Getty Minnesota Timberwolves wing Jimmy Butler.
Jimmy Butler met with Minnesota Timberwolves president of basketball operations and head coach Tom Thibodeau on Monday. But the four-time All-Star still hasn’t changed his mind — he wants out.
@ShamsCharania Butler had been away from the team while the Wolves were on the West Coast, and was still not in town when they returned last week. As trade talks have slowed, there is still no change in his desire to move.
Butler’s spent much of the offseason training in Minneapolis. He traveled to Los Angeles, where he had dinner with teammates who were in town to play the Los Angeles Clippers, before his recent return to Minnesota, according to Yahoo’s Ben Rohrbach.
A trade that would have sent Butler to the Miami Heat fell through over the weekend. The Timberwolves even went so far as to send the star wing’s medical information to Miami.
From ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski:
Minnesota and Miami had been discussing deals that included a third team to take on salary, as well as doing a direct trade between the Timberwolves and Heat, league sources said. Miami had softened on including guard Josh Richardson in versions of a possible deal for Butler, only to recoil once Minnesota pushed late for a sweeter return on the four-time All-Star forward, league sources said.
Timberwolves Struggle in Preseason
All NBA preseason results should be taken with a jumbo-size cylinder of Morton Salt, but the Timberwolves have been pretty terrible, going 1-3 while surrendering 119 points per contest.
“When you play like we’re playing right now, no one looks good,” Thibodeau said after a 113-101 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday, according to the Star Tribune. “You get into things together, you get out of things together. We have to sort of circle the wagons, and we’ve got to get it going.”
After a 125-107 defeat at the hooves of the Milwaukee Bucks on Sunday, Timberwolves point guard Jeff Teague lamented how little time he and his teammates had spent together during the offseason.
“You can tell the teams who got together in the summer,” Teague told the Star Tribune. “I think [the Bucks] spent a lot of time together in the summer and you can tell. We didn’t see each other until the season started. We have a little more time to try and get right. But we got to hurry up.”
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Jimmy Butler Trade Rumors: Butler Returns to Minnesota