KOC: When it comes to health, Butler has only played in 70 games twice over his career. A lot of miles, about to turn 30, wants a 5-year max. Butler has never had a major injury but a lot of minor ones. BS: I've heard this & saw on twitter, compared him to Blake Griffin. That didn't seem right. I looked it up, missed 61 games over the last 4 years, 29 years old. I feel he's a young 29. Started late, transferred schools. Only played in 458 regular season games, 43 playoff games. For comparison, I looked up Andre Iguodala. He played 695 games by 29. Durant 771. I don't feel like Butler has a ton of miles on him yet. KOC: It's the 37 minutes per game. BS: I see it. He was 3rd team All-NBA in 2016/2018. 2 of the last 3 years, a top 15 player. I think if he didn't get hurt & played all 82, I think he would have been 2nd team All-NBA. KOC: Only 70 games twice in his career. BS: I don't think of him as injury prone. KOC: Me neither. He's tough, plays hard & plays through it. BS: Westbrook has knee surgery every August and we don't talk about it anymore. KOC: Even if a guy hasn't missed extended time, it's still scary moving into their 30s. BS: Last 4 years, basically 22/6/5, 23 PER, 46% shooter, 35% 3pt, 85% from the line, I would describe him as an A- defender. My big thing that concerns me is the locker room chemistry stuff. I've had him on the podcast. He definitely got a swagger to him but has now been in 3 situations where something has gone wrong with his teammates. Two different times with the Bulls and now Minnesota. Chicago I see. Bad coach, bunch of weird personalities. Last year doesn't make sense. I went to a Minnesota/Clippers game. KOC: We were both there. BS: God, Butler hates Towns. It was obvious. We could see it. What concerns me is, I don't think Towns is a bad guy. He's a nice guy. Wiggins is frustrating but isn't a bad guy. Butler somehow clashed with these guys. What did you hear? KOC: Butler isn't a bad guy either. None of them are bad guys. Sometimes good people can have disagreements, not click, be more aggressive. ... BS: They won 48 games. KOC: They were riding the 3 seed up until that Butler injury. BS: I think Butler came in acting like he was hot ****. I'm here to win, I'm Jimmy Butler, I'm one of the 10 best players in the league, looks at Towns as a cornerstone he'll have this thing with & Towns isn't where he thought he was gonna be. Towns is a little bit of a passive personality & Butler is I'm Jimmy Butler & this is how we're gonna do this. Towns & Wiggins are like "Who the **** are you? You've never made it out of the 2nd round." I think, from what I've heard, that's where it went bad. Someone who hadn't won anything acting like he had and talking down to these guys like he was superior & it didn't go well. It finally got put out this week, Towns contract extension was not an accident. It's clear he wanted to see how this Butler thing went. Not a coincidence. KOC: Seems like we're not close to a resolution that can flip in a heartbeat. When it felt like it would be done over the weekend when we chatted, it doesn't seem any closer right now, does it? BS: The person who is involved to this story to no one's surprise is Glen Taylor, the Timberwolves owner. Kinda secretly one of the biggest disasters we've had as an owner the last 20+ years. Joe Smith, Kevin McHale, David Khan, held onto KG way too long, the Kevin Love saga. For the most part, one of the 3-4 worst owners for 20+ years. Gives the moon & stars to Tom Thibodeau. We'll never see anyone get that again. Goes all in on this guy as the NBA is changing. None of it has worked out. It always goes back to the owner. Bad ownership leads to bad situations. Players change, coaches change, styles change, the one thing that never changes is you're screwed if you have a bad owner. He's a bad owner. KOC: You talk to executives, younger executives who have aspirations to rise up. One thing people say is when taking that job, you need the right owner. If not, the clock will be ticking the moment you start. True of good owners too but bad ones especially. It's tough to do things you want to do. It all starts at the top with sports organizations. BS: Another team who has been a mess and is good at getting the press behind them is Phoenix. Sarver has been an erratic owner. If you have a bad owner, you know it. Knicks fans know they have a bad owner. The pipe dream of KD & Kyrie next year, the players read all this stuff. They know. KOC: KD maybe it doesn't matter. BS: I think it does. This is the team going to employ him for 4-5 years. You can try to talk yourself into the city & history but you have to deal with James Dolan. Right now, he has the Lacob's & Rick Welts and all these smart dudes. Now you're with James Dolan. I don't see it. ... I guess my point is I'm not surprised this is the team embroiled in one of the weirdest situations we've seen. A GM/coach who doesn't want to trade someone, the player who wants to be traded has already packed his bags and the owner is like yeah, we're trading him. I've never seen such a public breach between an owner and front office. It's the owner's team. He owns it. He can do whatever the **** he wants. KOC: "At the owner meetings, that he's the guy to talk to." Execs said after that came out, if that's true, who is he leaning on? Who are the people he's talking to about acceptable deals? Who are his advisers? BS: McHale! McHale is back! KOC: Turns out it's Thibodeau & Layden. Just hands the responsibility back to them. That hasn't led to anything. That puts Taylor in a tough position. Front office has a lot of years left on their deal. Thibodeau a very expensive contract. Not like he can fire them today. You have them under control. I think you need to work with them but that's tough. Either they're not finding a deal or not willing to. BS: Trade in the next 4 days? KOC: I'd lean towards yes. Something needs to happen. I'd be surprised if Butler is a wolf. BS: Prediction? KOC: Two teams most talked about: Miami & Brooklyn, one of them. BS: That makes me think that won't be the team. When there's noise, that means the team that wants the noise to exist floats out the noise. KOC: Clippers maybe? BS: I still think they make sense. He has a place here, loves LA. Why didn't the Lakers get involved yet? KOC: Worth keeping cap space. There's guys rather have in free agency than Jimmy Butler. BS: Can't decide if Butler is underrated or overrated. I think he's underrated. KOC: Overrated. BS: I care less about injury history & more about locker room stuff. Why is he repeatedly in an unhappy situation? Bad luck 3 times in a row or does he have blame? I think Houston would have been the most fascinating chemistry experiment. Putting him with Harden, Paul & Carmelo. If any of those 4 are unhappy, that could go sideways pretty fast. BS: Selling Rockets stock? KOC: I'm buying if you're selling. BS: Buying my Rockets stock? KOC: Don't think they'll be as good as last year but I'm buying. Still think they'll be a really good team. BS: Any stock you're buying a lot of right now? KOC: Spurs & Lakers as far as O/U. I'd be hammering the over. ...
