J-Speaks: Butler Traded to the City of "Brotherly Love"

Over the summer, then Minnesota Timberwolves All-Star swingman Jimmy Butler turned down a four-year, $110 million contract extension and asked for trade in a meeting with Team President and head coach Tom Thibodeau where he asked to land in either the “Big Apple” or the “City of Angels.” That dissention from the second half of last season, where the T’Wolves made the playoffs for the first time in 13 years has carried over into this season where the team sits with a 4-9 mark currently. In a game of supposed chicken, it was a matter not when the Timberwolves front office would blink and trade Butler but when, and to where. That decision came over the weekend where Butler was traded not to New York or L.A. but to the “City of Brotherly Love.” 

In a trade that occurred over the weekend and was approved by the NBA office on Monday, the T’Wolves dealt Butler along with second-year center Justin Patton to the Philadelphia 76ers for starting forwards Dario Saric and Robert Covington, reserve veteran guard Jerryd Bayless and a 2022 Second-Round pick. 

Butler, who is averaging 21.3 points, 5.2 rebounds and 2.4 steals so far this season on 47.1 percent from the field and 37.8 percent from three-point range for the T’Wolves in 10 games played will be formally introduced in a press conference on Tuesday and is expected to make his Sixers’ debut on Wednesday night at the Orlando Magic (6-7). It will the back end of a back-to-back as the Sixers will play at the Miami Heat on Monday night. 

The acquisition of  the 29-year-old Butler gives the Sixers a legitimate “Big Three” as he joins reigning Kia Rookie of the Year in lead guard Ben Simmons and All-Star center Joel Embiid on a team that has high expectations to come out of the East this spring. 

“We add another All-Star to the team, definitely,” Simmons said to ESPN’s Tim MacMahon before the Sixers 112-106 overtime loss at the Memphis Grizzlies (7-4) about the acquisition of Butler. “A guy like him who can come in, score the ball. Veteran leadership, experience. I think he’s going to fit in here.” 

“Our culture is winning, playing together as a team, and playing hard. So, I think he’s going to bring that.” 

Embiid echoed those same sentiments said Butler will help them a great deal offensively and defensively, and he is “excited to see where he takes us.”

To put into context the kind of team that Butler got dealt to, the Sixers won a total of 47 games the past three seasons between 2013-2016. They won a total of 52 games and made the playoffs for the first time since 2012 and won a playoff series for the first time since that spring. The No. 3 Seeded Sixers defeated the No. 6 Seeded Miami Heat in five games in the opening round before falling in the Semis to the East runner-up Boston Celtics in five games. 

The expectations which were extremely high entering this season were just risen even more with Butler coming on board. 

The bigger question though is the newest “Big Three” make up for the sudden depletion of depth with Saric and Covington, who in their combined with the team made 398 starts including the playoffs no longer in the picture? 

Hall of Famer and former Sixer and NBA on TNT studio analyst Charles Barkley said that this deal made the Sixers better than they were. 

“I do worry a little about their depth now,” he added. “Because they gave up really two starters. They got one back but Saric coming off the bench was really a terrific player.” 

“So, I worry about their depth but you know what they had to do some because they were not going to win the way they were structured.” 

For the T’Wolves, this trade brings an end to two-month saga where unless unforeseeable happens like the boys from the “Twin Cities” got off to a hot start this season that Butler was going to traded. 

He told Thibodeau, who was also his coach with the Chicago Bulls, who drafted him 30^th overall in the 2011 draft out of the Marquette University at the end of last season, on several occasions over the summer and even before the start of training camp that he wanted out. 

That forced the team’s owner Glen Taylor, general manager Scott Layden, and Thibodeau’s hand because it was obvious that with Butler’s upcoming unrestricted free agency in the summer of 2019 he was not going to re-sign. So that left the T’Wolves with the options of finding the best deal to get most you can in return or lose Butler in free agency for nothing. 

Taylor was the one more motivated to trade Butler than Thibodeau. So much so that he engaged himself at the ownership level with other teams. 

“I made it clear to Jimmy that [if] there’s a deal and it’s not good for us then we’re not interested, and it may not be a team that you wanted to go to,” Thibodeau said at the team’s Media Day on Sept. 24. 

Thibodeau chose to play the hand of bring him into training camp and see if he can smooth things out with him and the rest of the team.

The T’Wolves and the Miami Heat had talks in early October about acquiring Butler but those talks fell apart to where Heat president and Hall of Famer Pat Riley said in a phone call with the team to get their “[expletive] house in order.”

When Butler arrived for his first practice with the team on Oct. 10, he more than made his presence felt as he challenged the organization and the team’s young stars in All-Star center Karl-Anthony Towns and talented swingman and former Kia Rookie of the Year Andrew Wiggins, whose play on the floor has suffered under this dark cloud. 

