It appears the Minnesota Timberwolves and Jimmy Butler might be destined for divorce earlier than most predicted.
The Wolves and their star player apparently have reached a breaking point, as Butler has requested a trade from Minnesota, The Athletic’s Shams Charania and Jon Krawczynski reported Wednesday.
According to the report, Butler — who will be an unrestricted free agent after the 2018-19 season — gave Minnesota a list of one to three teams with which he’s open to signing a contract extension.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski was able to uncover those three teams:
T-Wolves head coach Tom Thibodeau wanted to avoid trading Butler, according to the report, especially after giving up Zach LaVine and Kris Dunn while also swapping first-round picks to wrest Butler from the Chicago Bulls just over a year ago.
Butler’s extremely limited list of preferences won’t help the Wolves’ case, either. It’s hard to develop much of a market if only a few teams would be involved. And if it’s out there Butler would only sign with one to three teams, those other twenty-something teams aren’t inclined to give up much in order to acquire a player with no inclination to re-sign.
Then again, that similar scenario worked out pretty well for the Oklahoma City Thunder with Paul George, and also didn’t stop the Toronto Raptors from trading for Kawhi Leonard.