i would like nothing more than warriors trying to score giving the ball to Boogie down low instead of Curry shooting 3 s I cant remember a single game where Capela didnt own Boogie
· 3m UPDATE: Houston Rockets are still in the running for Jimmy Butler. Talks between Timberwolves & Rockets have ranged from a 1st rd draft pick & fillers, as I reported Sunday. P.J. Tucker & Eric Gordon have been discussed. Including a 3rd team like the Sac Kings is possible.
PJ F***ING TUCKER? Is that how this works? YOLO still trying to hype up PJ Tucker even after his "mediocre" season (don't let me pull up all the stats again for you). Why do you continue to believe he is one of the best player on our team when he truly isn't? Just because he started the last 30 games of the season doesn't mean he had everything to do with us winning games. We have a chance to obtain Jimmy Butler (2-way player, all-star) for last years MLE signing (PJ), 2 years ago FA signing (Gordon) and a future 1st (30th pick). You do realize Minnesota gave up a **** ton to get him right (3 first round picks 13th, 5th, 7th overall)? What is wrong with you guys overvaluing our role players making them untradeable except for "maybe" LeBron is outlandish/absurd. Every sports analyst, cyberx, insiders believe we would be ripping off Minnesota if we somehow got him for PJ AND GORDON + late pick. You sound like blatant homers for PJ if anything. Is it his shoe collection that inspires you or is it something else? I would be ecstatic and I think everyone else would if we somehow landed him. We would be truly contending against GSW and if we could get home court again we would be considered favorites this time around. There's a reason why PJ is only worth the MLE and Jimmy Buckets is worth almost $40m per season. Think about that for a moment before you try to justify stupidity.
I view Qi as a novelty... he has greater upside as a marketing tool to overseas markets than actual on the floor production. He may develop into a serviceable back-up down the road, but few GMs are willing to give up asset(s) for somebody with as limited an upside as he seems to have - not to mention being a project who will still need to develop before he can really give you anything on the floor. A good euro stash thats not taking up a roster spot is probably as desirable... Which brings us to the draft picks... As I mentioned, I assumed you were taking the assumption of a collapse down the road resulting in a higher draft pick than more current picks... but the downside there is the majority of GMs dont have the luxury of sitting on assets - it's a win now league and most GMs are looking for moves that are going to pay dividends in the near future - to keep their job as opposed to the reality that they might not be around when these assets come to fruition (see Hinkie - lol) Ainge had such a luxury - most do not... therefor, while I agree that those later picks will be better - i dont think they have a higher market value - given the fewer potential buyers... maybe I'm wrong... but thats how I see it... but if we can pull a 1st for Qi - i'd be all over that! lol
Is anyone here seriously dumb enough to think Tucker is going to get in the way of a deal if Morey can get a superstar?
Butler isnt a Superstar lol. He is a star. Only 5-7 guys in the league can be considered superstars to me. But...I guess its a really a mute point. I dont even know why I bothered posting this.
@BimaThug Can Edwards, Hartenstein and Qi be guaranteed by the Rockets and included in a trade for salary matching purposes currently?
I have seen stats do, not to mention they back up what my eyes tell me. His advances stats in the playoffs were phenomenal. If you dont want to pull them out fin.
you have no room to even talk. the posts you had about PJ alone makes you irrelevant. didn't read changing your cf's name bc of how embarrassingly bad you were is just great. especially when you thought no one would probably notice
once again your logic is incredibly dumb. the rockets had harden last year. why didnt they win it last year? hes been part of exactly ZERO title winning teams. you're not replacing tucker with butler. Youre replacing EG with butler. The fact that, that even needs to be even mentioned shows a lot about your iq. JB isn't replacing everything a Tucker + EG brings to this team. keep repeating it until you understand that