To put this point into context, with Butler on the floor, Wiggins and Towns averaged per 36 minutes 18.2 and 14.6 points respectably this season. With Butler off the floor, the two averaged 27.4 and 23.0 points respectably.

Butler during that practiced even expressed his feelings to Layden yelling during that practice “You [expletive] need me.” 

He said of that practice in an interview with “NBA: The Jump” host Rachel Nichols in an interview one day later, “I think that I was honest.” 

“Was I brutally honest, yes. But I think that’s the problem. Everybody’s so scared to be honest with one another.” 

When Nichols asked if the situation was fixable, Butler said, “It could be. It could be.” 

For Butler, he carried on as if all was fine with the world and he got the fans on his side as he turned boos at the start of the team’s home opener against the Cleveland Cavaliers to MVP chants as he scored 33 points on 10 for 12 shooting and 12 for 12 from the free throw line with seven boards and four steals in the 131-123 win on Oct. 19. 

“The boos I’m okay with it,” Butler said after the win to reporters in the team’s locker room. “You’re allowed to dislike me but can’t say I don’t play to win.”

Unfortunately, Butler’s energy and focused did not trickle down to the rest of his teammates, especially on their recent five-game road trip where they went 0-5 and just 24 hours following the fifth loss on that five-game West Coast swing at the Sacramento Kings (7-6) 121-110 on Friday night a report came out from ESPN NBA Insider that Butler was traded to the Sixers. 

For both the 76ers and the Timberwolves, this trade has in some ways given them a fresh start. For the Sixers, they added a prime-time player to their young super star duo and they have a real opportunity to win the East if things all come together. 

Senior NBA writer of “The Undefeated” Marc J. Spears said on Monday’s edition of “NBA: The Jump” that if Simmons, Embiid, and Butler really want to make this partnership work, they should call future Hall of Famer Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce to come meet with them and discuss how they along with Hall of Famer Ray Allen made it work when all three were with the C’s and helped them win a championship in 2008 and nearly won another in 2010. 

“They have a chance to be the dominant team perhaps in East, maybe in a year or so,” Spears said, “but they have to be on the same page.” 

“So, I think all three of them need to spend some time together off the court and figure each other out, and Jimmy has to fit in more than those guys fit in with Jimmy.” 

For Butler, he really has to not only play well on the floor but he has to co-exist better with Simmons and Embiid. He wanted out of the “Twin Cities” because he felt like the rest of the team specifically Towns and Wiggins did not play at the level that he brought to practice and to games. He felt the same way about how his time with the Chicago Bulls, who traded him to the T’Wolves for guard Zach LaVine and now second-year forward Lauri Markkanen on draft night 2017. 

Butler went from being the last pick in the First-Round of the draft eight years ago into one of the best two-way players in “The Association.” He did it through hard work and determination. What he has to do with the Sixers is bring that same work ethic without all the antics. Let your play do your talking and have the rest of the team followed your lead that way. If he does, the fanbase will love him, and he will get that max deal from the Sixers or someone else. If he does not, that same fanbase will turn on him in a second.

Embiid said over the weekend that he spoke to Wiggins after initials reports of the trade where he said, “Wiggs told me that he thought that we we’re going to win the East for sure.” 

While the trade has put the Sixers into the mix of capturing the East, their Atlantic Division rivals in the previously mentioned Celtics, Toronto Raptors and Milwaukee Bucks might have something to say about that.  

For the T’Wolves the trade cleared the air that was very toxic in their locker room and brought in two very good players as mentioned in Saric and Covington. The question for them is what will the team and their two stars in Towns and Wiggins do with this new life?

Talent wise Towns and Wiggins are two of the best in the NBA, but for them the reason why Butler wanted out is because he felt they did not play up to the contract extensions they received over the past two summers. 

Butler exposed their softness in that first practice and now going forward they have a lot to prove. Can they lead the T’Wolves back to the playoffs? Can they become the stars of the future that many in the organization hope they can become? 

As ESPN.com’s Jackie MacMullan said on “NBA: The Jump” that Towns and Wiggins got a public humiliation that rarely happens to players of their stature in that practice in early October by Butler. 

Hopefully they learned from that experience and will take the leadership role on the team by the throat. If they do, there is a chance they can get back to the playoffs. If they do not, it will only prove Butler right about their toughness. 

How this trade will work for both the 76ers and Timberwolves remains to be seen. It will be fun to watch how this plays out in an NBA season that has given us one great story after another.    

Information, statistics, and quotations are courtesy of 11/12/18 3 p.m. edition of “NBA: The Jump” on ESPN with Rachel Nichols, Jackie MacMullan, and Marc J. Spears; 11/12/18 www.nba.com story, “76ers, Wolves Complete Swap for All-Star Butler,” by Tim Reynolds of “The Associated Press;” www.espn.com/nba/standings; and www.espn.com/nba/player/gamelog/_/id/6430/jimmy-butler.