Minnesota Timberwolves: Is Karl-Anthony Towns considering not re-signing?

Of all things I didn’t believe were possible, Minnesota Timberwolves Karl-Anthony Towns not taking his hometown rookie-scale contract seems to be a realistic situation.

While most of the dramatic reports regarding Minnesota Timberwolves All-Star Karl-Anthony Towns seem to be hearsay, Shams Charania for Stadium and The Athletic reports that the feud between Jimmy Butler is holding Towns back from signing the dotted line:

"Via, Yahoo Sports“There’s been a lot of uncertainty around Jimmy Butler all summer. He hasn’t been back to Minnesota. This is going to be a telltale week for him. Very much so, I’m told, this a last-ditch meeting for the Minnesota Timberwolves and Tom Thibodeau, and how they respond and how Jimmy responds to it will be interesting. Karl-Anthony Towns, who’s one of the top talents in the league, has yet to sign to sign his rookie max extension, which should be a no-brainer. And I’m told there won’t be any decision on that until this Jimmy Butler situation resolves itself.”"

With recent reports coming out that Jimmy Butler is meeting up with the front office of Minnesota later this week, this report of Towns being antsy doesn’t come as a surprise.

While Karl-Anthony Towns has a quiet demeanor, he obviously wants to help the team in any way possible but wants to be the cornerstone to the franchise, and deservedly so. Sports Illustrated’s Top 100 players listed Jimmy Butler as the 10th best player in the league, but reports have came out that Towns and Andrew Wiggins have had serious issues from within.

NBA news media have had issues with false rumors and sketchy news reporting over the past year or so and its led to players calling writers out online via Twitter, and I’m hoping this will be a similar situation.

The rookie-max contract extension is supposed to be guaranteed between the two parties, as we’ve seen in the past – Joel Embiid, Andrew Wiggins, Josh Richardson, Gary Harris, to name a few. If something does fall through with Towns and the front office, Towns will become a restricted free agent next summer, forcing an Otto Porter situation (which, no thank you).

While the Timberwolves would presumably match any contract offer for Towns, you don’t want a player that doesn’t want to play for your franchise. The worst situation would be head coach and president of operations Tom Thibodeau having to choose between his two All-Stars.

One would think he would only choose Jimmy Butler if he resigns before the October 15th deadline date, however a healthy Butler has a chance to make a lot more money by waiting out until next summer. But, we’ve seen that pan out for the worst as well, a la injured Isaiah Thomas and the Boston Celtics.

The question is, what will be said behind closed doors? Well … there is a reason the doors are closed. Both Butler and Thibodeau are extremely direct individuals and it’s possible that they could come to an agreement sending Butler elsewhere for draft picks and a few young studs, but it’s also possible that it will be a decisive way to get whoever they want out of the locker room.

The only other situation would be Thibodeau forcing the locker room shut and having the players sing ‘kumbaya’ and that will never come out of Jimmy Butler’s mouth. Expect a few trade proposals floating toward Thibodeau’s desk over the next few weeks, as well as across my keyboard.

We’re hoping for the best and to see a healthy Timberwolves team run it back.