of 7
wall - 5 of 8

playoff appearances:
butler - 6
wall - 4

2nd rd appearances:
butler - 2
wall - 2

numbers looking crooked like king kong shook it

You know you reaching now you goofy ass nigga.

That nigga wasn't even starting for the season.

That's how you know we having 2 different conversations. If you don't get the fuck outta my face.

what more has wall won? i don't see it.

butler's started 40 of his 43 playoff games. was the #1 option the year they won 50 (wall's never won 50 btw)

where's the "more winning", fam? what's wall won?

make a case. or stfu.

i never said butler's won shit. he hasn't. what i said was that them UK bitches you always in here mancrushing on ain't won shit either. fuck nigga.

how was your summer btw?

more often.

And Wall has actually been a on the cusp of advancing to the Conf Finals.

Not Jimmy though.

And as far as AD, Boogie, KAT, and Wall goes, it's a lot tougher being top picks and pulling franchises up from the bottom on your back to lead them to the playoffs. Jimmy is an overachiever who got drafted by a playoff contender. And he had you fooled that he was like that. But we all know what Jimmy is now. A team killer. Did that to the Bulls. Now the Wolves.

My summer was good bro. Yours?

>if only he could be more like wall. and KAT. and AD. and cuz.
>all that winning they've done.

I didn't see this thread evolving or devolving RBO turning into Real Billy Whipping Boy.

Pretty interesting turn of events.

To be clear, I'm completely neutral on this seemingly new agenda because none of the folks involved are on the Knicks, which is the sole interest I care about.

once Kentucky or Duke get invoked.

"DeMarcus Cousins does nice PSA about bike safety" could easily go double plat if the right agendas get fed.

TAG ME IN!!!!!

https://imgur.com/gallery/BDHqOQ1

he would be a great fit in today's NBA. Run the lanes, great switch versatiity

.

https://tenor.com/view/ultimate-warrior-ultimatewarrior-running-pumped-gif-5151122

goddamn lmao.

He won't be gone before the season starts, but there's zero chance he is brought back after the season ends.

Like he has ANY leverage in this situation.

nobody thinks hes a good coach...he just tryin to earl campbell niggas into retirement

>nobody thinks hes a good coach...he just tryin to earl
>campbell niggas into retirement



Shit...lol

if it meant Thibs was gone.

This dumbass would be the type of poker player who keeps bluffing after he already lost the hand.

https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1043160715773784064

Story filed to ESPN: Rival executives lobbing calls to Minnesota’s front office on possibility of trading for Jimmy Butler are getting inquires shut down. Minnesota is telling teams that Butler’s an elite player and franchise intends to keep him.

other explanation for how he's acting.

He has ZERO leverage. With ownership, with his players, with other teams who want to trade for Jimmy, with anyone. This is from Woj's story today:

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/24753358/minnesota-timberwolves-rebuffing-jimmy-butler-trade-calls

Nevertheless, Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor has become fully engaged in the decision-making process on a potential Butler trade and is far more open to the idea of orchestrating a deal than president of basketball operations Tom Thibodeau and GM Scott Layden, league sources said.

Opposing teams believe the fastest avenue to a Butler deal is engaging Taylor, league sources said. Taylor is attending the NBA's Board of Governors meetings today in New York, which include owners and top basketball executives.

Taylor has overseen high-profile Minnesota stars getting traded in the past, including Kevin Garnett and Kevin Love.




So it's up to our dipshit owner to make a major basketball decision because the President of Basketball Operations is either too proud to admit he has to or he's just doing George Costanza and trying to force a firing/payout. Training camp starts next week and who knows if Jimmy's even going to show up.

https://twitter.com/MarkkanenLauri/status/1042761436051628032?s=19

That Wizards deal would be too good for the Wolves, I'm almost mad at him for including it and giving me a faint glimmer of positivity. OKS Bulls contingent, please ignore paragraphs 8 and 9, they're not for you.

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/24753362/zach-lowe-trade-market-minnesota-timberwolves-jimmy-butler

The initial trade market for Jimmy Butler is confused and cool, league sources say, as teams contemplate their appetite for risk and wonder whether the Timberwolves can coalesce around trade talks -- or whether Tom Thibodeau's reported desire to keep Butler at all costs wins the day.

The three teams on Butler's preferred list -- Brooklyn, New York, and the Los Angeles Clippers, per ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski -- might engage Butler in something of a game of chicken. Butler wants the full five-year, $190 million max contract only his incumbent team can offer him this summer. Offer that, and you are in pole position for a borderline top-10 player -- unless you are the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Earning pole position costs you whatever you send out for Butler, and something of an unstated obligation to offer that full five-year, $190 million deal. Those three teams are likely concerned about both costs -- not just the outgoing trade assets.

Butler is 29, with Tom Thibodeau miles and recent knee issues. A lot of teams would be queasy agreeing to pay him $40-plus million as he approaches age 35. That has dampened the early market, though teams are surely posturing to at least some degree -- just as the Wolves might be in rebuffing initial calls, per Wojnarowski on Friday. Teams will also have to be confident Butler -- contemplating his third team after conflict at the first two -- dramatically increases their chances at landing another star.

If the return is much less than what Minnesota sent out for Butler -- and it will be -- there will be a rush to mock the Wolves and condemn Thibodeau's hilariously predictable run as coach and general manager. The Wolves are already humiliated. They watched Wednesday night's dumb, Wiggins-centric Instagram drama like everyone else. There is a strong desire within parts of the organization -- particularly the business side, which has had a cool relationship with Thibodeau for a year now -- to deal Butler before Monday's media day, so that it does not become a circus (or worse).

Thibodeau's stewardship is, of course, the wild card. He loves Butler and wants to win. He may have been coaching for his job this season regardless. Wojnarowski reports Thibodeau has no desire to trade Butler even at risk of losing Butler for nothing in July. In that case, Thibodeau doesn't care as much about July as he does April, which is part of the problem in hiring him as GM and coach.

Potential suitors are curious: When does Glen Taylor, the Wolves' owner, take control of the situation? What would that mean for Thibodeau's immediate future?

Getting movable assets in return for a player, even blah ones like first-round picks in the 20s or mildly interesting young guys on decent contracts, is always better than losing a player for nothing. (Movable is the key word. Losing someone for nothing can be a good thing, as it perhaps would have been for Chicago in the case of Zach LaVine and the monster offer sheet. Time will tell.)

The overall Butler exchange will almost certainly end up a net loss for the Wolves. The pick they received from Chicago became Justin Patton, who is about to miss another season with another foot injury. But don't exaggerate the cost. LaVine earning nearly $19 million per season will be a negative unless he learns defense. Kris Dunn made a leap last season, but it was a leap from "one of the very worst players in the league" to "somewhere still way south of league-average starting point guard." I'm optimistic he can improve. Chicago's coaching staff lifted him up in ways Minnesota's did not. He is a killer on defense. But he's almost 25. He is not a prospect.

In the end, the only meaningful cost of the Butler trade might end up being Lauri Markkanen, and there is no guarantee the Wolves would have selected him. (My best intel then and now is that they would have.) Still: That hurts. But there is also a world in which avoiding Years 4 and 5 of Butler's next mega-deal -- the deal Thibodeau is dying to pay -- ends up a blessing for the Wolves. Recoup something, even a pick in the low 20s, and restock the roster with players who fit the timelines of Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins.

Butler was worth a shot. Minnesota knew the risks. That those risks have come to pass does not make the Butler trade itself some clueless debacle.

Two other complications haven't been discussed enough in the early reaction to Butler's trade demand:

Minnesota is only about $1.5 million below the luxury tax. They will not want to go so far over it by taking on salary in a trade that getting back under becomes too challenging. Remember: Only one team -- the Kings -- is carrying cap space into the season for use as a potential dumping ground.

The Wolves would like to dump Gorgui Dieng in any Butler deal, league sources say. Dieng is a backup set to earn $48 million over the next three seasons. Good luck, and thanks to the summer of 2016! Swallowing Dieng will be a non-starter for almost everyone, even if a few suitors could do so while still maintaining one max-level cap slot for this summer. (Minnesota could in theory find a third team to take Dieng, but things get tricky as more teams enter a deal.)

Let's run through some deals:

CLIPPERS

The Clips have among the easiest ready-made offers that would satisfy Thibodeau's presumed desire to chase a playoff spot: Tobias Harris, one of Lou Williams/Patrick Beverley/Avery Bradley (not tradable until Jan. 15)/Milos Teodosic, and a future first-round pick (conveyed two years after the pick they already owe Boston via the disastrous Jeff Green deal). Some of those combinations would vault Minnesota over the tax, complicating talks. The Clips could substitute Jerome Robinson for the pick, or add Robinson (though I doubt they would do that).

