The Timberwolves are showing “no inclination” to move on the Rockets‘ latest trade offer for Jimmy Butler, reports Shams Charania in a video for Stadium.
Charania confirms that Houston’s offer features four first-round picks, along with a pair of injured players — Brandon Knight and Marquese Chriss. As I noted earlier today when I broke down the details of a potential Rockets offer, Knight and Chriss will become eligible to be traded in a package next Wednesday.
Even when they eventually get healthy, Knight and Chriss aren’t the sort of players who will come close to approximating Butler’s impact for the Timberwolves, so – as Charania suggests – there’s little incentive for Minnesota to jump on that offer right away. According to Charania, teams around the NBA expect the Wolves to continue to survey the market, perhaps waiting for clubs like the Heat or even the Sixers to get involved again.
The appeal of that Rockets offer to the Wolves may ultimately come down to who is making the final decision and what their top priorities are. We know that president of basketball operations Tom Thibodeau and GM Scott Layden have been seeking a package that features some combination of veteran talent, young prospects, and cap relief, so a pick-heavy offer may not do the trick.
The Spurs’ trade of Kawhi Leonard over the summer could be a good reference point for what the Wolves want for Butler. San Antonio sought an impact player who could help the club right away and ultimately accepted Toronto’s DeMar DeRozan-centric offer instead of, say, a Celtics offer loaded with draft picks. Of course, everyone with the Spurs seemed to be on the same page in that scenario — it’s not clear if that’s the case in Minnesota, where owner Glen Taylor may have different priorities than Thibodeau and Layden.
It’s also worth noting that, as the Spurs did with Leonard, the Wolves may prefer to send Butler to the Eastern Conference. Marc Stein of The New York Times has reported multiple times that Minnesota isn’t eager to help the Rockets create another Western Conference super-team.
Wolves worried about another WC super team? How about worry about building your own team. At this rate those super teams will be retired before you build a winner
agree plus he’s a free agent at the end of the year. he could just go there anyway. better the wolves get something to “help” Houston than get nothing and see Houston potentially get Butler anyway.
but when have we seen Mini do anything right.
They can’t sign Butler. They can only trade for him and then resign him.
That’s exactly what he said
No, it isn’t. He said the rockets can just sign him next year, but they most certainly cannot. The only way they can make it work cap-wise is to trade for him now and then resign him.
The best part about this is that the Rockets are so desperate to beat the Warriors that they are willing to mortgage the future for a guy who wouldn’t even crack the Warriors starting lineup.
The Rockets only hope is Ariza agreeing to a buy-out by the trade deadline when Phoenix is out of playoff contention and signing him to give themselves a shot at getting out of the West.
I’ll keep saying it, Philly could make the best offer of Fultz,Covington, and a pick. Then again I’m worried about Fultz mentally and if he could ever bloom in Minnesota but for Philly it’s a home-run and likely gets them out of the East.
I don’t think that would get them out of the East… but I like your idea of them pushing for that trade. Seems smart to me, and should give them a great shot at resigning Butler.
The longer they hold on to Fultz, the more his value is going to drop. Got to think someone might still believe in him, but that was a huuuuuuge mistake by Colangelo – not only in picking Fultz 1st overall, but in trading additional assets to do so instead of just picking him at 3.
Philly could offer it, then Minny could hang up.
No way that trade happens!
A serious team would not take Fultz for free. And Minny already has forwards.
I’ve had it with this organization. This is beyond ridiculous. Taylor is officially the worst owner in the league. “Holding out hope for a better offer”. IN WHAT WORLD DOES SOMEONE OFFER ANYTHING CLOSE TO THIS?!?!
Rockets 1st round pick has the same value as the suns second round pick. Not as great as it’s being advertised as.
The first couple maybe, but the last two are going to be hugely valuable. They’re going all in, will end up with a huge cap crunch and little supplemental talent – that’s ripe for being a bad team in 5 years.
The Wolves are insane at this point – their asset is disgruntled, has less than a year on his contract, and they’re in a year where they aren’t significantly competing. Take the four (!!!) first rounders and run.
If you are the Wolves… you take the first two of those 1sts and use them to dump Dieng. Keep the remaining 2.
Even with the Heat jumping back in… Taylor needs to take control for the health of the franchise. I don’t see a lot better coming out of a potential rental player.
“This is insanity!” – sane people
“This. Is. Minnesota!” – Taylor
*Taylor kicks Timberwolves fans into giant pit of despair*
How can you accept a trade of 4 first round picks for a guy who will be a free agent at the end of this year or next♂️
How can you NOT accept?
That’s what I meant to say haha
It’s BS. If it were 4 certain 1st round picks, Minny does the deal.
This is like 2015 draft when Celtics leaked that they were making “Godfather” offers for a top 10 pick that included 5-6 picks, and no other details. After the draft, the GMs with top picks all indicated the offers were garbage.
The only detail of the “offer” that leaks out is that there are 4 first round picks (makes for a great headline). Might work for both Hou and Minn to put this out there. But Morey wouldn’t trade his 2018 pick unprotected to the Clippers for CP3 last year even though they won over 60 games the prior year and were getting an All Star. Now, he’s going to trade unprotected ones 5 and 7 years out? If that’s the case, I think the deal would be done.
Thibbs probably doesn’t care about those first round picks though. He wants to get to the playoffs and he can’t get there without Butler.
Glen Taylor would have force his hand to make this trade imo
I said it originally, I dont believe the reported offers for either the Heat or Rockets. If they were real offers, those deals would have been made by their owner
Probably not, but if they were unprotected (the last two in particular), I’m sure he could use them to get players he would like.
Taylor is actually mucking this up by getting involved in the passive-aggressive way he has been from the beginning. Either do the deal without the basketball people or let them do their job, with him giving instructions and signing off. What’s going on doesn’t really work.