Breaking: Jimmy Butler Traded
The saga of Jimmy Butler in Minnesota appears to have finally come to an end.
The Athletic’s Shams Charania dropped the bombshell Saturday morning that the Timberwolves were finalizing a deal to send Butler to Philadelphia.
Sources with @JonKrawczynski: Philadelphia is finalizing a deal with Minnesota to acquire Jimmy Butler.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) November 10, 2018
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Zach Lowe followed up with a report that Butler, along with Justin Patton, has been traded to the 76ers for forwards Robert Covington and Dario Saric, salary throw-in guard Jerryd Bayless and a 2020 second-round pick.
So, in other words …
Jimmy Butler traded to the Sixers for Meow Mix and a cheesesteak from Pat’s
— Exavier Pope (@exavierpope) November 10, 2018
To say that NBA Twitter thinks Tom Thibodeau and the Timberwolves got pantsed in this trade is putting it mildly. All Woj had to do in order to pour gasoline on the fire was to report the truth.
After winless 5-game road trip that ended with loss Sacramento on Friday night, Tom Thibodeau had come to realization that the Wolves couldn’t win with Butler in this dysfunctional environment, sources said. He told associates that Minny wouldn’t play another game with Butler.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) November 10, 2018
The response? Instantaneous … and unmistakable.
Next to go is Thibs ??
— Pete ang V-peat (@Pete_n_Repeter) November 10, 2018
By moving Saric and Covington’s salaries out of town, the Sixers are now in position where they can offer a five-year, $190 million maximum contract to Butler this offseason, a huge advantage when under the collective bargaining agreement, teams would ordinarily only be able to offer four years and $141 million.
Questions do abound about whether Butler’s chemistry problems with Minnesota playing alongside the absolutely dreadful Andrew Wiggins — Wiggins, along with Carmelo Anthony and Harrison Barnes, were the only three players in the NBA last season who played at least 2,500 minutes and had a negative value over replacement player, and Wiggins has a negative VORP again this year — will be a sign of things to come when he has to deal with Ben Simmons and Markelle Fultz.
Considering both guys’ renowned inability to shoot the basketball, Butler might have just been traded from one chemistry disaster to another.
Jimmy Butler when he sees Fultz and Simmons shooting in practice pic.twitter.com/gjAoAd55Aj
— Kofie (@KofieYeboah) November 10, 2018
And it’s not just snark that’s powering very real questions here…
Let me get this straight… Philly’s biggest challenge as a franchise is going to be keeping Embiid and Simmons happy together… and they just added Jimmy Butler? A guy who has completely sabotaged two franchises in two years? #NBATwitter
— The Corner 3 Show (@TheCorner3Show) November 10, 2018
Whatever happens next, the Sixers just got everybody talking about them again, even as an 8-5 start and losing their first five road games had people wondering if they’re any better than the team that was 36-30 last season before rattling off a 16-game winning streak to close the regular season.
As it stands now, only two games separate third and ninth place in the East, but Philly is looking to widen that gap, and having one of the best — if also one of the most mercurial — players in the league might be just what the doctor ordered.
Meanwhile, in Minnesota, the only question on everyone’s mind is what it will take to end the Rasputin-like career of Tom Thibodeau.
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