It would be shocking if they included Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, league sources say.

They would surely prefer swapping Danilo Gallinari instead of Harris, since Gallo's deal carries through the 2019-20 season -- cramping their cap space. But as long as they don't take Dieng, the Clippers have plenty of paths to a second max cap slot. (The Clippers can also build deals in which they send out Gallinari, take Dieng alongside Butler, and still maintain a max slot. One example: Gallinari, Williams, Boban Marjanovic, and a heavily protected future first-round pick -- if even necessary -- for Butler and Dieng. Later they would need to renounce outgoing free agents, including Harris, and perhaps dump or stretch some other guys. It's doable.)

Pairing Leonard and Butler seems to be one of their dream endgames. That said, there is no indication the Clippers have acted aggressively -- or much at all -- so far, sources say.
BROOKLYN

If the Butler market gets frothy enough, Brooklyn can grease the wheels with this offer in which they absorb Dieng:

Allen Crabbe, Caris LeVert, Kenneth Faried, and Denver's top-12 protected first-round pick for Butler and Dieng.

That saves Minnesota about $2 million in 2018-19 salary. Renounce everyone in July -- including D'Angelo Russell and Spencer Dinwiddie, who play a sort of important position -- and Brooklyn could eke out another max slot.

The Wolves would surely prefer DeMarre Carroll, on an expiring deal, over Crabbe, but the Nets have no realistic way to clear that second max slot and take Dieng without jettisoning Crabbe man. Removing both Crabbe and Dieng unlocks some simpler deals.

At first blush, this looks like a lot for Brooklyn to give up. LeVert is good. But he also projects as someone who could top out as the fourth-best player on a good team. Denver's pick could end up No. 20 or worse. Ditching Crabbe's deal is a plus. If the Nets think Butler is worth $190 million and can attract a good star, they would think about this.
NEW YORK

The Knicks have three premium assets: Frank Ntilikina, Kevin Knox, and their 2019 first-round pick. They would surely cap the bidding at one, if they even get that far -- which they likely won't, given recent vows against trading anything for players they might be able to sign in free agency. Minnesota would probably demand two of those three. No deal.

Trading Tim Hardaway Jr. and Knox for Butler would leave New York just short of another max slot, even if they waive Joakim Noah with the stretch provision and wait until the summer to re-sign Kristaps Porzingis. (They obviously aren't trading Porzingis for Butler.)

Expanding the deal to include both Courtney Lee (going out) and Dieng (coming in) makes the cap math even more gruesome.

PHILADELPHIA

The Sixers' omission from Butler's list was curious. If he wants to win, this is the spot: in the East, with two blossoming superstars. Philly is running out of time to add a third star, though given their trove of trade assets -- including Chicago's 2019 second-rounder and Miami's unprotected 2021 first-round pick -- they could always work the trade market even after Ben Simmons' inevitable max kicks in in 2020.

I'd bet heavily against Philly putting any two of Markelle Fultz, Dario Saric, and the Heat pick in any package for Butler. (Saric is really good, with two cheap seasons left on his rookie deal.) Right now, they might not even include one.

Fultz and Robert Covington works, but the Sixers likely aren't ready to bail on Fultz. Other versions: Covington, Saric, and Mike Muscala for Butler; Covington, Wilson Chandler, and some first-round pick for Butler.

You could get really ambitious and do: Butler and Taj Gibson for Fultz, Covington, Chandler, and a first-rounder. As long as we're alienating Thibs, let's trade all the TimberBulls! But again: That is likely too rich for Philly.

Simmons is 22. Joel Embiid is 24. The Sixers are already monitoring the on- and off-court vibe between them. Would they pay Minnesota's price to introduce Butler after witnessing fallout from Butler's icy relationship with young guys in both Chicago and Minny? Also: Butler is a career 34 percent shooter from deep. Is he really the best fit next to Simmons and Embiid?
MIAMI

Wojnarowski has already reported the Heat could try to butt their way into the Butler sweepstakes. They are free to trade their first-round picks in 2019 and 2023, though they should probably stop doing that. Butler would love Miami's "wear extra padding for practice" culture. Pat Riley is always hunting stars, confident in the appeal of South Beach.

Problem: Miami can't trade Wayne Ellington's handy $6 million salary until Dec. 15. (He also has the right to veto any trade.) Most of their hefty, long contacts have zero trade appeal. Minnesota would want Miami's best stuff. They'd probably ask at first for Josh Richardson, Bam Adebayo, and Justise Winslow, and I doubt Miami would deal away its entire young core for Butler. Replace one of Adebayo and Winslow with Ellington -- or offer only Richardson and Winslow, keeping Adebayo off-limits -- and things get more realistic.

The Heat could in theory add in a Tyler Johnson/Dieng exchange, since Johnson's deal expires one year earlier than Dieng's. But most permutations of that (and some of the above deals) have Miami adding extra salary, and they are already over the tax.
WASHINGTON

How about Otto Porter, Kelly Oubre, and Markieff Morris for Gibson and Butler? Would the Wiz have to toss in a pick? I'm unconvinced. Minnesota gets three legit rotation players for a post-Butler playoff push, and two versatile young wings in Oubre and Porter. This deal pushes Minnesota a hair over the tax, but they'd be able to duck back under. (The simpler deal -- Porter and Oubre for Butler -- takes Minnesota too far over.)

Washington has no means to pay Oubre with John Wall, Bradley Beal, and Porter earning (gulp) $92 million between them in 2019-20. If Butler walks, getting off Porter's salary and opening some breathing room -- even if Porter is a really good complementary player -- eases the pain. It might be worth the risk.
PORTLAND

A few folks have floated the notion of Portland trading CJ McCollum for Butler and filler. I don't mind it, even if there's next-to-zero chance Butler would give any assurances about staying in Portland. It almost works like the Kawhi Leonard trade in Toronto: If Butler bolts, you trade Damian Lillard and rebuild.

Portland's track record suggests they would like to add Butler to the Lillard/McCollum duo for one all-in run, but no such deal appears to exist.
DENVER

The Nuggets were prepared to move Gary Harris and a first-round pick for Kevin Love around the 2017 draft, so why not throw a similar package -- Harris, Trey Lyles, one heavily protected pick -- at Minnesota? What about without the pick?

I'd still wager against it. The Nuggets love their young core, and the chemistry they are building together; I doubt they upend it for a rental.
DALLAS

The Mavs might push to include Harrison Barnes; swapping Wes Matthews and a future first-round pick (that would transfer two years after the pick Dallas owes Atlanta via the Luka Doncic trade) would leave them short of max-level cap space after acquiring Butler. Then again, maybe they wouldn't care; they could re-sign DeAndre Jordan, stay over the cap, and build some sort of mutant hybrid team around Jordan, Barnes, Butler, Doncic, and Dennis Smith Jr.

Another option: Barnes, Dwight Powell, and a protected first-round pick for Butler and Dieng. Dallas in this scenario would have another max cap slot to chase a Butler running mate -- though they'd have to renounce their rights to Jordan to get it.

This feels like a blah deal for both teams -- a slightly disappointing return for the Wolves, and muddled, thin leftover core in Dallas. But if the market gets really cool and the Mavs have some appetite for risk, their first-round pick could become a valuable chip.

HOUSTON

And the door opens: Eric Gordon, PJ Tucker, and an unprotected (and almost certainly crappy) first-round pick for Butler, anyone? Gordon, Marquese Chriss, and an unprotected pick also works -- though not until Oct. 31, when the Rockets can trade Chriss in combination with other players. The Chriss version also adds about $3.7 million to Houston's books, and multiples of that to their tax bill.

Do those deals suck for the Wolves? Yes. Yes, they do. But it's better than letting Butler walk for nothing. You know Daryl Morey will risk everything for stars who could pull Houston closer to the Warriors. I'm telling you: We are going to hear from Houston before this is over.
TORONTO

I didn't really get the early Raptors/Butler buzz. Minnesota should not want Serge Ibaka or Jonas Valanciunas. A package of Danny Green, Fred VanVleet (ineligible to be traded until Jan. 15) and a protected first-round pick could work, but the Raptors know they have to be ready to rebuild if Leonard bolts. I'm not sure they want to dip any further into their stash of picks and young guys -- VanVleet, Delon Wright, OG Anunoby, and Pascal Siakam -- to recruit another star on an expiring deal.
ORLANDO

I'm surprised how many rival executives suggested the Magic. This front office has a long runway. I don't think they'd veer off course for Butler, even if they could get him at a reduced price.
MILWAUKEE

The Bucks placed a courtesy "keep us in the loop" call with Minnesota, sources say, and a package built around Khris Middleton (also set to be a free agent) and one future asset -- a pick, Thon Maker, something -- makes some sense. I just don't see it. Milwaukee has a better chance retaining Middleton than they'd have with Butler.
LAKERS

The Lakers can't trade any of their recently signed free agents until winter, meaning they'd have to trade most of their young guys -- including both Brandon Ingram and Lonzo Ball -- to get him now. Not happening. The winter could bring more intrigue, if Butler is still in Minnesota and the Lakers disappoint.
BOSTON

Finally! A big-name trade arrives without Boston as an oft-mentioned suitor! There really isn't a deal that makes sense until the Celtics can trade Marcus Smart in mid-January, and even then, the Celtics aren't sending out any of their five best players for Butler.

