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Jimmy Butler Talks Trade Request, Minutes Restriction, Negativity

November 10th, 2018 at 9:00am CST by marksuleymanov

The Timberwolves are fresh off a 0-5 road trip, which dropped their season record to 4-9. The franchise seems to be in disarray as its top players are either struggling or embroiled in trade rumors. That starts and ends with Jimmy Butler.

Nearly two months since Butler’s trade request went public, he continues to suit up for a struggling Minnesota team that occupies 13th place in the Western Conference. Whether it’s the Heat, Clippers or Rockets, Butler has yet to be dealt despite the reported trade talks. At this juncture, he is a polarizing figure — playing when he wants and how he wants — for a struggling team.

In a wide-ranging, candid interview with Sam Amick of The Athletic (subscription required), Butler addressed the team’s recent struggles, his trade request,  reports of his personal minutes restrictions and more.

You can check out some of the interview’s highlights below.

On hating to lose:

“I absolutely hate, hate to f*****g lose, and the way that we go about things sometimes isn’t the right way, myself included, and a lot of other people as well. I just think that, man, whenever you win, everything takes care of itself. But we’ve got to figure out a way to do that, man. No matter what, all I want to do is win. I don’t care what anybody says, any media outlet, anybody says as a person, the one thing they can’t say is that I don’t want to win.”

On whether he’s focused on being traded:

“Like I said, I don’t focus on it. I really don’t. If it happens, if something happens, something happens. If it don’t, I’ve still got to go out there and prove that I can hang with the best of them. That’s what I do every time I take the floor. I dap somebody up, and it’s like, ‘Yo, let’s battle tonight.'”

On whether or not negative backlash impacts him:

“Hell no. For what? I know who I am. These guys know who I am. If you know me, then you know the truth. If you don’t, then you write something for people to read. That’s why I laugh at everything that somebody tells me, ‘Did you read this? Did you read that?’ No, I don’t read it. Why don’t I read it? I don’t even have the time to read it, but if I did I wouldn’t because if you didn’t talk to me to write something, you’re just making stuff up. You’re going by what you think, what you’re assuming. I leave it at that. Read it. Believe what you want. But at the end of the day, if you’ve got a real question then just come up and ask me and see who I am as a person.”

On if he agreed to play a certain amount of minutes:

“Once again, nobody talked to me about nothing. That’s just stuff that’s being written. I haven’t talked about minutes with nobody. I just go out there and I just play. I get lost in the game, and I want to win, and I don’t even realize that it turns into 41. I wouldn’t realize if it was 48 because I’m just out there and I’m competing.”

On his prior comments that he shouldn’t have to play excessive minutes:

“Yeah, we’ve got f*****g guys who can play. We’ve got to instill confidence in everybody. I think my confidence is high enough. I want all my guys to be successful, man. I want all these guys to play. Is that a convo (with Thibodeau) that I’ve got to have? Yeah, and then everybody wants to talk about how the m**********r’s not healthy [he said of himself]. Well G**damn, we’re playing 41, 43, 44 (minutes per game), it takes a toll on top of all the work that I do that don’t nobody even see. We’ll fix it. We’ll do something. We’ll talk.”

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Wolves Plan To Keep Occasionally Resting Butler

November 9th, 2018 at 1:45pm CST by Luke Adams

Jimmy Butler is expected to play for the Timberwolves tonight in Sacramento, but the team will continue to mix in occasional games of “scheduled rest” for the All-NBA swingman going forward as part of a jointly agreed-upon plan, league sources tell Marc Stein of The New York Times (Twitter link).

When Butler sat out last Wednesday’s game against Utah, reports indicated that it was related to his push for a trade. However, the Timberwolves cited “general soreness” and “precautionary rest” to explain his absence for that contest, as well as Sunday’s game in Portland, denying that had anything to do with his trade request.

Sources tell Stein (Twitter link) that the Timberwolves and Butler initially agreed to establish a “loose limit” of about 32 minutes per game coming into the season for the 29-year-old. With his minutes limited to some extent, Butler would get a chance to ease back in after missing training camp and the Wolves could minimize his injury risk as they sought a trade.

