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When they gave up Zach LaVine in the now-infamous Jimmy Butler trade, the Minnesota Timberwolves understood they were taking a big risk by shipping away a young player with elite athleticism.
However, even if LaVine realized his potential with the Chicago Bulls, Minnesota could at least rest easy knowing they had an elite player in Butler to lead their team, right? Right?
Fast-forward a year and a half and the Timberwolves are living their worst-case scenario of the Jimmy Butler trade. Butler is not-so-secretly trying to force the team into trading him out of Minnesota and helping tank a season that was supposed to be competitive in the process, while LaVine seems headed for a breakout year after the Bulls matched his four-year offer sheet with the Kings this offseason.
Both of those facts were true going into Monday night, but they might have hit their peaks during the Bulls’ overtime win over the Knicks and the T-Wolves’ loss to the Clippers.
Zach LaVine sets career-high in points vs. Knicks
LaVine entered the Bulls’ date with the Knicks already on a torrid pace with 26.6 points per game, but then he went ahead and threw in a new career-high in points while leading the Bulls to a thrilling double-overtime win in Madison Square Garden.
In total, LaVine posted 41 points on 13-of-25 shooting with four assists, four rebounds and three steals. He spent the entire night slashing through the Knicks while also chipping in a trio of clutch three-pointers at the end of regulation.
It was a performance that pushed LaVine’s scoring average up to 27.9 points per game, which ranks seventh in the NBA, and had plenty of people thinking of LaVine as an All-Star.
Of course, LaVine and Butler weren’t the only players involved in the trade. Justin Patton, who went to Minnesota, has played in one career game due to multiple fractures in his left foot. On the Bulls’ side, Kris Dunn and Lauri Markkanen are out with injuries, but have the potential to make trade even more lopsided when they return.
Jimmy Butler’s performance too little, too late
Butler seemed headed for one of the worst performances of his career on Monday against the Clippers, entering the fourth quarter with four points on 1-of-6 shooting.
Fortunately, Butler very much woke up and scored nine points in the first two minutes of the fourth quarter. Unfortunately, the T-Wolves began the quarter down eight points and never regained the lead despite Butler’s heroics.
Minnesota eventually lost 120-109, dropping them to 4-7 and into last place in the Northwest division. Butler’s stat line over the team’s last four games now reads DNP, 21 points on 23 shots, DNP, 20 points on 13 shots. That might not help a ton with his trade value.
Is this the low point for the T-Wolves’ trade?
The Butler trade certainly looks bad for Minnesota now, but has it ever looked worse? Given that Butler played at an All-Star level last year and the Timberwolves made the playoffs, Minnesota probably wasn’t regretting the trade too much no matter how well Markkanen, Dunn and LaVine played.
The offseason probably wasn’t too tense either, because as soon as it became apparent Butler and Minnesota were going to through with this whole fiasco, they received a reprieve when Markkanen went down with an elbow sprain.
Giving up Markkanen and LaVine for Butler looked pretty bad when Butler started pushing for a trade. But then LaVine caught fire.. Now, the Bulls appear to have a budding star on their hands, as well as a member of last year’s all-rookie team in Markkanen, while Minnesota’s leverage went up in smoke when the season started.
With LaVine growing the hype even more on Monday, there might never be a worse time to be the Timberwolves watching the Jimmy Butler trade play out.
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