Jimmy Butler’s relationship with the Minnesota Timberwolves can best be described as complicated. Despite the fact that he wants a trade and could leave the team at the end of the season if he so chooses, signs are apparently pointing to Butler playing with the Timberwolves before next summer rolls around.
One person who can relate to this sort of awkward situation is Paul George, who once told a team he wanted out before getting shipped somewhere other than where he wanted to go. George told the Indiana Pacers he planned on leaving the team when his free agency rolled around in the summer of 2018, with Los Angeles apparently at the top of his potential destination list. Indiana instead sought out the best possible deal and traded him to the Oklahoma City Thunder, where he played one year and is set to play for the foreseeable future.
Basically, George understands where Butler is coming from, and on Friday afternoon, he spoke about the conversations he’s had with Butler in recent days.
Paul George says he’s talked to Jimmy Butler about what’s going on in Minnesota: “Jimmy has a very valid point. I’m on Jimmy’s side.” pic.twitter.com/TJGWBepXcQ
— Royce Young (@royceyoung) October 12, 2018
“Jimmy has a very valid point,” George said. “I’m on Jimmy’s side. It’s not coming from a place where he’s going against an organization, Jimmy’s a guy, his whole career, has made it to the league off work, off him having to grind and scratch and claw and get to where he’s at. Then he sees the potential that he has around him, and you know, he just wants guys to match that, because if guys are skilled and have that ‘it’ like [Karl-Anthony Towns] has, Andrew Wiggins has, they have that ‘it’ that a lot of guys don’t have. Now they just have to match it with what Jimmy’s bringing to the table.
“I’m all for what Jimmy is trying to do over there,” George continued. “I talked to Jimmy a little bit on that, and it’s not coming from a bad place. Jimmy’s not going against an organization, he wants the best for that organization and he’s trying to bring everything for that organization to where that organization wants to get to.”
Butler has essentially said he wants to see guys like Towns and Wiggins play up to their natural abilities, both to the media and, apparently, to one of his friends in George. All that remains to be seen now is whether Butler will get this chance, or if the Timberwolves will end up sending him elsewhere.
