Woj: Butler Willing to Expand List if Wolves Can Make a Deal

If Glen Taylor decides to do this on his own, there is absolutely no telling what team ends up with Butler because, respectfully, Taylor doesn't know basketball. If it is worth anything, he was the primary decision maker on moving KG and Love for younger prospects/players. This is a different situation though, because I do not think that Taylor is willing to accept that KAT and Wiggins are not going to win anything.

 

Top 5-10 of all time? He'd have a lot of players to beat out for that to be true.

Quick list he doesn't come close to touching:

Hakeem
Pippen
Jordan
Gary Payton
Bill Russell
Dennis Rodman
David Robinson
Kawhi Leonard
Dikembe
Kevin Garnett
Tim Duncan
LeBron

He's outstanding, but not outstanding compared to the history of the league or anything.

 

Morey gonna pull the trigger

 

Butler is tiger. Brandon Knight is kitten. Melo is a old dog.

It won't be easy to trade kitten and an old dog for tiger.

 

Better than...

Hakeem, no.
Pippen, maybe maybe not.
Jordan, probably.
Payton, probably.
Russell, no.
Rodman, maybe maybe not.
Kawhi, yes.
Dikembe, maybe maybe not.
Garnett, probably not.
Duncan, maybe maybe not.
Lebron maybe maybe not.

I just have to beg to differ. This man has completely revolutionized modern basketball defense. His help defense is just insanely immaculate, almost perfect. His IQ, and ability to stop plays is phenomenal. His ability to guard 1-5 is almost unmatched through history.

He is surrounded by insane talent and spacing, but they are a top tier defense every year because of him.

 

Wolves want to deal him for a good player, not a trade package.

Someone like Klay Thompson who wants to make commitment to them.

 

HOUSTON
And the door opens: Eric Gordon, PJ Tucker, and an unprotected (and almost certainly crappy) first-round pick for Butler, anyone? Gordon, Marquese Chriss, and an unprotected pick also works -- though not until Oct. 31, when the Rockets can trade Chriss in combination with other players. The Chriss version also adds about $3.7 million to Houston's books, and multiples of that to their tax bill.

Do those deals suck for the Wolves? Yes. Yes, they do. But it's better than letting Butler walk for nothing. You know Daryl Morey will risk everything for stars who could pull Houston closer to the Warriors. I'm telling you: We are going to hear from Houston before this is over.

 

He's also playing big man defense in a league where the big man has disappeared. He is absolutely revolutionary, but that doesn't make him special historically. He doesn't actually play much defense on his man down low at all. Nobody can post up anymore so he's allowed to float all over the lane. He'd get killed in the 90s for leaving his man like he does. It's like you're giving him bonus points for playing undisciplined defense.

Also, if you think he's even close to as good as Gary Payton, you weren't watching Gary Payton... especially in his prime.

 

If the return is much less than what Minnesota sent out for Butler -- and it will be -- there will be a rush to mock the Wolves and condemn Thibodeau's hilariously predictable run as coach and general manager.

The Wolves are already humiliated.

They watched Wednesday night's dumb, Wiggins-centric Instagram drama like everyone else. There is a strong desire within parts of the organization -- particularly the business side, which has had a cool relationship with Thibodeau for a year now -- to deal Butler before Monday's media day, so that it does not become a circus (or worse).
http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/...de-market-minnesota-timberwolves-jimmy-butler

 

We have the best chance because Clippers Nets Knicks have nothing Wolves really want.

 

Can the Rockets do this?

 

Reading Lowe's article, you can see that a lot of teams are not close to putting up a combination of premium assets for a Butler trade. Similar to the PG and Kawhi trades.

 

There is little way Minny doesn't insist shipping Dieng along with Butler imo

 

C'mon don, your quite smart in regards to basketball.

Hes playing "post" defense but not really. Their is no more post, he has adapted. MDA and other offensive schemes with small ball 5s, including analytics, changed the NBA. You cant fault Draymond for adapting perfectly and by far better than anyone.

You cant fault him for the generation he played in. There is a reason everyone wishes they had a Draymond type 4/5 in today's NBA. It's because hes the perfect defender for this style of basketball.

He can guard the perimeter, guard the paint and his help defense is outrageous. He absolutely locked down our most efficient option in the playoffs in capela. Not only did he do that, he was so perfect guarding him, he also perfectly timed rotations to prevent the easy harden layup.

Russell is regarded as probably the best defender ever, but how good is he in today's NBA? Is he Gobert? That's not bad at all but it isnt Draymond dominant.

That's not his fault. He adapted and played to the style of his generation. No one faults him for it.

 

Yeah, you either get a semi-premium asset OR a salary dump. Not both.

 

That's added risk for any teams that JB presumably has no intention to sign with.

 

I think we can with a side trade (if we don't want to wait one more month to move Knight in a single package) like Knight for Dieng, but i'm not sure we would do that...unless we can keep PJ in exchange for that.

Fwiw, but Dieng contract is worse than Anderson's contract.

 

I don't see how we can make this work in a way that still leaves us better.

Including Tucker in the deal would be bad in my opinion.

I'd do Gordon, Nene, whatever young guy they want plus an unprotected first. I would not include both Gordon and Tucker.

As far as getting to the salary necessary for Dieng, I don't think we can even get the salary to make it work as one big deal.

We could do Gordon/Nene/pick for Butler and then Knight for Dieng straight up.

Again, I'm not sure if that leaves us better off though. We'd have zero bench at the guard spot.