Jimmy Butler Trade Rumors: 5 Teams That Could Trade For Him
3. Minnesota Timberwolves
Like the Bucks, the Minnesota Timberwolves would be better off leaving their three-man core alone, staying patient, and letting the future cornerstones develop. They’re called “growing pains” for a reason.
However, we can’t just ignore the Tom Thibodeau connection in a trade scenario like this, especially since the Wolves already had talks with the Bulls about Jimmy Buckets on draft day. Rookie Kris Dunn is nowhere near as valuable now as he was then, but with Chicago needing a new point guard, perhaps Ricky Rubio would do the trick?
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Rubio isn’t the main grab in a trade like this though. There’s no question that Andrew Wiggins has star potential, but his defense hasn’t improved under Thibs as quickly as most expected, and his early three-point efficiency has quickly regressed back to the mean at 34.8 percent on the year.
No one is suggesting that’s anywhere near enough reason to give up on him at age 21, but Thibodeau has never seemed like the patient, rebuilding type. With his team off to a vastly underwhelming 11-25 start, Butler would immediately be on his radar if the Bulls were to make him available.
Rubio and Wiggins would be more than enough star power to get a trade done, and Thibs would get one of his favorite players in return to accelerate the rebuild. Chicago gets its lead point guard and a 21-year-old star to build around for the future.
However, as bad as it’s been for the Wolves, trading Wiggins so soon for a 27-year-old star who is in his prime right now would put pressure on Minnesota to assemble a contender around Butler sooner rather than later. The Wolves are not a prime free agency destination, so as fun as Dunn, Zach LaVine, Butler and Karl-Anthony Towns might be in theory, they wouldn’t be contenders in the here and now.
LaVine has been better than Wiggins this year, so perhaps the Bulls would be content with taking him and Rubio instead of Wiggins and Rubio. To be perfectly honest though, it’d be better for the Wolves to avoid a Thibs-Butler reunion, bide their time, and rule the West in the future. Dunn isn’t ready to take over the starting point guard job, and Wiggins and LaVine are still 21 years old.
An offer like this would be extremely attractive to Chicago if they made Butler available, but the Wolves shouldn’t lose faith in their bright future after one bad half-season. Don’t overthink this.