Jimmy Butler will play for the Timberwolves in their regular season opener on Wednesday in San Antonio barring an unforeseen change to now dormant trade talks about the star guard.
Butler rejoined the team briefly for a raucous Wednesday practice, which he followed up with quite the interesting sit-down interview with ESPN’s Rachel Nichols. A day later, Minnesota canceled practice and there was plenty of to-do over a players only meeting that may or may not have happened, and then Butler did not travel with the team for their final preseason game in Milwaukee on Friday, in which the Wolves got shelled and insisted afterwards it wasn’t due to the distraction of the week with Butler.
After all that, Butler was back with the Wolves on Sunday for practice and things have apparently calmed down since Wednesday. Tom Thibodeau said he expects Butler to play Wednesday, and Butler addressed the potential awkwardness of getting booed for Friday’s home opener, indicating that all parties seem to believe he’ll be around for some time now.
On Sunday night, The Athletic’s Jon Krawczynski offered up a new column detailing Sunday’s goings on in Minnesota, including a note that owner Glen Taylor made a rare visit to practice in order to have a meeting with Butler to discuss how everyone should proceed going forward. The gist of the meeting, per Krawczynski, is that Taylor reassured Butler they would continue seeking out a trade in good faith, and in the meantime Butler would go about his business as a professional while with the Wolves.
It seems like a reasonable solution, but the question remains why this couldn’t have been solved before Wednesday in this manner to avoid the circus that was practice outbursts leaking almost immediately and Butler’s interview in which he didn’t exactly hold back on the organization. There’s no doubt the Wolves are a better team with Butler — all you need to do is look at last year’s record with and without Butler to see that — but how long can they keep him around to help on the floor and what damage has been done internally, particularly to Karl-Anthony Towns’ reputation in the locker room as he’ll be expected to be the leader once Butler is eventually dealt.
For now, though, it seems like things have been smoothed over enough for them to proceed without too much more drama, but if things get off to a rocky start for the Wolves, expect chatter to pick up once again.