A mystery suitor could emerge. The Wolves could drag this into the season, hoping Butler reconciles with the team or some rival suffers an injury that creates desperation. The Wolves will canvas the whole league -- regardless of who ends up doing the canvassing.

and it'll be said again, but Zach Lowe is a gem. That is an amazing amount of detailed work done in very short time, given that this news came out a few days ago.

Given all his NBA insider news and insight, I'm amazed he remains being a Knicks fan and hasn't gone neutral at this point.

+ with the sexual harassment issues

Winning makes people forget

If I'm Cuban B, I'm on the line with MIN everyday dealing

Krawczynski is the local reporter who first broke the story (along with Shams) and is plugged in as anyone to this shitshow of an organization. So Thibs knew on SOME level that this was going to happen back in July and did nothing with the hope that he could maybe squeak out another playoff appearance (in the Western Conference with a team where half the players hate the other half) and save his job?

Apologies to Randy Wittman, Thibs is officially the dumbest non-Rambis coach in the history of this franchise.

https://theathletic.com/536185/2018/09/21/jimmy-butler-tom-thibodeau-timberwolves-reunion-divorce-glen-taylor/

It​ was just 15 months ago​ that Jimmy​ Butler walked​ into​ the​ Mall​ of​ America, wearing a sharp blue suit​​ as he sat down next to his old — and new — coach, Tom Thibodeau.

Butler craned his neck upward, taking in the scene as hundreds of success-starved Wolves fans lined all three balconies that encircled the mall’s rotunda, eager to get a look at the All-NBA player that was there to vault their long-suffering team into relevance.

Butler smiled and put his right hand on Thibodeau’s left shoulder. The two ex-Bulls were together again, and the typically all-business coach relented to allow the introductory press conference to be pumped full of the pomp, circumstance and commerce-driven buzz of one of the Twin Cities’ defining, if uninspiring, venues.

In his opening remarks, Butler thanked Thibodeau, who had just finished an underwhelming first season in Minnesota. The mutual respect between the two was evident from the outset and served as the foundation for the optimism that said the Timberwolves were about to arrive.

“Thibs has molded me into the player that I am today,” Butler said that day. “He gets a lot of that credit. He really does. I don’t want to sit here and talk about him for 10 straight minutes, because I can.

“When I came into this league as a kid, that’s literally what I was. I did not know what I was getting myself into. Thibs let me know you have to work in order to make it, each and every day. When nobody’s looking, you’re working. When the cameras are on you, you’re working. I became a halfway decent basketball player because of that.”

Thibodeau wore a tie that was just a shade darker than Bulls red and a smile wider than anyone had seen during his first year in Minnesota, elated to be reunited with the living embodiment of his relentless mindset. Seated in the front row was Karl-Anthony Towns, Butler’s new running mate who was going to soak up his veteran knowledge and adopt some of Butler’s competitive edge to take his game to another level.

“Karl, for being here,” Butler said, locking eyes with Towns. “He did not have to be here. That just shows who he is, thank you for that.”

This was supposed to be the dawning of a new day in Timberwolves land, an emphatic sweeping away of the dysfunction, misfortune and losing that had plagued the franchise for so long. Butler was exactly what these young Wolves, and this grinder of a coach, needed to take the next step from up-and-coming to here-and-now.

The second season of this reunion hasn’t even begun, and all of that turmoil and hardship has returned. And Jimmy Butler is right in the middle of it all.

He has requested a trade from the Timberwolves less than a week before training camp begins, thrusting the organization, and his beloved coach, into chaos as a summer’s worth of whispers about chemistry issues, unhappiness and tension has finally spilled into plain public view. And just like that first press conference, drama-seeking fans, gossip-drunk players and executives across the league who smell blood in the water are crowding around the railings to get a glimpse of it all.

The enormous strides that many expected the young Wolves to take in Thibodeau’s first season were more akin to baby steps. Towns, Andrew Wiggins and Zach LaVine showed some improvement under Thibs in 2016-17, but the Wolves won just two more games than they did the previous year while being coached by Sam Mitchell. So the coach and president launched an ambitious plan to inject the team with veteran toughness and grit, and it started with Butler.

The franchise, including owner Glen Taylor and the business side of the operation, was eager to get back to winning as well. The Wolves had gone 13 straight seasons without making the playoffs, at the time the longest active drought in the NBA. Tickets were hard to sell, there were only so many times the marketing department could tout an exciting new rebuild, and Taylor wasn’t getting any younger.

On draft night in 2017, the Wolves sent youngsters LaVine and Kris Dunn along with the No. 7 overall pick to Chicago for Butler and the No. 16 pick. It was hailed as a heist at the time. Give up three unproven commodities in exchange for one of the best players in the league, who also happens to be incredibly close with a coach who didn’t exactly endear himself with many in the organization, and you another solid piece in the draft choice, Justin Patton? It was a no-brainer.

What followed was not a make-over, it was a full-on facelift. Ricky Rubio was jettisoned for Jeff Teague. Taj Gibson was brought in to supplant Gorgui Dieng in the starting lineup. Jamal Crawford was added to a bench that would eventually get Derrick Rose as well. The TimberBulls were formed with the express purpose of bringing Chicago toughness to Minnesota Nice.

And there were tangible signs that it was working. Their 47 wins were tied for fifth-most in franchise history. Butler and Towns were All-Stars. The Wolves sold out 18 games, more than any season since 1990-91 and made the playoffs for the first time since 2004. But the concerns about sustainability have been there for months.

During that rollicking introduction at the mall, the one in which he gave out his phone number and challenged any of his critics to call him and let him know directly if they had a problem, Butler promised to help recruit “players a lot better than I am” and help Thibodeau remake the culture to transform the cute pups into real, snarling wolves.

Towns accompanied Butler on a flight back to Los Angeles after that press conference, and the two tried to start to build the foundation of what everyone expected would be a formidable pairing. Butler embraced the role of leader and tone-setter from the moment he hit the court.

“I hope that’s part of my role here, to make sure everybody’s doing the right things, playing with energy on both ends of the floor,” Butler said after an early-season win over Oklahoma City. “We’ve got a really talented group of guys. When everybody’s swinging the ball and team offense and team defense and team everything, we’re going to be all right.”

Fans gravitated to his unfiltered bravado and quotes like, “The lights are coming on now. This is when the real MFers come to play.” Early in the season, he took a deferential approach, preferring to hang back on offense and allow Towns, Wiggins, Teague and the rest of his new team the opportunity to shoot while expending more of his energy on the defensive side of the court.

“He’s a very, very, very unselfish player,” Wiggins told The Athletic in November. “I think he feeds off of other people playing well. He makes everyone play well. He gets us easy shots, just makes it easier for everyone around him. He’s the type of guy you need to win.”

He was a barker and a biter, never hesitating to forcefully challenge teammates to raise their effort, their work ethic and their defensive approach. Such was the case on a flight to New Orleans on Nov. 28, when Butler lit into his teammates after a 92-89 home loss to Washington.

“To tell you the truth, fear will make you do a lot of things that you don’t know that you could do,” Butler told The Athletic in January. “So if I strike fear in somebody and they know I’m not playing around, they’re going to do it. But if you just talk to them softly and all of that, the majority of the time it don’t work.”

As the Timberwolves started to climb the Western Conference standings in January and things appeared to be clicking, Thibodeau had a go-to phrase when asked about Butler’s contributions.

“He’s changed everything,” the coach would say, sending the clear message that everything in this franchise needed to change. There had been too much losing for too long, and Thibodeau wasn’t going to tolerate it any longer. This franchise, in the eyes of Thibs and in the eyes of Butler, needed to ditch the pleasantries, eschew the flowers and chocolates and start kicking some ass.

The Wolves reached as high as third in the West before things started to wobble. Butler’s sore knee flared up. He sat out four games in January, did not play in the All-Star game and then had surgery that caused him to miss 17 games down the stretch. The Wolves went 8-9 during his absence, causing them to lose ground in an air-tight playoff race.

Butler worked hard to get back before the end of the season, joining the team for the final three regular-season games, including a stirring overtime victory over Denver in the finale that propelled the Wolves into the playoffs.

