The Minnesota Timberwolves sent a message that they are looking to accelerate their rebuilding process when they hired Tom Thibodeau. NBA rumors of a pursuit of a former Thibodeau guard has Minnesota at an interesting crossroads.
When it became clear that the Chicago Bulls were willing to listen to trade offers for Jimmy Butler, it seemed like only a matter of time before his former coach, and now Minnesota Timberwolves coach and president of basketball operations Tom Thibodeau, came knocking.
Jimmy Butler has put himself in the conversation as the best shooting guard in the league along with James Harden and Klay Thompson with his ability to impact the game on both ends of the floor.
Butler averaged more than 20Â points per game for the second straight season as the focal point of the Bulls offense, despite dealing with some nagging injuries.
The Timberwolves have reportedly offered the fifth overall pick in the draft in a package for Butler, which would give the Wolves a potentially phenomenal wing tandem of Butler and the emerging Andrew Wiggins.
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But dreams of that tandem died quickly as the asking price for Butler was made clear as the Bulls won’t trade Butler to the Timberwolves unless it is for Wiggins.
There are, like most things in life, two sides to a potential swap. On the one hand it’s in the Wolves’ best interest to consolidate their young talent. Wiggins, Zach LaVine and even Shabazz Muhammad had promising seasons in 2015-16.
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You can only develop so much talent at one time and history has shown that teams that are primarily young players have a tendency to develop bad habits.
Wiggins has shown tremendous amount of growth already in his career. His performance down the stretch provided validation to many who believe he can grow into a star.
But with Butler you get a veteran presence who has already proven himself as a worthy star on a team that can advance in the playoffs.
We’ve seen Butler provide stifling defense in the postseason against stars like LeBron James and, with Karl-Anthony Towns looking like a future MVP, you want to surround him with as much sure fire talent as possible.
The addition of Thibodeau, who has a reputation for trying to maximize the roster, play with a short rotation and try to compete for a championship every season, gives some credence to those that believe the Wolves might swap Wiggins for the player he may some day become.
With the other young talents on the wing, it does provide the Wolves with some insurance and cushion to make such a move.
It’s a move that the Wolves should consider making, although ultimately I would likely advise against it. While Jimmy Butler is a fantastic player, he will be turning 27 prior to the beginning of next season while Wiggins is only 21.
Butler has also had issues staying healthy, while Wiggins has existing concerns with his health.
One of the concerns surrounding Wiggins revolves the development of an outside shot, an issue that adding Butler doesn’t necessarily fix. Butler has had two seasons where he shot well from deep, shooting 38.1 and 37.8 percent respectively in his age 23 and 25 seasons respectively.
However those seasons have been surrounded by mediocre shooting years, including this season, when he shot only 31.2 percent from behind the arc. For his career he has shot 32.8 percent from three, which at this point it would be fair to classify him as a streaky shooter.
Wiggins’ effectiveness defensively was below average this past season, ranking 72nd out of qualified shooting guards in defensive real plus-minus. The metric is far from perfect and doesn’t account for his good defensive play on ball or the load he has to carry offensively.
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At 21 most players aren’t good defensively, but growth and a solid understanding of defensive schemes is never a guarantee for players.
For example you can look at DeMar DeRozan, who has a lot of the physical tools Wiggins has defensively, but has never managed to put it together on that end of the floor despite promising signs early in his career.
This is, of course, an argument you could make if you were for this potential swap, especially when you consider Butler has an understanding of Thibodeau’s defensive schemes.
Ultimately given the gap of seven years and factoring in how the prime of Wiggins will lineup with the prime of Towns, in addition to health concerns and the reliability of Butler’s outside shot I wouldn’t advocate this trade.
The need to consolidate talent in Minnesota is very real and I would explore shopping the pick along with LaVine, Muhammad and Gorgui Dieng, but this just doesn’t feel like the correct move to me.
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I understand the logic behind it and it is a move that the Wolves front office should give consideration to, but the motivations behind a move like this do not align with where I believe the Wolves are in their rebuilding plan and they should exercise patience in waiting for the right deal to come along.
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