The Minnesota Timberwolves are apparently tired after fighting the storm that was Jimmy Butler’s return to practice for the club on Wednesday, so they’re talking a bit of a break just days before the start of the regular season.
A day after a fiery practice for the Timberwolves that featured an animated Butler calling out his teammates in practice and a pre-planned ESPN interview afterwards, the team will not be giving the star a chance to repeat the performance. The Athletic’s Jon Krawczynski reported on Thursday morning that the team would not hold practice or have media availability that day.
Timberwolves will not practice today. No media availability. Of course
— Jon Krawczynski (@JonKrawczynski) October 11, 2018
NBA teams all do this a bit differently, but they usually give the media some notice on when they’ll be allowed to talk to players and coaches after practice, or at least access a media work room to get ready. Some teams will send out emails or have private Twitter feeds only media members can follow, or even a text message situation where everyone on a list can get quick updates.
Beat writers live and die on these systems so they don’t miss anything, especially in a volatile situation like Butler’s, as the star wants to be traded by a Minnesota franchise that has a team president and head coach that doesn’t want to see him go and an owner who NBA teams feel is holding out for too much in return for Butler. Krawcynski’s reaction to the apparently canceling of a scheduled practice so close to the season really says a lot here.
Amazing. Truly amazing
— Jon Krawczynski (@JonKrawczynski) October 11, 2018
The All-Star who wants out just caused a scene in practice and then aired his grievances nationally. And the Timberwolves call off practice and have no availability to address it, to downplay it, to say anything at all.
— Jon Krawczynski (@JonKrawczynski) October 11, 2018
In case you think this is just a writer sensationalizing things for the sake of clicks, the Timberwolves have their final preseason game on Friday against the Bucks. The season begins in less than a week, on October 17th against the San Antonio Spurs. To say that time is short, especially for a team that just got a significant player back into the fold and expect him to stick around a while.
Thibs just lamented on Friday how the preseason schedule had allowed little practice time for a team in desperate need of it. They practiced twice this week in four days.
— Jon Krawczynski (@JonKrawczynski) October 11, 2018
Sacrificing one practice to avoid another media frenzy and perhaps get more time to get a deal done, however, does make sense if Butler has finally forced Minnesota’s hand. All the leverage they thought they could get against other teams is gone now, so what else is left for them to do?
