Timberwolves, Jimmy Butler and the dangers of Limbo basketball



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<p class = "canvas-atom web-text Mb (1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm" type = "text" content = "The Minnesota Timberwolves started their season so that it does not serve exactly to nobody. Trade request from Jimmy Butler To date, all the Wolves have done quite well (2-2, with a win and a loss for the probable lottery teams) not to force the discussion. Tom Thibodeau, as demanding as he is, can not be at all satisfied with the team's clumsy defensive performance, although he finds some encouragement in his last effort against the Pacers. Karl-Anthony Towns was purely and simply good at a time when the franchise needs more. There was no abject disaster or promising development in those early days. Data-reactid = "11"> The Minnesota Timberwolves have started their season in a way that does not serve anyone. Jimmy Butler's request for an exchange has not been fulfilled yet, while the Wolves have done pretty well (2-2, with a win and a loss for the probable lottery teams) to avoid to force the discussion. Tom Thibodeau, as demanding as he is, can not be at all satisfied with the team's clumsy defensive performance, although he finds some encouragement in his last effort against the Pacers. Karl-Anthony Towns was purely and simply good at a time when the franchise needs more. There was no abject disaster or promising development in those early days. Only walking ahead of a team without much of an alternative.

This is what basketball limbs look like. Wolves do not know and can not know what they are until Butler's situation is resolved. Until then, their season gives way to the subtext. Was it significant that Minnesota started their match against Indiana by looking for Towns, again and again, while Butler waited in the corner? Does Butler play a more independent and self-sufficient game than usual, or does he just feel that way? Most exchange requests are quickly processed to avoid this type of ambiguity. Once a player has voluntarily and openly cast his own motives in doubt, all bets are open.

Thibodeau will tell you, each team faces adversity. Still, this episode with Butler is more basic than your average NBA tiff; The first defining act of these wolves was the best player on the team, clearly indicating that he did not want to be part of it. They build on a fault line. At a time when the rest of the league was strengthening concepts and culture, Minnesota was controlling the damage – insisting that everything was as before, that there was nothing to see here, that Butler was mocking his teammates and the reception was somewhat exaggerated. What we are seeing now is the spinoffs of this defense: a reality where even the most complete performance of the team in this young season is secondary to the discontent expressed.

Any progress made by Minnesota can be canceled by a phone call. When Taylor Taylor, majority owner of Thibodeau and the Wolves, will eventually find satisfactory business conditions, Butler will likely have disappeared. The team's infrastructure will be fundamentally altered, from the orientation of the offensive to the missions assigned to the defense, including the construction of the rotation. Each advance is ephemeral. As impressive as Minnesota's second unit was, much of its success stems from the astonishing Butler, which was fitting, since it was supposedly Butler's play with the reserves against the first team which literally relativized all this internal anxiety. The guarantee that can normally be found in wolf jamming coverage on Monday night is rather subject to an urgent expiration date. There remains little valuable evidence that Minnesota can defend at all without Butler in the formation, and yet its exit remains the most likely outcome. This team depends on Butler, even now, in the case of Stockholm All-Star Syndrome.

To be honest, Wolves have nothing that looks like an easy way out. It would be healthier for Minnesota's internal dynamics to move Butler as soon as possible, but any reluctance to do so would be understandable. Exchanging a star with this product is the kind of irreversible act that only makes sense when all the other options have been exhausted. Even then, Thibodeau has only one chance to make the most of his leveraged position. Timberwolves should be as patient as possible.

In the meantime, who could rightly blame Minnesota for relying on Butler while he can, especially when every match could be crucial for their playoff pursuit? Butler's great indignity would cry out "You need me" and "You can not win without me," said Wolves general manager Scott Layden at this now infamous practice: Butler was essentially right. It was also, as they say in garbage, a strange oratory from a player intent on forcing the player out.

If you want Parse Butler to get along as you will (with later comments to Rachel Nichols on the money and the feeling that it is "necessary"), most of the readings of the situation are complex. The exchange request itself is simple and straightforward. All the rest is a tangled mess, up to the games themselves and what Minnesota can take from them.

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