The Wolves drew top-seeded Houston in the first round, an overwhelming mismatch for a team that had a star still working his way back from injury. They put up a fight in Game 1 in Houston and won Game 3 at Target Center. But on the morning of Game 4, the Chicago Sun-Times published a story in which Butler questioned the commitment of some of his teammates.

“I put so much into this game and I only play to win. I don’t play for any individual stats or accolades. And at times I get lost in how everybody is not built the way that I’m built,” Butler told the newspaper.

“The same with Thibs. People don’t understand that he puts so much time into his craft. He understands what it takes. But sometimes I just look around, and I don’t understand how or why you all don’t love to get better the way that I do.”

It had emerged as a recurring theme in the Wolves locker room. Some players respected Butler’s work ethic, admired how he came to NBA stardom through the back door — homelessness in high school, junior college, hardly playing as a rookie in Chicago. They appreciated his intensity and drive and didn’t mind if he called them out privately when it needed to be done.

Others grew tired of hearing Butler talk about how hard he worked and how much it meant to him and chafed at the implication that they didn’t take things seriously enough.

But there are personality conflicts on every team, and the belief internally as the season came to a close was that those would not be fatal. Sure, Butler was annoyed and Wiggins was frustrated, but a summer away from each other and a return to a team that had serious hopes of slugging it out in the West may have been enough to bridge those gaps.

As the season wound down, Taylor said he hoped that Butler would help recruit more players to the Wolves, just as he had promised in his opening press conference. But when his agent, Bernie Lee, told The Pioneer Press that it was the Wolves’ job to recruit him, not Butler’s job to recruit others, alarm bells started to go off.

After working his way back from the knee surgery and helping the Wolves into the playoffs, Butler was hopeful that the Wolves would renegotiate and extend his contract this summer, a move that would have taken significant roster moves to pull off.

Thibodeau and Taylor didn’t see that as realistic if they wanted to hold on to a playoff-caliber team. So they did the only thing they could do under the rules of the CBA: they offered Butler a four-year, $110 million extension. Butler could get a five-year, $188 million from the Wolves or a four-year, $139 million deal with another team after this season, so he turned that down.

The contract, the desire to play on a contender, the issues with Towns and Wiggins, the size of the market, there are so many factors that affect a decision like this for Butler.

Reports started to trickle out about Butler wanting to play elsewhere with other stars. Add to it Towns not immediately signing a maximum contract offer extended in July and there were reasons to be concerned about the volatility floating through the air. Thibodeau brushed aside those worries, chalking them up to baseless internet fodder.

“I’ve been around a long time; I don’t buy into any of that stuff,” Thibodeau said during an appearance at the Star Tribune booth at the state fair in August. “You have to distinguish what’s real and what’s not real. You never heard any of that come from Jimmy’s mouth. It’s always a source close to Jimmy. If Jimmy has something to say to someone, he usually says it directly. …

“The biggest thing is chemistry on the floor and winning. How efficient they are tells you there’s strong chemistry on the floor.”

With all of the rumors in the air, at least one team reached out to the Timberwolves in July to ask about Butler’s availability, sources said. But they were quickly rebuffed.

All of the while, Butler stayed away from Minnesota, traveling overseas and spending time at his home in California. When the calendar turned to September, only a few of the Timberwolves trickled into Minneapolis to start preparing for camp, including Minnesota native Tyus Jones, free-agent addition Anthony Tolliver, Teague and rookies Josh Okogie and Keita Bates-Diop. Another red flag.

With less than one week to go before media day on Sept. 24, Thibodeau was summoned to California for a meeting with Butler. He was planning on asking to be traded, but in the days leading up to the meeting several wondered if he would stick to his stance or soften it when Thibodeau charted his vision for the upcoming season.

As Thibodeau laid out his plans, Butler told his coach that he wanted to be elsewhere. Thibodeau resisted, saying he couldn’t trade him because he wanted to make another playoff run this year. But Butler held firm.

When the news went public, Wiggins’ brother Nick tweeted “Hallelujah!” touching off a social media skirmish with Butler and Stephen Jackson, of all people. Timberwolves players, staff and officials throughout the league watched in amazement as some of the issues that Thibodeau downplayed for months were laid right out in the open.

The four-time All-Star has received a torrent of criticism for the timing of his request. It has put Thibodeau in an incredibly difficult position with little leverage as other teams start to swoop in to try to take advantage. But sources say this week was not the first time Butler made it known to Thibodeau that he was unhappy and did not see a long-term future with the franchise. When it became clear early in the summer that he was not going to get the renegotiation and extension, those feelings were made known to Thibodeau, sources said.

What remains unclear is how definitive Butler was in his earlier remarks. Did he say that he wanted a trade? Did he say the he did not intend to sign an extension with the team when he becomes a free agent on July 1, 2019? Or did he merely convey some disenchantment at the current state of the situation?

No matter how strong the message was, it was unlikely to be granted by Thibodeau, who is so closely aligned with Butler that any steps he takes forward in Minnesota without Butler by his side could weaken him to a degree that will be difficult to overcome.

The Timberwolves have been quiet through all of this, stunned that it has gotten this far, fuming at Butler’s abandonment of a coach he respects and privately wondering just how ugly it’s going to get.

Thibodeau has rebuffed trade calls to this point, even of the informal “what would it take?” variety that several teams have started to initiate, sources said. His hold on both positions in the organization hasn’t been strong for quite some time and it’s well known throughout the franchise that his relationship with Taylor got off to a bit of a rocky start.

By all accounts, Thibodeau has been much more accessible and engaging with Taylor, and many in the organization, this summer. He has been working to establish relationships that he simply ignored in his first two seasons on the job, knowing full well that Year 3 could be considered make or break for the Thibodeau-Layden pairing.

Any signs of momentum or positive vibes were extinguished this week, and no one knows how this ends.

For Thibodeau, this is far worse than the deterioration of his relationship with Rubio, a favorite of Taylor’s but one Thibodeau inherited who didn’t fit his style or his mentality.

This is Jimmy Butler. Thibs’ hand-picked pride and joy. The one who pledged to have his back through thick and thin and drag this woebegone franchise out of the dank cellar and into the spotlight.

Now he wants out. And there remains a real possibility that he will not report to training camp next week if a trade has not been consummated, sources said.

Trading Butler likely would mean a step back in the upcoming season, which would put Thibodeau’s job in jeopardy. But keeping him, re-inserting him into a locker room that has only grown more volatile with the events of this week, and risking losing him for nothing at the end of next season would be an equally big risk for the franchise’s long-term future.

In the past, as ESPN alluded to on Friday, Taylor has not hesitated to get involved in these kinds of scenarios. He was integral in working with Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert to help Flip Saunders trade Kevin Love to Cleveland for Wiggins. He resisted Thibodeau’s urges to trade Rubio until Rubio himself went to Taylor and asked out. He has also ushered other players out who have been looking to move on including Al Jefferson, Mike James and Corey Brewer.

Now, if Thibodeau continues to hold the line, Taylor may have to do it again. Rival teams are aware that they may have to go through the owner to get any traction on a deal and Butler may have to engage Taylor personally as well to see this through. Taylor is in New York this week for league meetings, and at least one team approached him but was told to funnel their inquiries to the Wolves’ front office, sources said.

Whatever happens, Thibodeau will have an enormous task on his hands when it comes to simply coaching a team full of players who know that his most trusted lieutenant, the one he empowered like no other in the organization, has turned on him and the franchise.

Fifteen months ago, Tom Thibodeau and Jimmy Butler reunited in an attempt to roust a forever-slumbering franchise. Instead, the marriage hasn’t even made it past the honeymoon phase.

Now, with training camp right around the corner, chaos has descended upon Minnesota again. Thibodeau is backed into a corner, and Butler was the one who put him there.

https://youtu.be/Sd4SJVsTulc?t=912

https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1043278308027367425

So I'm guessing Thibs has come around to doing what needs to be done with Jimmy. "But he's not a WINNER," cries some weirdo, "Jah's going to be the tallest Popeye's employee in history six months from now" says another.

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/24765399/karl-anthony-towns-agrees-super-max-deal-timberwolves

In a deal that cements him as the franchise's long-term cornerstone, Minnesota Timberwolves All-Star center Karl-Anthony Towns has agreed to a five-year, $190 million super-maximum extension, league sources told ESPN.

Towns' agent, Leon Rose of CAA Sports, informed the organization of Towns' intention to sign the extension on Saturday night, sources said. The Timberwolves report for media day on Monday and begin training camp on Tuesday.

In a statement, Towns said: "On June 25, 2015, I was drafted to and committed to the Minnesota Timberwolves. On September 22, 2018, I made a recommitment to the Wolves and have the same feelings of excitement that I felt back in 2015.

