Timberwolves Declined Great Jimmy Butler Trade Offer From Heat

The Jimmy Butler trade is now a thing of the past, sort of. While the Minnesota Timberwolves moved the All-Star guard to the Philadelphia 76ers, there’s always more to the story. Just days after the deal, there were rumblings about offers the Timberwolves previously turned down. This included an incredibly strong one for Butler from the Miami Heat.

It was one that very well may have outdone what the Sixers sent for Butler, at least in the eyes of many fans. For what it’s worth, Dario Saric and Robert Covington are strong players with upside and Minnesota added Jerryd Bayless and a 2022 second-round pick as well. But the deal the Heat reportedly put on the table in September is pretty impressive.

On The Ringer NBA Show podcast, Kevin O’Connor spoke to Chris Vernon about the offer, which included a bit of everything the Timberwolves were rumored to want.

“It’s the [Josh] Richardson deal that they missed out on. The one thing executives that I’ve talked to the past couple days have said – they’re stunned that they [Timberwolves] didn’t get a first round pick in a deal. They think Philadelphia easily would have given it up. Especially because a first round pick was on the table with other deals that were offered. Every other deal that was offered had a first round pick.” O’Connor stated.

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“Really where they screwed up most, Chris, I think was with that Miami deal. Josh Richardson is a better player than Dario Saric and Robert Covington. Still young, still more room to grow. And the deal I heard that was offered in September when all that stuff first happened was something along the lines of Richardson with a first round pick, and then salary filler, including Dion Waiters for Jimmy Butler and Gorgui Dieng, so they would have been able to dump salary at that time too. It seems to me that all along, Minnesota was declining these really good offers with the hopes of getting even more than that.” O’Connor concluded.

That’s quite the all-around offer, assuming it was the full terms. One key is the Gorgui Dieng aspect of it, considering the Timberwolves seemingly wanted to get his salary off the books. Beyond that, Richardson has shown exceptional upside and Dion Waiters as salary filler isn’t bad if he’s able to return from injury.

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Value of Jimmy Butler Trade Over Time

O’Connor’s details of the trade above state that the deal came back in September, which goes to show that Butler’s trade value had certainly taken a hit. Realistically, a reason why they may have accepted the offer from the Sixers could have been due to that decline in value. Although Covington and Saric are strong players, he’s not wrong about how surprising it was to see the deal not include a first-rounder.

Regardless, each day that went by meant teams were one step closer to the trade deadline. In turn, this almost certainly impacted the offers that were coming in. There’s also the possibility that many teams were willing to wait until 2019 free agency to make a push for Butler. Regardless, it’d be interesting to hear what the final offer from the Heat looked like if there was one.

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