However, Butler has played at least 35 minutes in seven of his nine games so far, including 43 against the Lakers on Wednesday. With the competitive Butler and head coach Tom Thibodeau – who has historically given heavy minutes to his starters – apparently having trouble sticking to that initial plan, the rest games will provide the team another way to attempt to minimize Butler’s injury risk, Stein explains (Twitter link).

It’s not clear if the games Butler misses will follow any specific pattern. It’s safe to assume that back-to-backs are worth watching, but Minnesota will play on consecutive nights only once before December 30 — the Wolves visit Brooklyn on November 23 and host the Bulls on November 24.

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NBA Super-Max Candidates To Watch In 2018/19

November 9th, 2018 at 12:05pm CST by Luke Adams

The Designated Veteran Extension, as we explain our glossary entry on the subject, is a relatively new addition to the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. It allows players with 7-9 years of experience, who would normally qualify for a maximum starting salary of 30% of the cap, to qualify for a “super-max” contract that starts at 35% of the cap, a level normally reserved players with 10+ years of experience.

A player who has seven or eight years of NBA service with one or two years left on his contract becomes eligible for a Designated Veteran Extension if he meets the required performance criteria and hasn’t been traded since his first four years in the league. A Designated Veteran contract can also be signed by a player who is technically a free agent if he has eight or nine years of service and meets the required criteria.

The performance criteria is as follows (only one of the following must be true):

  • The player was named to an All-NBA team in the most recent season, or in two of the last three seasons.
  • The player was named the NBA MVP in any of the three most recent seasons.
  • The player was named the NBA Defensive Player of the Year in the most recent season, or in two of the last three seasons.

With those criteria in mind, it’s worth keeping an eye on several players who could qualify for a super-max veteran contract with their play this season. Let’s dive in and examine a few of those guys…

Players who already qualify for a super-max contract:

Davis can’t yet sign a Designated Veteran Extension, but his All-NBA appearances over the last two seasons have ensured that he’ll qualify, even if he somehow doesn’t earn another All-NBA nod in 2018/19.

As of next July, the Pelicans will be able to offer Davis a contract extension that tacks an additional five years onto his $27.09MM salary for 2019/20. Based on the NBA’s latest cap projection for 2020/21 ($118MM), that five-year extension would be worth a staggering $239.54MM.

Players who could qualify for a super-max contract by meeting the criteria in 2018/19:

Technically, any player who earns an All-NBA spot in 2018/19 and meets the contract criteria can qualify for a super-max, but the players listed above are probably the only legitimately viable candidates. And even in this group, guys like Beal and Drummond are a real stretch — if they were to improbably make an All-NBA team, their clubs still probably wouldn’t put Designated Veteran Extension offers on the table, since they’re not bona fide superstars.

Thompson and Walker will both be unrestricted free agents in 2019, so if they meet the DVE criteria, they’d be eligible for five-year contracts with their respective teams worth up to a projected $221.27MM. Lillard and Green are still under contract for at least one more year beyond this season, but they’d qualify for super-max extensions if they meet the criteria — Lillard could get an extra four years, while Green could get five.

A team can only give Designated Veteran Extensions to two players, so the Warriors wouldn’t be able to offer both Thompson and Green super-max contracts, since Stephen Curry already has one. On the plus side, Kevin Durant won’t figure into this equation for Golden State, since he has 10+ years of experience. A deal starting at 35% of the cap for Durant wouldn’t count toward the Dubs’ super-max limit.

Finally, while Antetokounmpo can qualify for a super-max by earning All-NBA honors this season, he wouldn’t actually be able to sign such a deal until 2020, since he’ll only have six years of experience at the end of the 2018/19 campaign. Essentially, he’d be in the same spot that Anthony Davis is in now.