"I promise to the fans, my teammates and the organization to keep the vision of the man who drafted me, Flip Saunders, alive and treat his dream of winning with respect and dignity. To the fans from Day One and the Timberwolves fans, this is for you. Thank you for believing in me."

The super-max deal includes the ability for Towns to earn 30 percent of the Timberwolves' salary cap with the fulfillment of reaching one of the three All-NBA teams, or being voted league MVP or Defensive Player of the Year this season.

In three NBA seasons, Towns, 22, has emerged as the Timberwolves' most significant player since Kevin Garnett.

Towns, the No. 1 overall pick out of Kentucky and 2016 NBA Rookie of the Year, led the Timberwolves into the Western Conference playoffs for the first time in 13 seasons in 2017-2018. He made the Western Conference All-Stars and earned third-team All-NBA honors.

On Saturday night, Towns also tweeted "5 More" accompanied by a video montage of his career with Minnesota.

https://twitter.com/KarlTowns/status/1043665389291327488

Towns, who hasn't missed a game in his three seasons, averaged 21.3 points, 12.3 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game in 2017-18.

Way better trade options for the Wolves here than with the other three teams initially mentioned. This seems like a weird thing for his agent to put out there, though.

Highlights include the 50 point game he had the day before calling Thibs "lil headass" to his face and getting decked by Luol Deng because of it, then having a GIF party on Twitter the day Thibs is fired.

I literally didn't know who that was supposed to be in that picture, couldn't see the jersey number. Was he on the all Cuban sandwich diet?

Yeah, Riley's definitely going to try and trade him now.

That extra post-season blubber should keep him warm in the cold Minnesota winters, so maybe Dion Waiters knows something the rest of us don't know.

Josh Richardson and Olynyk/Waiters (maybe Winslow) is better than anything either of the NY teams can offer or the Clips will offer.

If Richardson isn't the centerpiece of the deal, it's going to be bad. If they're going to try and make the Wolves take on Whiteside's deal, we at least better be able to ship Dieng off to South Beach or a third team.

on Twitter...along with the fat Harden pics. People are silly.

.

Or get Sac involved and get WCS in return. But he’s a FA at the end of the year sooooo

https://twitter.com/ZachLowe_NBA/status/1045303195029917697

.

He's absolutely trying to get fired, no other explanation makes sense.

https://youtu.be/E8aoHCCW35A

Just say you aren't trading him if that's the case

An all-star caliber player on a rookie contract...for a FA to be looking for max $$$

WTF

it's yet another wing who can't shoot from farther than 8 feet out from the basket. Would be a terrible trade for the Wolves.

Got to do something with it, man.

Like, the Wolves haven't had a wing who can reliably hit 3's in forever, but sure, *Ben Simmons* is the answer!

Leverage is lost the closer the deadline gets

Good luck with Kawhi drama 2.0

When Jimmy sits out...

Can't lose what you don't have *head tap*

Kings a possible 3rd team.

.

niggas can make all the analytics jokes they want, but at the end of the day no one's better, whether it's trades, drafts or fagency.

>niggas can make all the analytics jokes they want, but at the
>end of the day no one's better, whether it's trades, drafts or
>fagency.

he's been a mixed back at best, non of the "poison pill" contracts he did worked out, the Dwight signing was largely a bust, outside of Capela his draft record is spotty at best lol

But who knows WTF is going on in Ninny

he's moving over to boston sports guy's shop next week. solid pickup for them, his pieces are always quality.

https://sports.yahoo.com/jimmy-butler-missing-piece-houston-rockets-184046715.html

Yahoo Sports
Could Jimmy Butler be the missing piece for the Houston Rockets?
Dan Devine
September 28, 2018, 1:40 PM CDT

When the Houston Rockets opened free agency by losing Trevor Ariza and Luc Mbah a Moute — two key cogs in the significant defensive improvement that helped the Rockets rise from 18th among 30 NBA teams in defensive efficiency in 2016-17 to sixth last season, which in turn helped Houston become the kind of balanced monster capable of competing for the NBA title — and signing Michael Carter-Williams, it looked like they’d taken a step back from pushing the Golden State Warriors to the brink in the Western Conference finals. Even as the summer progressed, with athletic swingman James Ennis, former All-Star scorer Carmelo Anthony, point guard Brandon Knight and ex-lottery big man Marquese Chriss all arriving via free agency or trade, the Rockets still seemed a touch less potent on both ends of the floor than last year’s model, which came within a brutally timed hamstring injury and a staggering string of missed jumpers of reaching the championship round.

As he surveyed the landscape, though, Rockets general manager Daryl Morey projected confidence and emphasized patience. “We need our best team on April 15,” he said, suggesting the possibility of a shake-up that might put Houston in better position to once again go toe-to-toe with the reloaded Warriors. Like … maybe … for example … bringing in an All-NBA small forward who’s one of the league’s best perimeter defenders?

We’ve known for a few days that the Rockets were one of the many teams who had expressed some level of interest in trading for Jimmy Butler, the four-time All-Star who formally requested one week before training camp that the Minnesota Timberwolves trade him out of the Twin Cities. Despite owner Glen Taylor’s reported interest in putting what’s become a messy situation behind his team as quickly as possible, Wolves coach/president of basketball operations Tom Thibodeau and general manager Scott Layden have taken a more measured approach, refusing to be held hostage by the clock.

The Wolves’ top two decision-makers reportedly insist that any prospective suitor come to them with serious proposals commensurate with Butler’s status as one of the game’s best players, and they’re representing that — while they intend to honor Butler’s request — they’re willing to wait to do so until they’ve got a deal that keeps Minnesota competitive now and better positions the franchise for a Butler-less future. (No matter how much that might frustrate Butler.)

As the process wears on, with Butler reportedly most interested in making his way to the Miami Heat, the Rockets have remained in the mix, according to Mark Berman of Houston FOX affiliate KRIV-TV:

https://twitter.com/MarkBermanFox26/status/1045511835804454914

Berman’s report comes on the heels of a similar note from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, suggesting that Houston might have some work to do to put together a package that might pique Minnesota’s interest, but that Morey and company are still in the business of doing that work:

https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1045062983280447488

Creativity, as you might remember, is kind of Morey’s specialty. On his watch, the Rockets have:

• Devised the “poison pill” contracts that landed restricted free agents Jeremy Lin and Omer Asik in the summer of 2012;

• Constructed the right kind of now-and-later package to get the Oklahoma City Thunder to part ways with James Harden shortly thereafter;

• Waived or traded a handful of players in short order — Thomas Robinson, Furkan Aldemir, Royce White, James Anderson and Tim Ohlbrecht — to carve out just enough cap space to sign marquee free agent center Dwight Howard in 2013;

• Worked out a three-team, six-player deal to land Ariza in the summer of 2014, then a three-team, five-player swap to import wing Corey Brewer that December, with both playing important roles in Houston’s run to the 2015 Western finals;

• Started the movement toward teams renegotiating and extending the contracts of their star players to secure their services for even longer, re-upping Harden in 2016 and again in 2017; and

• Paid cash to pile up non-guaranteed contracts to add to guards Patrick Beverley and Lou Williams, forwards Montrezl Harrell and Sam Dekker, and a top-three-protected 2018 first-round pick in a package to send to the Los Angeles Clippers for superstar point guard Chris Paul last summer.

On that last one: despite lacking the cap space to add a max-salaried game-changer like Paul — who had reportedly informed the Clippers he wouldn’t be returning in unrestricted free agency the following summer, and was interested in being moved to a specific destination (sounds familiar!) — Morey still managed to find a way to send the Clips immediate starting-caliber players, including one who wound up meriting surprise All-Star consideration, young talent with upside, a draft pick, nearly $700,000 in cash, and three non-guaranteed contracts that L.A. could waive to lower its cap number.

According to the most recent rounds of reporting, what are the Wolves looking for to move Butler? “Stars, starters, draft picks and salary-cap relief.” Y’know, just in case you’re scoring at home.

“There’s always fine-tuning, you can always get better,” Morey recently said, according to Kelly Iko of The Athletic. “We have all our draft picks going forward, so if something presents itself that allows us to make a trade to improve the team, we won’t hesitate to do that.”

What form a Rockets offer might take remains to be seen. Michael Pina of VICE Sports and ESPN’s Zach Lowe have theorized about a framework built around Sixth Man of the Year Eric Gordon, tough-as-nails 3-and-D forward P.J. Tucker and an unprotected first-round pick, which would provide immediate help, two players on cost-effective contracts beyond this season, and a(n admittedly likely late) first-round selection to add more young talent moving forward.

