Woj Tom Thibodeau sold Timberwolves‘ owner Glen Taylor on passing on the initial offer from the Heat centered around Josh Richardson because he believed that Pat Riley would come back with a better offer down the road (the Heat never returned with Richardson on the table in subsequent trade talks). Taylor considered firing Thibodeau and GM Scott Layden this past summer before the Butler saga broke out and continues to think about the possibility of replacing both of them. According to Woj, the Timberwolves desperately tried to find other trade partners throughout the past week, including reaching out to the Pelicans and Wizards, to no avail. The Wolves actually had “extensive” discussions with the Pels, but New Orleans wouldn’t offer Jrue Holiday or multiple draft picks. Washington, meanwhile wouldn’t offer Bradley Beal, which comes as no surprise. The Sixers initially offered the Timberwolves their choice of Robert Covington and Dario Saric in an offer for Butler before eventually agreeing to include both players. The Sixers believe they are operating out of a position of leverage when it comes to dealings with Butler. According to Woj, there are league executives that understand that Butler must be on his best behavior in order to get the full five-year max contract he desires this summer.
Oct. 25: The Rockets step in As the situation drags on, the Rockets get off to a poor start. They are 1-3, and GM Daryl Morey is trying to get back into the conversation to land Butler to team with James Harden, Chris Paul and Clint Capela. So Morey offers four first-round picks along with the injured Brandon Knight and Marquese Chriss to try to shake Butler loose from the Wolves, league sources said. The attention-grabbing offer has Butler cautiously hopeful that it might be enough to get Thibodeau and Taylor to budge. But the Wolves are unimpressed. Thibodeau is in win-now mode and has little use for picks that may not materialize for years. And Taylor isn’t enamored with the idea of a full-on rebuild either. Knight and Chriss bring little immediate value — with Knight out indefinitely and Chriss struggling to find his way in the league — and the proposal is rejected, sources said. Nov. 6: The final offers come in After Butler plays 39 minutes in a loss to the Clippers that dropped the Wolves to 0-3 on the trip, the Wolves have conversations with the Heat about a possible trade. But the Heat inform the Wolves that Richardson is no longer on the table after his stellar start to the season, and the Wolves move on. Minnesota begins to engage seriously with Philadelphia, New Orleans and Houston. New Orleans’ package is headlined by Nikola Mirotic and an unprotected first-round draft pick and the Rockets’ proposal has Eric Gordon, Nene and two first-round picks, sources said. The 76ers come with their proposal around Robert Covington and Dario Saric, leaving the Timberwolves to deliberate.
Saric+Covington or Gordon + 2 First round picks. Honestly, that Rockets offer is pretty good giving them 1) win now player 2) liquid assets for the future. Morey clearly presented a GOOD COMPETITIVE TRADE OFFER here. He did not hold back.
Aren’t Nola and Minny pretty much directly competing for playoff seeding. Annoying we hear reports of Minny not wanting to deal with Houston for fear of creating a superteam, yet they’ll pair Anthony Davis with another Top 15 player.
Our eyes were looking, ever further and further away, as Jimmy packed and headed east, to the Betsy Ross bridge. You will always have a place in clutchfan hearts Jimmy Buckets. You almost got us to 500 pages.
If true. I have a hard time believing it personally. The wolves are stupid, but not that stupid. Who knows, maybe they are super high on Covington, but I think EG would have made much more sense.
Take on salary deal. We were one of the teams in multi team talks. We were going to facilitate Butler elsewhere. One version had Richardson to Minny, Winslow, Tyus here with other salary(ies), Gordon and Butler to Miami with us taking more salary, getting Miami out of the tax and keeping mint below the tax. The basic trade for us was Gordon and other contracts for Winslow, tyus, and other salary. Need to keep an eye on Winslow and Oubre and Tyus.....they all fit here. And dividing Gordon into Winslow and another player like Tyus or Oubre makes a lot of sense for us.
I’d also like to point out that Shams is saying that anyone who said “Butler isn’t our primary target” was wrong. I forgot the poster who said that over and over. And reread @cyberx OP. He’s saying “variations” of PJ, Gordon and multiple picks. Pretty much called from Post #1, not to mention first telling us Morey was targeting Butler as far back as June 4th.
Haha. Screen shot please. DM it to me on Twitter. Guess I should become a subscriber. Do you think it’s worth it for me, I’m more interested in game analysis than narratives and trade talk.
Lock this up. @cyberx builds us up to break us down, he's got intel obviously but when things don't go how we anticipate he never comes and assuages our anxieties of what can be done to counteract various failures. I also love that the Wolves leaked that we offered Eric Gordon in final offer! This will be great in future negotiations of contract extensions! Morey got played here. They led him on for months because Thibs has an obsession with keeping others in the West down. Daryl goes for every major player, every time and we know it, but clearly there wasn't a scenario where they let him stay West. Eric + Nene + 2 first rounders is CLEARLY better than the 76ers offer. This saga held our team back and made it where the team planned around the idea that Butler of a possibility. Now here we are without a starting wing to replicate what Ariza did and there isn't a ton of options to fill that void. On top of that we have two coaches who clearly didn't want Melo here and we get a brand new bit of drama to distract us from the fact that the team is 5-7!
Yup, spot on. And I think it is fair to point out, the Rockets offer for Butler was COMPETITIVE. If the Wolves did not like the dead salary of Knight or Chriss at all as a prospect, they weren't included. They included ERIC GORDON. And had to include a small salary of Nene to make it work. AND they included TWO first round picks. No one else was including TWO. Wolves could get "help now" and liquid assets for the future. Perhaps to use to get off Dieng's contract. To me, Wolves just wanted to move Butler east.
I shudder to think, if the Wolves weren't so pressured into making a deal could they have also netted Clark as well?
This is the difference between a guy like Thibs with one-track mind and Morey. Picks don't need to materialize immediately to be useful. They can be trade assets that can get you win-now pieces.
