The Minnesota Timberwolves could have had a quiet summer after a successful season, instead it was pulverized by Jimmy Butler’s trade wish. Even after the contract extension of Karl-Anthony Towns is still completely open how Tom Thibodeau and his team will continue.
Actually, the Wolves would have had a relatively quiet summer. After reaching the playoffs in the previous season, the team was strengthened selectively: Josh Okogie (No. 20) and Keita Bates-Diop (No. 48) came in draft, both of whom had already been signed. In the Free Agency then several smaller deals were threaded.
First Derrick Rose was considered the minimum (1 year, 2.4 million), then the Wolves brought Anthony Tolliver from Detroit (1 year, 5.75 million), the non-contractual James Nunnally (2 years, 2.9 million) from overseas and Luol Deng (1 year, 2.4 million) after he was bought out of his contract by the Lakers.
Meanwhile Nemanja Bjelica (Sacramento), Cole Aldrich (fired) and Jamal Crawford (player option not drawn) left the team, while Minnesota and young star Karl-Anthony Towns agreed on a premature Supermax extension (5 years, $190 million) on September 23. And then there was the case of Jimmy Butler.
After there had been speculations about a certain dissatisfaction throughout the summer, the All-Star made it official shortly before the Towns extension in a meeting with Tom Thibodeau: Butler demanded a trade. However, even after almost three weeks, such a development has still not taken place.
Actually, the schedule for the Wolves was relatively clear: Extend with Towns, extend early with Butler, and build on the first playoff participation since 2004. The offer that Minnesota Butler made was not enough for him (4 years, 110 million) and Thibodeau’s alternative plan to convince him to stay with another successful season went up in flames because of his trade demand.
The Wolves have been in a kind of limbo for several weeks now and the exit is still completely unclear. Rival teams have already speculated via The Athletic and ESPN that Thibodeau has no interest at all in a trade because his counterclaims are sometimes so absurd. Also between Thibs and Wolves owner Glen Taylor there are apparent discrepancies.
The only thing that seems clear now is that Butler will no longer be with the Wolves in the summer of 2019. It is still possible, however, that he will open the season for Minnesota: no productive talks are currently underway with Miami or Houston (or other interested parties), and internally no one assumes that Butler will actually forfeit any match bonuses, even if he has recently stayed away from the team.
A return of Butler, especially next to Towns and Andrew Wiggins, who are supposed to be the reasons for his trade wish, would be extremely spicy and probably not desirable. Of course, rival teams also know this and therefore hold back with really good offers.
The clock is ticking until the Wolves open their season at the Spurs on October 18.
Defensively, the Wolves were a disaster last season, and the team was almost dangerously dependent on Butler, as was shown during his 23 missed games in which Minnesota did not look like a play-off team. As long as Butler stays away from the team and no value like Miamis Josh Richardson takes his place, the Wolves are extremely defensive weak on the wing.
To a large extent this has to do with the two young stars. Towns and Wiggins have both shown defensive potential, but Wiggins seems to have lost all interest in the game and took a step backwards last season. This will have to change, otherwise Minnesota could be even worse in the defensive rating than last season (27th place: 111.1).
The showpiece of the last season was the Offense (4th place: 113.4), although it did not look magnificent: With Bully-Ball and an old-fashioned throw distribution (Minnesota took the least three and most two) the Wolves took advantage of the undoubtedly great talent of their single players.
The limitations of this offense were evident in the playoffs – and it was already frustrating during the season that Towns, by far the most effective offensive player of his team, was only ranked 5th internally at the usage rate. Even if there hadn’t been a secondary war theatre with Butler, this would have had to change at all costs.
After Wiggins, the Wolves have now also guaranteed Towns the maximum salary ahead of time and of course hope that they won’t regret it again a year later. And rightly so: Towns is currently defensively lacking concentration and is forced to increase his concentration here, but you can hardly find a greater offensive talent than him in the NBA.
The last season was called stagnation for him at times. It was often overlooked that he scratched at the 50/40/90 club (54.5 percent FG, 42.1 percent 3FG, 85.8 percent FT) and played 21.3 points and 12.3 rebounds. Towns is 22 years old! Such players don’t grow on trees and don’t come to Minnesota in the Free Agency.
So it was right that the Wolves should hold him at all costs. Towns has what it takes to become a real franchise player. Now Minnesota must hope that KAT takes the doubts about his Toughness and the whole escapade with Butler personally.
Without being present at the negotiations, it’s hard to make Thibodeau and General Manager Scott Layden all too big accusations about the butler situation, even if the reports don’t shed a good light on both. However, should they still get a good package in the next few days, this tough negotiation tactic was perhaps even right. In conclusion, this cannot be judged before the trade takes place – if that happens at all.
What the Wolves have to be accused of, however, is that they have waited far too long to take a serious look at the situation. During the last season it crackled, after the play-off Butler didn’t even fly home in a team plane, but went to Los Angeles on his own. Throughout the summer rumours followed that Butler was wooling away and no longer wanted the Wolves. Who do you think launched these rumors?
It was negligent to ignore these rumors for so long and to rely on the “charm” of Thibs in order to smooth these waves after all. If the clarifying discussion had been pushed through in July and not at the end of September, the Wolves might now be in a completely different situation. Nevertheless: As long as the topic Butler was not clarified, also the Offseason is not to be evaluated finally.
The grade: Not (yet) to be graded