It’s been more than a week since Jimmy Butler reportedly submitted his trade request to the Minnesota Timberwolves, and in that time, there has purportedly been a power struggle regarding whether he’ll be moved. While owner Glen Taylor wants to make a deal soon, head coach and president Tom Thibodeau is not as eager to get rid of his star guard.
Thibodeau has gone as far as to try and convince Butler to join the team for training camp several days after his request was submitted, which apparently fell on deaf ears. Now, Thibodeau is listening to offers on Butler, but there’s just one problem: Some teams think he’s being unreasonable on purpose.
According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, the Wolves are steadfast in their desire to get “quality veterans, top prospects, future assets and salary-cap relief,” which is quite the asking price for most players, especially one who will become a free agent next summer in all likelihood. Additionally, Wojnarowski went onto report that some teams think Thibodeau, in an attempt to keep Butler in Minnesota, is asking for packages that no team would accept.
“Teams pursuing Butler remain skeptical of Thibodeau’s desire to execute a trade, believing that he’s making counterproposals that Thibodeau knows teams will never accept,” Wojnarowski wrote. Some teams are sympathetic to Thibodeau’s situation and get why he wants to get a lot back, though, with Wojnarowski pointing out that he was “hired with a mandate to win.”
If someone wants to defend Thibodeau, it would probably be by pointing out that he’s eight days into this trade request being a formal thing and that he’s looking at the entire market, gauging what Butler’s value is, and will eventually start lowering the bar little by little. However, it’s kind of hard to give him the full benefit of the doubt knowing that he’s tried to convince Butler to stay in Minnesota. There is one foolproof way to prove that this is all being done in good faith, though, and that’s trading Butler and letting both sides move on as soon as possible.