Players who can no longer qualify for a super-max contract because they were traded:

Butler, Irving, and Leonard are probably more worthy of a super-max investment than most of the players in the above group, but they no longer qualify because they were traded while on their second contracts — Butler from the Bulls, Irving from the Cavaliers, and Leonard from the Spurs. They’ll need to reach 10 years of NBA experience before qualifying for a starting salary worth up to 35% of the cap.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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NBA Trade Candidate Watch: Northwest Division

November 8th, 2018 at 3:10pm CST by Luke Adams

Over the course of the 2018/19 NBA season, up until February’s trade deadline, we’re keeping an eye on potential trade candidates from around the NBA, monitoring their value and exploring the likelihood that they’ll be moved. Each of these looks at possible trade candidates focuses on a specific division, as we zero in on three players from that division.

Entering the 2018/19 season, all five Northwest teams were projected to finish above .500. That scenario would create a dearth of sellers in the division, but that doesn’t mean there are no trade candidates to be found. In fact, the NBA’s most notable current trade candidate, one who has dominated headlines since mid-September, plays in the Northwest.

Here’s our early-season look at a few possible trade candidates from the Northwest…

Jimmy Butler, G/F
Minnesota Timberwolves
$20.45MM cap hit; $19.84MM player option for 2019/20

Since Butler’s trade request went public on September 19, our archive of Butler-related rumors and news items features a staggering 74 additional stories.

The saga has taken a number of twists and turns along the way, and we don’t need to belabor it in this space. Suffice it to say, Butler is very much available and at this point, it seems like just a matter of when – not if – the Timberwolves will move him.

While the Wolves could drag out the process to the trade deadline, Michael Rand of The Star Tribune offers five reasons why it would make sense for Minnesota to find a deal right now. When the club gets serious about moving its All-NBA swingman, the Heat, Rockets, Sixers, and Clippers are among the likeliest trade partners, though a dark horse suitor could always emerge.

Derrick Favors, F/C
Utah Jazz
$16.9MM cap hit; non-guaranteed $16.9MM salary for 2019/20

The Jazz have insisted for years that the Favors/Rudy Gobert frontcourt pairing can work, and at times it has. But Favors is a better fit at center than power forward, and Utah is a better team with a smaller power forward alongside Gobert — so far this season, the four-man duo of Gobert, Ricky Rubio, Donovan Mitchell, and Joe Ingles has a +18.6 net rating with Jae Crowder filling out the lineup, compared to a -7.5 rating with Favors in that last spot.

Sean Deveney of The Sporting News recently wrote that few people around the NBA expects Favors to remain in Utah in 2019/20, when his $16.9MM salary is non-guaranteed. Deveney suggested that if the Jazz could move Favors for a more versatile forward, an in-season trade would be a possibility.

It won’t be easy to find a forward who would improve the Jazz and whose 2018/19 salary is similar to Favors’, without any guaranteed 2019/20 money. DeMarre Carroll, who has a $15.4MM expiring deal, could be one option, but the Nets wouldn’t have much need for Favors.

Malik Beasley, G/F
Denver Nuggets
$1.77MM cap hit; guaranteed $2.73MM salary for 2019/20

Beasley hasn’t been the subject of any trade rumors this season and there’s no indication that Denver wants to move him, so this is merely speculation on my part. However, if and when Will Barton and Isaiah Thomas get healthy, there likely won’t be enough minutes to go around in the backcourt and on the wing for the Nuggets, so someone like Beasley or Torrey Craig could be the odd man out.

If the Nuggets, who currently rank 28th in the NBA in three-point percentage, go shopping for outside shooting help at the deadline, they have three sizeable trade exceptions they could use to acquire a player without sending out any salary, but they’re only about $7.5MM shy of the luxury tax threshold. In certain trade scenarios, they might want to move a small salary like Beasley’s or Craig’s in order to avoid the tax.

Here’s one hypothetical scenario involving a popular trade candidate: If the Nuggets were to send a draft pick to Cleveland for Kyle Korver, they could use one of their trade exceptions to land him, but his $7.56MM salary would nudge the team slightly over the tax line. Attaching Beasley or Craig to that draft pick would improve the package for the Cavs and allow Denver to stay under the tax.