Things get several orders of magnitude more complicated if the Wolves are indeed insisting on jettisoning the remaining three years and $48.7 million owed to backup big man Gorgui Dieng as part of any Butler deal. That would probably require Houston to loop in a third team, or maybe even third and fourth teams, to find the right combination of cap relief and assets going back the other way without giving up more than a couple of vital pieces of the Rockets’ own puzzle. We’ve seen Morey navigate those multi-team waters before, but they can get mighty choppy awfully quickly.

Plus, if it’d mean parting with Gordon, Tucker and another potential rotation piece, it would also require some serious risk analysis weighing the costs and prospective benefits of taking that kind of big swing. This is where we remind you that the Rockets’ were basically playing 6 1/2-man dudes by the end of the Western finals, and that Gordon and Tucker were two of the six. And if D’Antoni is, as ESPN’s Tim MacMahon suggests, thinking about starting Gordon while bringing Anthony off the bench, this 2-for-1 would necessitate a major shift in the starting five, including possibly reinserting ‘Melo, which could both lower the starters’ defensive ceiling and dampen the second unit’s offensive punch. Again: it’s complicated.

That said: depth matters, but stars matter more. The Rockets still have their taxpayer midlevel exception (worth just under $5.34 million) with which to shop for a down-the-rotation boost on the buyout market as the season goes on, but they might not have the opportunity to pick up a player that can matter the way Butler can.

Few front offices over the years have proven as willing as Morey’s to take that home-run cut, to “up (their) risk profile” in pursuit of bona fide stars and difference-makers who can not only close the gap with Golden State, but put Houston in position to actually topple the two-time-defending champs. Butler is excellent, a defensive monster with a versatile offensive game. (He’s not a knockdown 3-point shooter, although his stroke might play up in a spaced-out attack like the one Mike D’Antoni has designed with Harden and Paul at the controls; as Rahat Huq of Forbes notes, Butler shot better than 38 percent on catch-and-shoot 3-pointers and long balls fired within two seconds of the pass, and nearly 41 percent on wide-open triple-tries.)

Butler’s also got a relentless competitive streak that seems tailor-made for the heat of postseason battle against the likes of Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green. (Oh, and DeMarcus Cousins, who the Warriors totally have now.) He is the kind of player Houston has routinely sought since Morey took the reins in 2007.

“We go toward talent,” Morey told Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle. “ To me, it’s similar to our players, from one to 15, from the front office staff to the coaching staff, we have done everything but win the title. That’s what’s left.”

Taking that final step will require massive talent and the bold moves to bring it in; trading for Jimmy Butler would certainly seem to qualify. Now we wait and see if Morey can get creative enough to put together a package that catches Thibodeau’s eye.

https://twitter.com/NotDWolfson/status/1047499012436320257

Miami: Whiteside/Dragic (no Winslow or Richardson)
Houston: Tucker/Gordon, as mentioned above
Milwaukee: Brogdon/Bledsoe (please just do this one,though I doubt MKE would actually pull the trigger.)

I see no reason to not do the deal with the Bucks if that's actually all it takes. That Heat offer is laughable, though. Only way it POSSIBLY works is if they (or a third team) take Dieng off our hands. Because the amount of money committed to him and Whiteside is an absolute killer.

Edit, I just tried the Miami deal in the ESPN trade machine, only way it could possibly work (with Miami only giving up those two) is to throw in Dieng AND Jeff Teague. I don't even like Teague, but that's never gonna happen.

be one year rentals? I'm aware of the rumors of Butler wanting to go to Miami, but I didn't hear of Houston or Milwaukee being on Butler's list.

As sexy as a Rockets team with Butler would be, I also see that locker room being fairly combustible, given all the personalities in that starting five and Butler's history. Also, it would be pretty wild to see Minnesota make the Rockets that much more dangerous since the both are in the Western conference.

Mil is a little different, but with him having roots in Chicago, might be doable. My thought though is that Jimmy wants a warm, big city or major metro (NY, BK, Miami, LAC). Houston also comes with the added benefit is being championship competitive immediately.

Him, Paul, Melo, Harden and Capella could compete for the next 2 rings. After that...*shrug* but him, Harden and Capella are young enough to lead a few more playoff teams.

is gonna rock with Melo, Harden, & CP3?

Uh huh... tell me more.

He gonna say something slick to Melo. And Melo gonna punch him in his goddamn face.

>He gonna say something slick to Melo. And Melo gonna punch him
>in his goddamn face.

spades partners, at least: https://youtu.be/j8QOj09oEQI

.

I could see those two butting heads since they both have respective histories of rubbing folks the wrong way.

“See that wouldn’t have happened if you ran the hills with me at 4 in the morning.”

The Houston one is laughably bad.

Miami needs to give up J-Rich or BAM. Justise is ass juice. I don’t need one of his jumpers careening off the rim sending KAT into the concussion protocol.

Bledsoe/Brogdon is alright. Not sure it makes the Bucks better, but I wouldn’t care.

And Bledsoe is, if nothing else, someone to play at the point so Rose doesn't ever have to.

The Rockets deal at the very least brings in a three point shooter.

I agree with the on the cheap part though.

Might be willing to take Dieng and Teague in the deal so long as they could maybe move Chandler.

https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1047689337511587840

And if they're trying to get the Wolves to take on Whiteside without taking Dieng, they can REALLY fuck off.

I think if a trade with Miami goes down, it's going to have to involve a third team somehow.

https://twitter.com/RedNationHoops/status/1049668990333841409

https://twitter.com/FusaroESPN/status/1050026678926397441

I'd love to have Tucker on the Wolves obviously, but for the Rockets, is PJ Tucker worth not having a CP3/Harden/Butler team?

saw him play a lot with the Suns, he is lethal from the corner and big enough to guard 4 positions effectively.

i hear you, but him and Harden seem to be real close and I doubt the management wanna make the beard mad.

He was such a rock, a guy who can actually play better with more energy instead of just getting into foul trouble (he does that too, though), and his three point shooting has improved. Plus, yup, he's very close with Harden and Paul.

Most importantly, he's currently the best wing defender on the team, and though Butler is clearly superior, when the target is the Warriors, you want multiple expert wing defenders (especially with Beardo or Melo on the floor).

He sure is backing Coach Dangerfield into a corner.

Remember when Jimmy Butler liked to air his frustration with a coach by just refusing to run the designed play and hold it for 17 seconds and shoot?

https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1050102251262480386

At one point in a scrimmage, sources said, Butler turned to GM Scott Layden and screamed, "You (bleeping) need me. You can't win without me." Butler left teammates and coaches largely speechless. He dominated the gym in every way. Jimmy's back.

the niggas that keep the bench from flying off into outer space

https://twitter.com/TJDhoops/status/1050106266977259521

where the Five just ran every upperclassman out of the gym.

By the end of the day I expect to hear Jimmy has decapitated Glen Taylor and agreed to trade himself to the moon.

Wait, Josh Okogie was on the team that "holds down the bench?" LMAO, he's a born winner!

They sure as hell ain’t doing anything with him.

>They sure as hell ain’t doing anything with him.


Wait...didn't they nearly miss the playoffs without him? I think they were 3rd/4th seed with him in the West before he got hurt....

I mean, none of this matters. Because Thibs is the real issue....

he the problem tho. fuck outta here.

can't wait til he's outta there.

Dude is up in there just pooping on everyone.

absolutely incredible

about coaching this guy this year.

Other than maybe Popovich, I don't know which coach in the league can get this dude to settle down. Butler on Houston sounds like a complete a total disaster waiting to happen for multiple reasons.

being little coddled babies that dont want to win

.

they actually are a bunch of losers without him. and can learn how to win with him, which has been LITERALLY PROVEN.

They would’ve been better off if they never traded for him.

Nah...Butler is no malcontent...Dude is still mad that the Wolves slow walked his contract talks early on and he thinks the kids on the team don't have any heart...

But....In the NBA you ALWAYS choose youth/skill/. Young players can learn how to win so I get the Wolves choosing to re-up KAT.

But I'm not mad at Butler...Dude has shown his worth to that team....

And he’s acting like this.

But he’s not a malcontent right?

Y’all niggaz are hilarious.

Actually, he wanted to stay on the Bulls....He didn't want to be traded...

As for the Wolves? This is an entirely different scenario.... Butler is the Wolves best player. Everyone knows it. That team is not making the playoffs without him in the West. He just has a issue with soft players....

But I'll say it again...The Wolves problem ain't Butler. It's Thibs. His coaching style is outdated for THIS NBA....

Rondo called him out.

They made the playoffs.

Won games.

Rondo got hurt.

Lost every single goddamn game after that.

Please point out an inaccuracy in that chain of events.

Just thought that was a cool coincidence.

https://www.mavsmoneyball.com/2015/2/26/8114369/complete-history-rajon-rondo-pissing-off-coaches-benched

...LA is his 7th stop...?

