Tom Thibodeau is telling teams that Jimmy Butler won’t be traded away from the Minnesota Timberwolves. But that’s not what the people paying him to run the team are telling the rest of the league.
Butler officially asked for a trade earlier this week, though there’s considerable talk that this was not the first time he’s told Timberwolves brass that the end for him in Minnesota was near. The problem is that teams have been told Butler is not on the market, though the guard has given the Timberwolves a list of teams and Minnesota has gotten interest from others in the league.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported Friday night that Timberwolves ownership and team president Tom Thibodeau are at direct odds about what to do with Butler, who has a year left on his contract but met with team officials earlier in the week to discuss his future with the club. That talk ended with Butler requesting a trade, but Thobideau, who is also the team’s head coach, doesn’t want to make a move like that so close to the start of training camp.
He seems to be one of the few people in Minnesota who feels this way, though, as Wojnarowski reported Friday that Timberwolves ownership is telling other teams that Butler is on the market.
As the Minnesota Timberwolves front office tells inquiring rivals that the franchise has no plans to trade All-Star forward Jimmy Butler, owner Glen Taylor had a different message for owners and executives at the NBA’s Board of Governors meetings: Butler is available, and prospective suitors should contact Taylor himself should they struggle to make progress with GM Scott Layden, sources told ESPN.
Wojnarowski reported a source said it’s basically a “matter of when” Butler goes, rather than if he is traded at all.
“The owner’s trading him,” one Board of Governors attendee told ESPN on Friday. “That was made clear. It’s just a matter of when.”
“He basically said, ‘If you don’t get anywhere with [Layden], and you’ve got something good, bring it to me,” another high-ranking league official told ESPN.
That puts serious doubt into whether Thibodeau is long for the Timberwolves, too, as ownership is essentually stepping in and doing his job for him while actively working against his wishes as team president. If Butler does go, it would be interesting to see if Thibodeau is part of negotiations to maximize return for him from another team, or if he somehow walks out the door before the player he acquired last summer.
