By Reid Urban
Timberwolves guard Jimmy Butler could be out of Minnesota sooner than expected.
The All-Star has requested a trade, according to The Athletic. This comes just one year after Minnesota traded Zach LaVine, Kris Dunn, and a draft pick that became Lauri Markkanen, to the Chicago Bulls, to get the star guard. Now, it seems that the relationship between head coach and president Tom Thibodeau and star Karl-Anthony Towns has gone downhill with no hopes of repairing it.
Butler had initially tried to set up a meeting with Thibodeau to get this straightened out, but with the latest news, it seems either the meeting didn’t go so well or there was no meeting at all.
Until Butler showed up last season, the Timberwolves hadn’t made the playoffs since the Kevin Garnett years. Last season, they went out early in the first round to the Houston Rockets. Now, it looks like Butler will pack up his bags and try to go elsewhere.
The three teams that Butler would look to be traded too are the Brooklyn Nets, LA Clippers, and New York Knicks. All of these teams have the salary cap capacity to bring Butler aboard, though it remains to be seen if Thibodeau and the Wolves will agree to deal him to any of those teams.
The Wolves would certainly like to keep him onboard for one more season and see if they can make it farther this time around. However, based on what we know so far and his pending free agency after this season, the Wolves would like to get something in return instead of just letting him walk when that time comes.
