The Timberwolves Asking Price For Jimmy Butler Reportedly Went Up After His First Practice


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Jimmy Butler will be in the Timberwolves lineup on Wednesday night when they open the season against the Spurs in San Antonio despite everything that’s gone on over the past month.

If you’ve somehow missed it, the short version is Butler requested a trade, Tom Thibodeau played hardball with other teams, the Heat and Wolves got close on a deal before Minnesota balked, Butler returned to practice and went after everyone, did a sitdown with ESPN that night and continued to fan the flames, and somehow he’s still not traded and the two sides are in agreement to play nice until a deal gets done. Yes, all of that is still the short version.

So, with the Timberwolves promising to continue working diligently to find a trade, one would assume that wouldn’t mean asking for more from potential suitors. One would be wrong to think that, because this is the dumbest timeline and somehow Butler’s practice tirade made the asking price go up in Minnesota, as ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski explained on The Jump to the dismay of Rachel Nichols.

“This is exactly what Tom Thibodeau wanted, which was him in the lineup on opening night,” Wojnarowski said. “This is why, the day Jimmy came back and practiced, Thibs won. He waited out his owner. He waited out Jimmy, and got him back on the court. That’s why, listen, teams that talked to Minnesota after his first practice, literally the day after his first practice, Minnesota was asking for more then than they were before the day. Which tells you this, Minnesota’s not trading him. They’re asking for packages they know teams aren’t going to agree to.

“Now at some point that will have to end as we get closer to the February trade deadline if they’re going to trade him,” Wojnarowski continued. “I think you’ll see a lot of teams circle back who’ve been involved in this before when they feel like Minnesota is ready to get realistic. But Tom Thibodeau’s got what he wants. He’s got him on the floor. He knows there was no trade he could make that could help his team more, despite all the dysfunction, than keeping Jimmy Butler here.”

It’s truly astounding and at this point all signs point to Butler not only being on the Wolves to start the season, but very possibly into 2019. Now, the question remains whether Butler will hold up his end of the apparent agreement with Glen Taylor that he’ll be a good teammate and not have similar outbursts to his first practice if he believes the Wolves aren’t doing their part to legitimately try to deal him. That’s when this will get interesting again.

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