Rondo is an insufferable asshole to dumb, lazy people

Rondo wins rings with hard working, intelligent
people

Butler is that kind of asshole. He'll win when he's not
with fat, lazy, stupid bums

Beas
Javale
or Luke
?

I smell blood before the AS break.

in terms of managing personalities i'd probably put Thibs towards the bottom of the league's coaches. Thibs losing influence over him doesn't mean much to me at this point

I can't see him fitting on Houston.

.

https://twitter.com/SportsCenter/status/1050138641278881792

It's 2018, leak that shit

He corny but them other dudes soft. not soft >>> soft

And I get his point but he's approaching Dwight levels of cornball.

No horse in this race as long as DRose gets some of his swag back.

Tell Woj enough to get him to praise your guy as putting on "a tour de force"(!) and then immediately sit down with Rachel Nichols and soft pedal your perspective. Completely took control of the narrative, and all agents should work this hard for their players.

But this isn’t how you lead a team.

In fact this is the opposite of what you do to lead a team.

The message can be dead on, but the messenger is wayyyyy off.

with his childhood friends

So the leader should be signing Vanessa Carlton with his grown adult friends?

Lmao.

>But this isn’t how you lead a team.
>
>In fact this is the opposite of what you do to lead a team.
>
>The message can be dead on, but the messenger is wayyyyy off.


All the stories I've heard of everyone from Jordan to Gary Payton challenging teammates in practice???? Hell, even laying hands on them? lol

This is nothing new........It's the NBA.

SVG on ESPN was like "a lot of people in the org thought this was the best practice of the preseason"

Obvs his source was his bro Thibs.

Those two aloofs are coming out of this looking worse than Jimmy, which is hilarious.

This ain’t good.

His job interview voice was pretty hilarious to me, given that this whole situation is based on him being completely disgruntled with multiple folks on the Timberwolves.

Jimmy didn't just YAP he BROUGHT THE FUCKING
BEEF TO PRACTICE AND MADE HIS POINT

Not on some fake thug fighting shit

But on some HARD WORK AND DEDICATION shit

How do you interpret that as anything other
than awesome?

Seems his whole gripe was this club doesn’t have winners, so he walked in and proved it.

just happened to be in Minnesota?

This was a move.

Great player, and he’s got some points. They do need him. He gave them their first decent season since Sprewell bounced.

But this was carefully orchestrated. Which is cool, but it is what it is.

she said she got a call last night saying Jimmy was ready to talk...so, she hopped on a plane.

This was a move.
>
>Great player, and he’s got some points. They do need him.
>He gave them their first decent season since Sprewell
>bounced.
>
>But this was carefully orchestrated. Which is cool, but it is
>what it is.

But thats cool dogg, do you.

(It is amazing, dude is walking the walk...who can be mad at that?)

Thibs is trash and KAT needs more dog in him.

>But thats cool dogg, do you.
>
>(It is amazing, dude is walking the walk...who can be mad at
>that?)
>
>Thibs is trash and KAT needs more dog in him.

is if the trade demand really only came a few weeks ago, you can't be this aggy you haven't been traded yet. now, jimmy's saying thibs knew everything four days after they got eliminated. if that's true, i have no beef with jimmy at all.

either way, he is easily the party in this with the least blame. glenn taylor is a clown. thibs is walking self satire. wiggins doesn't care, and KAT's a punk. jimmy's an asshole who's bad for team chemistry, but he's super pressed to be as good as possible and a top ten player. all these others dudes need to be more like jimmy or at least start doing what jimmy tells him.

I know exactly where he's coming from. I think he's just one of those guys who's serious about his craft and can't really abide frivolous motherfuckers.

I mean, we all know the story by now: homeless as a teen, juco, drafted w the last pick in rd 1, didn't play as a rookie. I know he coming into practice every day looking at a guy like wiggins and thinking, dude, you have WAY more talent than I could ever dream of having. if you had my desire and heart and work ethic, you'd literally be the best guard in the league. you'd be kobe fucking bryant. wtf are you doing? that shit's got to piss him off daily.

he's second team all nba. you gotta be kobe/chris paul level to get away with being a total and complete asshole like this. but that ranks pretty low on the list of nba sins.

>he's second team all nba. you gotta be kobe/chris paul level
>to get away with being a total and complete asshole like this.
>but that ranks pretty low on the list of nba sins.

And he's overcome more than both of those dudes.

Sorry

>I know he coming into practice every day looking at a
>guy like wiggins and thinking, dude, you have WAY more talent
>than I could ever dream of having. if you had my desire and
>heart and work ethic, you'd literally be the best guard in the
>league. you'd be kobe fucking bryant. wtf are you doing? that
>shit's got to piss him off daily.


I admit...Wiggs fooled me too. But dude has NO drive. None. And he could literally be the best G in the league if he had it in him.


He doesn't though.

>And he could literally be the best G in the league if he had
>it in him.
>
>
>He doesn't though.

FWIW, the reports say that Wigs was lighting it up in the practice too, but it wasn't enough to beat Buckets and the 3rd string. The same cannot be said about KAT

He's springy, can shoot, long, has defensive capabilities. If he worked harder on his handled, adding moves (he really only has a nice spin but it's hella predicatable) like Kobe added to his arsenal, his passing skills and tried harder (which would help his rebounding numbers, I think he could be right there with a player like Harden.

Maybe even better considering he's a better defender.

I assumed the whole time that Jimmy told Thibs months ago that he wanted out and Thibs refused to because he stubbornly thought it would blow over. But the "Jimmy was clear about his demands all summer" narrative hit a snag when Taj Gibson (who spent a good chunk of his summer working out with Jimmy) said he had no idea he wanted out. And then Jimmy confirmed it yesterday that he didn't actually ask for a trade back in July, he had just expressed some frustrations. Well no shit Thibs thought he could work through those (Thibs should still be fired and handled this horribly.)

But he hasn't been nearly as straightforward as his reputation suggests. And LOL at "why won't they be honest with who leaked the practice details," Jimmy knows exactly who put those out there and it's not anyone wearing a Wolves jersey.

Again, credit to his agent, he set up a full media blitz for his client going to practice to take control of the narrative. He's got Woj out there reviewing reports of a practice like A Star Is Born. Regardless of what happens, Team Jimmy owns the story from here on out.

Because GM side is short-sighted and focused on right now with no long term vision.

Coach side is trying not to get fired.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Might increase his shooting percentage from outside 5 feet.

legendary moment (not that he's a legend). I want to see a video of that practice more than I want to see 99 percent of NBA games.

... If he's this way now for the best coach he's ever played for what happens on a new team?

Don't trade him Minny and ride out the season so this fuckery can continue. KAT gotta throw hands or give him a menacing glare or something. I expect the same thing tomorrow.

He’s just trying to both stir shit up and put himself over as this Kobe, Jordan hyper competitive super passionate winner at the same time. He’s trying to get himself out of Minnesota and get as much money as possible, while trying to carefully position his image.

FOH with all this. I’m LMAO.

>He’s just trying to both stir shit up and put himself over
>as this Kobe, Jordan hyper competitive super passionate winner
>at the same time. He’s trying to get himself out of
>Minnesota and get as much money as possible, while trying to
>carefully position his image.

He's just not nearly as talented.

Dude taught himself, by sheer will, how to be an
excellent offensive player. The story about how
hard he worked to accomplish that is pretty legendar.

Guys like Jimmy and Ron Artest legitimately made themselves
All-Stars and borderline Hall of Famers from hard work and
intensity ALONE.

Artest, in his prime, was the best wing defender I've
ever seen. If dude didn't feel like he did a good job
in the first half of games, he'd cry and do pushups at
halftime, for crying out loud.

----------------------------



O_E: "Acts like an asshole and posts with imperial disdain"




"I ORBITs the solar system, listenin..."

(C)Keith Murray, "

>>He’s just trying to both stir shit up and put himself
>over
>>as this Kobe, Jordan hyper competitive super passionate
>winner
>>at the same time. He’s trying to get himself out of
>>Minnesota and get as much money as possible, while trying to
>>carefully position his image.
>
>He's just not nearly as talented.
>
>Dude taught himself, by sheer will, how to be an
>excellent offensive player. The story about how
>hard he worked to accomplish that is pretty legendar.
>
>Guys like Jimmy and Ron Artest legitimately made themselves
>All-Stars and borderline Hall of Famers from hard work and
>intensity ALONE.
>
>Artest, in his prime, was the best wing defender I've
>ever seen. If dude didn't feel like he did a good job
>in the first half of games, he'd cry and do pushups at
>halftime, for crying out loud.
>
>----------------------------
>
>
>
>O_E: "Acts like an asshole and posts with imperial disdain"
>
>
>
>
>"I ORBITs the solar system, listenin..."
>
>(C)Keith Murray, "

I meant he’s going real hard to make sure that’s the narrative here.

