The Minnesota Timberwolves reportedly have a remarkably high asking price in a trade for Jimmy Butler. Some believe it’s because Tom Thibodeau doesn’t actually want to deal the All-Star guard and is purposely being unreasonable in negotiations, even if no one would blame Minnesota if they want to get something substantial back in exchange for Butler.
There was a report earlier in the day that the asking price for one team believed to be interested in a move for Butler, the Philadelphia 76ers, was too high, and as a result, the Sixers and Wolves never got past preliminary discussions. Thanks to a report by Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer, well, Minnesota’s asking price was too high and I cannot blame Philly for not wanting to work with them.
O’Connor appeared on The Bill Simmons Podcast and mentioned that Timberwolves actually asked for reigning Rookie of the Year Ben Simmons in a swap for Butler.
“One of the things that I’ve heard from a handful of sources is that—with the Sixers for example—the initial offer that they made, the counter-offer was like, ‘We need Ben Simmons in a deal,'” O’Connor said, per Bleacher Report.
You can’t blame Minnesota for trying to get a player of Simmons’ caliber back, but you also can’t really blame Philly for pulling the plug on talks once they realized this was going to be the Timberwolves’ asking price. This isn’t the first time this scenario has popped up for the Sixers, as Zach Lowe of ESPN reported the San Antonio Spurs wanted Simmons (or Joel Embiid) in a deal for Kawhi Leonard. With how much Philadelphia has invested in those players, that was never going to happen, and it makes sense they’d have a similar aversion to trying to work something out with Minnesota if this is where the Timberwolves drew the line in the sand.