Previously:

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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Jimmy Butler Expected To Play Vs. Lakers

November 7th, 2018 at 2:33pm CST by Luke Adams
  • Jimmy Butler, the subject of ongoing trade rumors and speculation, “should be a go” for the Timberwolves tonight against the Lakers, head coach Tom Thibodeau said today (Twitter link via ESPN’s Brian Windhorst). Butler has missed two of Minnesota’s last four games due to “general soreness” and “precautionary rest.”
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No Jimmy Butler Resolution Appears Imminent

November 7th, 2018 at 11:56am CST by Luke Adams

No resolution appears imminent on the Jimmy Butler front, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic, who reports that the Timberwolves “never” showed any willingness to accept the Rockets‘ previously reported offer of Brandon Knight, Marquese Chriss, and four first-round draft picks. Accepting a package that featured a pair of probable non-rotation players and a handful of picks with uncertain conditions was a “non-starter” for Tom Thibodeau, league sources tell Charania. Charania also reaffirms something we’ve heard within the last week or two, writing that there’s a belief around the NBA that the Heat and/or Sixers could re-engage the Timberwolves at some point on Butler.

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Wolves Notes: Butler, Towns, Wiggins, Rose

November 7th, 2018 at 8:54am CST by Luke Adams

The Clippers, who hosted the Timberwolves on Monday, were reportedly on Jimmy Butler‘s list of preferred destinations when he requested a trade in September, and the Lakers, who will face Minnesota tonight, have also been identified as a potential suitor for the 2019 free-agent-to-be. However, Butler was in no mood to answer questions about a possible future in Los Angeles this week, as Baxter Holmes of ESPN.com relays.

“No, I’m in Minnesota for the time being,” Butler said after Monday’s loss. “I’ll enjoy the sunshine for a couple days, and then if we go back there, we go back there.”

Butler also turned away inquiries on whether or not he’d even play in the game against the Lakers on Wednesday. The All-NBA swingman has only appeared in two of the Wolves’ last four contests, missing games against Utah and Portland due to what the team referred to as “general soreness” and “precautionary rest.” He’s listed as questionable for tonight.

Here’s more on Minnesota:

  • With Timberwolves president of basketball operations Tom Thibodeau under fire for his handling of the Butler situation, Michael Rand of The Star Tribune revisits all of Thibodeau’s major personnel moves during his time in Minnesota, assigning each a grade. Karl-Anthony Towns‘ rookie scale extension received the highest marks of any transaction Thibodeau has overseen.
  • Speaking of Towns, Chris Herring of ESPN.com explored whether he and Andrew Wiggins are strong enough franchise cornerstones to make the Wolves a legit contender in the West once Butler departs.
  • Although he has started two of his last three outings for the Wolves, including last Wednesday’s 50-point game, Derrick Rose recently suggested that he’s aiming to win the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year award this season, as Nick Fridell of ESPN.com writes. Rose, who has come off the bench in eight of his 10 games, is averaging 17.4 PPG, 4.6 APG, and 3.5 RPG.
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And-Ones: Wizards, 2019 Draft, Williamson, NBAGL

November 5th, 2018 at 3:01pm CST by Luke Adams

The Wizards recently became the 28th NBA team to reach a jersey patch agreement with a corporate sponsor, teaming with GEICO on a multiyear deal, as the club announced in a press release. GEICO’s logo will now appear on the uniforms of multiple D.C.-area organizations, with the Wizards, the Washington Mystics (WNBA), and the Capital City Go-Go (G League) all getting the advertisement patch.

The Pacers and Thunder are now the only two NBA teams without ads on their uniforms, as we outline here. The NBA’s jersey sponsorship pilot program is set to run through the 2019/20 season, but the league seems likely to extend it beyond that, given its success so far.

Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

  • ESPN’s draft gurus, including Jonathan Givony, recently revealed their complete prospect rankings for the 2019 draft, with Duke players nabbing three of the top four spots. R.J. Barrett leads the way, followed by Zion Williamson at No. 3 and Cameron Reddish at No. 4. The Blue Devils’ trio sandwiches North Carolina small forward Nassir Little at No. 2.
  • Speaking of Williamson, Chris Stone of The Sporting News took an in-depth look at the 285-pound youngster, writing that the Duke forward represents a “truly one-of-a-kind prospect.”
  • The NBA G League has reached a multiyear deal with ESPN that will allow ESPN+ subscribers to watch more than 200 games per season, the league announced today in a press release. This season’s broadcast schedule begins with three games on Tuesday.
  • The Timberwolves could still end up trading Jimmy Butler for valuable long-term pieces, and Lauri Markkanen and Zach LaVine could become long-term core pieces for the Bulls. However, in the view of Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports, the 2017 trade between Minnesota and Chicago is at risk of becoming the sort of blockbuster deal that doesn’t turn out perfectly for either side.
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Jimmy Butler Doesn’t Believe He’s A Distraction

November 3rd, 2018 at 7:59pm CST by Arthur Hill

Jimmy Butler stressed team unity in an interview with Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports and said he doesn’t think he’s taking that away from the Timberwolves.

It has been more than six weeks since Butler issued his trade request, and he continues to pressure Minnesota’s front office to make a deal. There have been reports of unorthodox behavior since then, including challenging teammates and management at his first practice, but Butler insists that nothing has affected the bond in the locker room.

“They can write whatever they want, they can say whatever they want and I can address it the way that I want to,” he said after Friday’s loss at Golden State. “But at the end of the day, I go to war with my guys. Those are my guys. We’re out there trying to win. Nothing is going to come between us. I’m going to play the right way, do what I do, and they know that. They know that.”

The latest Butler-related incident was his decision to skip Wednesday’s game due to “general soreness and precautionary rest.” While it was viewed at first as another possible ploy to force the team into a trade, Butler was back on the court yesterday.

The Wolves have back-to-back road games tomorrow against the Trail Blazers and Monday against the Clippers, and Butler told Nick Friedell of ESPN that he hasn’t decided whether he will play in both.

“I let them know,” Butler said. “They don’t know how my body feels. So if I’m nicked up, then you can count on that. I don’t know. We’ll see how it goes. I don’t know what we plan on doing tomorrow. Obviously, I got to get some treatment along with a lot of other guys. But we’ll see whenever Sunday and Monday gets here.”

[UPDATE: Butler won’t play on Sunday]

Minnesota is continuing to listen to trade offers for Butler, with the Rockets and Heat considered to be the most aggressive and the Sixers and Lakers also believed to be in the running. Coach and president of basketball operations Tom Thibodeau has reportedly been sending mixed messages to interested teams, leading some to believe that the Wolves haven’t gotten serious yet about completing a deal.

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Rockets Aggressively Pursuing Butler Deal

November 2nd, 2018 at 8:02pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Rockets have put together numerous packages in an attempt to acquire Timberwolves swingman Jimmy Butler but Minnesota coach and president of basketball operations Tom Thibodeau has taken a hard and somewhat confusing stance on all potential deals, Kelly Iko of The Athletic reports.

Houston is intent on prying Butler away from the Timberwolves to strengthen its porous defense and give it another special talent to combat the star-powered Warriors. Minnesota is intent on dumping Gorgui Dieng‘s four-year, $62.8MM contract, which still has two more fully guaranteed years remaining, in any deal involving Butler, Iko continues. In general, the Timberwolves are treating negotiations as if they were dealing a difference-maker locked into a long-term contract rather than one who wants out and can opt out after the season.

With the Rockets already dealing with luxury-tax issues, absorbing Dieng’s contract would be virtually impossible. In the earlier stages of negotiations, the Rockets made inquiries to as many as six teams in the hope of involving a third party to facilitate a deal but failed to find a partner, according to Iko.

That’s when the Rockets decided to offer up to four future first-round picks for Butler, in all likelihood their first-rounders in 2019, 2021, 2023 and 2025. The reasoning behind that was to entice the Timberwolves to make the deal without Dieng.

The proposal would have allowed Minnesota to pursue a separate deal packaging Dieng and a pick or two to shed his salary. Even though it was willing to mortgage the future in a bid to win the title this season, Houston wasn’t confident that reported offer would get Thibodeau to soften his stance, Iko adds.

The Rockets have a couple of minor trade exceptions — one for $1.545MM and another for $2.85MM — but nothing substantial to help absorb the approximate $35.5MM in combined salaries of Butler and Dieng.

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