I’m not really buying the “it all just came out”. I think he went to practice fully intending for all that to happen, and then had that interview all ready. I can’t buy any of that as “real”. It’s a move and he’s trying to make himself look good. Which is fine, but I’m not going along if he’s trying to act like it was something else. He didn’t lose control because he was just so overcome with emotion.

>I meant he’s going real hard to make sure that’s the
>narrative here.
>
>I’m not really buying the “it all just came out”. I
>think he went to practice fully intending for all that to
>happen, and then had that interview all ready. I can’t buy
>any of that as “real”. It’s a move and he’s trying to
>make himself look good. Which is fine, but I’m not going
>along if he’s trying to act like it was something else. He
>didn’t lose control because he was just so overcome with
>emotion.


If thats true and the starters didnt at least throw some hard picks and elbows that resulted in some scuffles, then yea i really do question the dog in them

it would be to see KAT become Kevin Love in Minny 2.0.

And watch RBO defend that for years...Like he did Cuz in Sacramento.

But at least Cuz has some fight in him. KAT is apple sauce by comparison. lol

I admire jumping off those cliffs with players though. The Basa method is, they don't produce...BUSHES...if they redeem themselves, reclamation lol

RBO: https://tarnmoor.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/piclemming.gif

Literally had a fight with me about Brandon Knight's starting potential in 2018. Brandon Knight. Granted it was for the Suns, but still...even THAT was questionable. Then they traded his ass to be the backup he's fit to be...in 2018.

That's dedication. Salute sir!
https://static01.nyt.com/images/2009/10/31/opinion/01obama_ready/articleLarge.jpg

over Shaquille Harrison that’s on you.

But hey they got Ryan Anderson.... and oh the GM got fired.

>KAT is apple sauce by comparison. lol

https://www.basketball-reference.com/playoffs/2018-nba-western-conference-first-round-timberwolves-vs-rockets.html

Not sure I see where this is going.

Yet he's a "Max" player.

We shit on LeBron for playing below board against Dallas and letting jjbarea guard him but KAT gets a pass for 5 and 8 point games?

Apple sauce

that the Timberwolves cancelled their previously scheduled practice for today.

What a complete dumpster fire of a situation.

**edit**

Hopefully Butler finally gets moved today to remedy this situation.

from the Heat.

I can't imagine Houston is at all interested in him still.

Timberwolves All-Star Jimmy Butler called a players-only meeting today, airing his feelings toward situation and management, per league sources. Butler expressed to players he would compete with them, as signs pointing to him staying with the franchise into the regular season.

https://twitter.com/ShamsCharania/status/1050454958280204294

Butler just cant understand why Wiggins and KAT dont have the drive needed to be winners in the NBA... and hes a sociopath bc of this?

And they’re better now than he was then.

This was 100% Jimmy talking to Taj and Rose for three minutes and bouncing.

Former MU teammate of Jimmy's.

This was Jimmy and his agent skyping and calling it a player's only meeting.

https://twitter.com/GorguiDieng/status/1050486683945308162

This team will lose more games than Sacramento and Phoenix

we just fired our GM a week before the season started sir.

Dude's trying to set up a situation that will get him all the credit if they win and absolve him if they stink.

People are acting like he reinvented the wheel here.

talking to the media about KD is gone....

Getting some good plea cops out in case they dont win (he was checked out) and plea cops for if KD actually leaves and he resigns -- hes the Bay Area hero.

Point is -- everybody spins

You sure you're not thinking of the writer Marcus Thompson?

there's a report he wanted to renegotiate his deal for this year, which...what?


www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

then he sat, and they lost.

https://youtu.be/JckgAWUqlkc

screamin a on his scott layden shit.

hilarious.

HE TAKES THIRD STRINGERS. AND WAXES YOUR BEHIND. HOW IS THAT FUNNY.

he is correct

but they can't survive the grind. I imagine he sees them like:

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/oO0ngAsQ2gs/maxresdefault.jpg

Butler may be difficult, but I DEF can not knock his honesty he had with Rachel Nichols. Seems to me, he's a real dude imo.

the proposed Richardson/Fat Dion/protected first rounder for Butler swap. Contradicts the earlier talk from this week about how Taylor was overseeing everything and he was the one who killed it (the dealbreaker was Thibs trying to get more draft picks, even though he won't be around to use them.)

It's absolute malpractice to let Thibs have any control of this situation, sit his ass in time out until the trade is complete.

FOUR?????

4 1st round picks????

F-O-U-R????????

He gone. Send him away ASAP. If Thibs turns this down ship his ass out too.... Nah, I'm bugging keep the coach but give him a stern look or yell loudly within three feet.

I'd ask for one more player and take the deal.

Apparently he and Taylor have reached an agreement where Butler will still play hard while awaiting a trade. This will not last two weeks.

https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1055586462106820608

I'm sure Morey thinks it's better to mortgage the future to make this push than it is to wait for potential future talent. I can't blame him for thinking that... but goddamn, four *is* a lot.

You can’t trade all those picks if there are protections.

These types of deals never end well for teams but Houston has tried almost everything else. Not quite a desperation move, but they know cp3s and Melo’s timeline at least is limited

maybe if there are some conditions you dont but i dont know what conditions would keep this from making sense for minny.

maybe the first 2 firsts arent high picks but the last 2 definitely could be.

someone to take Dieng's contract.

https://twitter.com/ZachLowe_NBA/status/1055587310522298368

You don't turn down 4 firsts, ask the Celtics.

https://twitter.com/stevekylerNBA/status/1055832670524055553

Screamin A made a good point. If they are gonna give up that much, add Capela and holler at Pelicans to try to get AD instead.

Harden and Anthony Davis would make for a good tandem the build around for the somewhat long term, given that Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony will eventually leave the Rockets with the next two seasons.


The Pelicans are doing relatively well early on in the season, so I'm curious if they'd be interested in tearing the team down to try and slowly rebuild.

when you factor in Cousins, but Anthony Davis is the type of player worth mortgaging your future for. That's assuming of course he doesn't leave Houston in the coming years.

a jet?

Guess what, they're back in it!

http://amicohoops.net/nba-rumors-miami-heat-minnesota-timberwolves-jimmy-butler/

The Miami Heat have re-opened trade talks centered on Minnesota Timberwolves star swingman Jimmy Butler, according to a report from the Five Reasons Sports Network.

This news came one day after an ESPN report that said the Houston Rockets have included four first-round picks in their most recent Butler offer.

Butler requested a trade more than a month ago. He is said to prefer the Heat over all other potential destinations.

He can become a free agent at the end of the season, having turned down a contract extension from the Timberwolves over the summer.

Recent reports have suggested the Timberwolves are hesitant to trade Butler to the Rockets since they both compete in the Western Conference. That’s said to especially be the case with ultra-competitive president/coach Tom Thibodeau, who has tried to convince Butler to reconsider his trade request on multiple occasions.

Such would not be the case with the Heat.

Thibodeau has reportedly been removed from trade discussions, as Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor told the Minneapolis Star Tribune he has asked Thibodeau to focus on his coaching duties.

Taylor and Wolves general manager Scott Layden are handling the trade talks.

Butler, 29, is averaging 24.8 points, 5.3 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 3.8 steals in four appearances this season.

>Thibodeau has reportedly been removed from trade discussions,
>as Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor told the Minneapolis Star
>Tribune he has asked Thibodeau to focus on his coaching
>duties.
>
>Taylor and Wolves general manager Scott Layden are handling
>the trade talks.
>

i would expect thibs to have a fit when they complete a trade though.

>>Thibodeau has reportedly been removed from trade
>discussions,
>>as Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor told the Minneapolis Star
>>Tribune he has asked Thibodeau to focus on his coaching
>>duties.
>>
>>Taylor and Wolves general manager Scott Layden are handling
>>the trade talks.
>>
>
>i would expect thibs to have a fit when they complete a trade
>though.


Wow....At least we know something is going down now that Thibs is no longer at the trade table....

https://twitter.com/ShamsCharania/status/1057673096621146112

https://twitter.com/ShamsCharania/status/1057673222089515009

Golden State on Friday

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uT-6sroS-5o&pp=ygUYamVmZiB0ZWFndWUgamltbXkgYnV0bGVy

Provides some more insight into the infamous Timberwolves meltdown.

Hopefully this won't get removed from Youtube as I'm not sure if that is from that actual podcast hosts.

Props for Teague for being so self-deprecating and honest as he told the story.

*skatin' the rings of saturn*


..and miles to go before i sleep...

The part of the video where Teague is slowly realizing that Butler is talking trash about cooking him was also great.

Like I said, props to him for being humble and honest enough to tell that story, because part of it involves him getting embarrassed.