Minnesota Timberwolves: Jimmy Butler makes correct move turning down max contract

Minnesota Timberwolves All-Star wing Jimmy Butler has reportedly turned down the team’s maximum contract offer as he looks towards an even larger payday next summer.

The headline “Jimmy Butler turns down max contract” is eye-catching, is it not? Sure, but it also lacks all-important context.

We first discussed the report that the Timberwolves were preparing to make a massive contract offer to Butler back around the start of free agency. It was unsurprising, as Butler is in the prime of his career and certainly worth the money. But it was news nonetheless.

The Wolves reportedly made the offer, and our friend Darren Wolfson of KSTP in the Twin Cities confirmed via owner Glen Taylor that the offer had officially been declined.

That, of course, sent the national media — with an apparently unquenchable thirst for news about Butler’s alleged unhappiness and all-but-certain exit from Minnesota — into a tizzy.

Is Butler unhappy with the Timberwolves? Maybe. There’s often fire where there’s smoke, after all, and there has certainly been some smoke.

But just because a soon-to-be-29-year-old is frustrated with a 22-year-old’s attitude some of the time doesn’t mean he will refuse to be teammates with an All-Star, on a team that won 47 games despite weathering a significant injury to Butler a year ago.

They key here is that while this contract would have guaranteed the four-time All-Star $110 million over four years, the Timberwolves can offer him five years and $188 million next summer, when he is an unrestricted free agent. Other teams will be eligible to offer him four years and $141 million — still a solid $31 million more than he could have locked in this offseason.

The Timberwolves made this contract offer to show their faith in Butler and signal that they’ll be offering the full max next summer as well. It’s a slight risk on the Wolves’ side, as Butler is coming off meniscus surgery and certainly didn’t look like himself in the handful of games that he played after returning (albeit quickly) from the injury at the end of the regular season and in the playoffs.

It’s absolutely worth the risk, as they would have saved some change if he signed now, and they offered Butler the opportunity to lock in the years and the money if he was worried at all about his own health.

But Butler is betting on staying healthy and having another All-Star season. If he believes he’s healthy, turning down the extension is the right move. And it has exactly nothing to do with his level of happiness with the Timberwolves.

Don’t read anything into this story. Wolfson even followed up his original tweet with a further clarification in an attempt to assuage the weeping and gnashing of teeth from fans around the internet.

While you or I likely wouldn’t be in the position to turn down $110 million, we might if we already had tens of millions in the bank and have something like a 90 percent chance to land an extra $31 million (or $78 million if he stays in Minnesota), as Butler does.

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So rest easy, Timberwolves fans. There’s no less chance that Butler remains with the Wolves long-term than there was 24 hours ago.