The saga of Jimmy Butler's trade is over, but the NBA's commercial landscape that has contributed to its production remains.

On Wednesday, the Timberwolves will face another team hooked on a star player: a pelican franchise from New Orleans who wonders how long the good times can last.

If Anthony Davis wants to be traded, he has only offered speculative hints. He changed agents this fall and New Orleans shuddered. He signed with Rich Paul, who just represents LeBron James, which has only fueled the speculation that Davis and James might join forces next season with the Lakers.

Butler is not the first player in the NBA to make a commercial application that tears up a franchise plan. He will not be the last, at least not as the league faces the unintended consequences of its rapid growth and popularity.

According to analysts, elements of the NBA collective agreement to keep the stars with the teams had the opposite effect, while the last television contract of the national league has essentially created two economies.

One is for players who cashed after the salary cap climbed $ 24 million in 2016 and the other, players such as Butler, Paul George and Kawhi Leonard, who signed agreements to long term before this injection of funds hits the league.

"So you get marginal players like Luol Deng and Timofey Mozgov who are paid at the same level as before," said Larry Coon, who dissects the ABC of the league on his website, NBA Salary Cap FAQ. "Then you get guys who are really top players, and they do not get the kind of money they would be entitled to in the new economy.

George and Leonard asked for exchanges, which their teams finally accepted. The Timberwolves had a disastrous start to the season before finally sending Butler to the Philadelphia 76ers this week in a multiplayer contract.

The next test case

Davis, who signed his current contract in 2015, will be eligible for free will only after next season and has a player option to send back to 2020-21. But this tragedy will intensify in the coming months and could reach a peak this summer once it is entitled to a "supermax" contract extension worth an estimated $ 235 million over five years.

It is obvious for New Orleans to offer this deal to a double selection of the first team of the NBA, which dominates on both sides of the ground but remains versatile at 6 feet 10. Maybe Davis sign. Maybe he decides to line up on the stars of another team, thus creating a draw.

There are more and more players heading to other teams in front of the free agent, the Butler, George and Leonard, a move that some have called "pre-agency".

"It does not seem fair to me," said George Karl, a Denver coach eight years ago, when Carmelo Anthony was forced to leave his team to travel to the New York Knicks. "I'm not sure Jimmy Butler is happy with what he's feeling right now. I'm not sure Kawhi Leonard is happy with what happened. I'm not sure Melo liked what he did. "

This is not a new NBA phenomenon. Wilt Chamberlain asked for the trade that sent him 76ers to the Lakers in 1968. Six years later, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar directed the move that sent him from Milwaukee to the Lakers.

"The biggest of the biggest could make this request 25 years ago," said Karl. "But now, it seems like a star player can make this request. So there are 30 or 40 players who can do it. "

At his introductory press conference Tuesday in Philadelphia, Butler said that money was not the most important thing for him. But the rules almost seem to invite business demands.

Butler knew that he could sign a five-year contract extension and a maximum of $ 190 million with the Timberwolves, or any team that is negotiating for him. But if he waited for the contract to expire and sign elsewhere as a free agent, he would be limited to a $ 141 million four-year contract.

"The league tried to set up barriers where player retention was a priority, but it turned against us," said Bobby Marks, former assistant to the Nets chief executive and current ESPN analyst.

Last year, George had asked Indiana to settle in Oklahoma City, where he had finally signed a four-year contract extension. Leonard asked to leave San Antonio, hoping to join the Lakers, but the Spurs sent him to Toronto for the All Star Star DeMar DeRozan.

Wolves coach Tom Thibodeau said one of the changes that has occurred over the last decade has been to try to align with other teams together.

"They have relationships from high school through college," said Thibodeau. "They communicate with each other; in some cases, they share agents. They share [Team] The United States has a common experience, so there is a lot of interaction between them that probably did not exist many years ago. "

This modern era of super teams began in 2010 when James left Cleveland as a free agent, joining Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade in Miami. James is now waiting to mount a champion casting with the Lakers.

During the Lakers' visit to Minneapolis last month, at the height of Butler's drama, James was asked about the power of players compared to his NBA debut.

"The free agency did not start 15 years ago," said James, surrounded by reporters. "The exchanges did not start 15 years ago. The power of the athletes' voices did not start 15 years ago.

"I think personally, I have just been able to be in the right position. I think everything is a matter of timing to be able to control my destiny of what I wanted to do. "

The notes have not suffered

If Timberwolves fans are disenchanted with the Butler saga, the NBA as a whole did not seem to suffer. The ratings of the Leaguewide continue to climb.

"What happens, of course, works," said veteran Timberwolves Anthony Tolliver. "Until people stop looking, until people tell us otherwise, I'll say it."

Butler fanned the flames when he sent Wolves general manager Scott Layden a glowing message about how the team could not win without him. Butler then missed occasional games of rest or "general pain", leaving the team wondering whether he would play or not.

Earlier this month, Commissioner Adam Silver made his point.

"As a commissioner, you like to see players and teams fully honor their contracts," Silver told Athletic. "This is not something we would like to see, and to the extent that these discussions will take place, we still hope that they will be held in camera."

For star-crossed wolves, this was only one chapter among restless players wanting to go out.

After exchanging Kevin Garnett in Boston in 2007, he helped the Celtics win an NBA title.

Davis heard this story last February, during an interview with ESPN, hinting that this could also apply to his mandate with the Pelicans.

"I'm not going to lie, it makes you think," said Davis. "You wonder if you are following the same path."

Its future will crystallize next July with the expected supermax supply of pelicans – or perhaps sooner if New Orleans decides that an exchange is the only viable option.

The Big Easy is already sweating.