Minnesota Timberwolves: Report says Wolves are refusing Butler’s trade demands

With all the recent Minnesota Timberwolves drama and Jimmy Butler news frenzy, it’s now came out that the Wolves aren’t interested in parting ways with their 4-time All-Star.

Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN – per usual – has illustrated the situation for the Minnesota Timberwolves more clearly for the rest of us below:

"Via, ESPN“Story filed to ESPN: Rival executives lobbing calls to Minnesota’s front office on possibility of trading for Jimmy Butler are getting inquires shut down. Minnesota is telling teams that Butler’s an elite player and franchise intends to keep him."

While we all know that Jimmy Butler is an elite player and the franchise should try and keep him, all of this awkward drama surrounding JB and the rest of the roster – namely Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins – is a little to weird for most people to comprehend the fact Butler could play a whole season with the Wolves.

I won’t get into everything, but our own Ben Beecken does a fantastic job, considering the dramatic circumstances, summarizing the mess here.

Woj also states that Glen Taylor will have a say in the trade situation, which quiets the theories that Head Coach Tom Thibodeau is behind all the bad moves in the organization.

"“Also: As the case with past trades involving Minnesota stars Kevin Garnett and Kevin Love, owner Glen Taylor will be a major part of the process on deciding whether to move Butler this season.”"

With Kevin Garnett and Kevin Love, those situations weren’t quite as messy as they are today with Butler. They may be for social media reasons that are out of the front offices’ hands, but it still paints a poor picture on the organization as a whole.

If Jimmy Butler is TRULY off the trade market, what does that mean for team chemistry? Will the organization run itself into the ground or do Thibs, Taylor, and Scott Layden believe in the teams resiliency enough for them to comeback from this.

I personally don’t believe any of this to be true, it feels more like a chess move from the front office. If they put this story out there to Woj and the rest of the GM’s feel like they have to offer their max off assets they could potentially afford, that would be worthwhile for the Wolves.

And from the type of assets that the Wolves could potentially get from Butler’s preferred destinations (Brooklyn, New York, and the Los Angeles Clippers), this might have been the checkmate move.

Those teams don’t have the necessary assets to help push the Wolves in the right direction, not necessarily at least. All three of those teams aren’t really willing to deal multiple first round picks, so why not tell the media that Butler is no longer for sale.

My final message to our readers would be to hesitate before you make a quick judgement on this news, it seems like we don’t know the whole story. But I could be wrong – which isn’t news to anyone – and the Wolves could make their worst roster decision in franchise history by keeping Butler all year.

Or at least one of their worst …