Minnesota Timberwolves: Trade ideas for Jimmy Butler to the Houston Rockets

After potential Minnesota Timberwolves and Miami Heat trade proposals were nullified by both parties over the weekend, it seems the Wolves are once again interested in the Houston Rockets as a destination for Jimmy Butler.

Stefano Fusaro is a reporter for ESPN (The Undefeated) and specifically tends to cover the Houston Rockets. Fusaro has reported that the Minnesota Timberwolves are once again revisiting the idea of sending Jimmy Butler to Houston in a deal that can bring back Eric Gordon and PJ Tucker, but Houston may have some new thoughts:

"Via, ESPN Reporter Stefano Fusaro (Twitter) “Jimmy Butler update: According to a league source, The Wolves contacted the Rockets again Tuesday morning, after their failed deal with Miami this past weekend. Minnesota was still adamant on receiving Eric Gordon and PJ Tucker, but Houston will not put Tucker on the table.”"

This is extremely big news, as the Wolves have been reported to not have many offers over the past few weeks for Butler due to the whispers on a potential Miami Heat deal, click here to see our ideas.

As for now, that Miami deal seems to be dormant because they are supposedly unwilling to add players and assets Minnesota wants to include (Josh Richardson, Bam Adebayo, and possibly Justise Winslow).

According to Fusaro’s sources, the Wolves contacting Houston again could mean one of two things:

1. Head Coach Tom Thibodeau is playing mind games with Pat Riley of the Miami Heat to get him to up his ante on the potential swap for a player like Josh Richardson for Jimmy Butler.
2. Glen Taylor is forcing Tom Thibodeau’s hand to make a deal for two savvy veterans in Eric Gordon and PJ Tucker.

Both have the potential to be true, so I’m leading more toward the latter of those two options.

Glen Taylor desperately wants Butler out of Minnesota because the longer he’s there the more stained the Wolves front office becomes (to some of the league). So it’s possible that a Houston phone call could be Thibs answer to Taylor to say that he’s actually trying to move Butler, but instead he’s trying to outwit Pat Riley.

Outwitting Riley seems improbable, but I’m willing to bet everyone will be shocked once a deal happens, no matter the team or teams it happens with.

For arguments sake, let’s say that Thibs is trying to trade Butler to Houston, what would that look like?

Our original idea is here, but it may need to change now that the Rockets are reporting to want Butler at a lower cost, taking PJ Tucker out of the trade demands. This could all be a ploy for Daryl Morey to get JB at a low asking price, but it’s also possible that Minnesota could look so desperate that they may have to lower their demands.

I personally don’t agree, with the Miami trade it seemed Pat Riley had the leverage because he was toying with three young assets in Richardson, Adebayo, and Winslow.

With Morey, he’s playing with great role players that are nice veterans, the Timberwolves should have all the leverage in the world with having Jimmy Butler as an asset – he’s a top 15 player in the league.

We have two trade scenarios over the next two slides that can give us a better idea of what may happen in a Minnesota /Houston deal.

All deals were made were through ESPN trade machine and are legal.