Tom Thibodeau never seemed to be fully on board with trading Jimmy Butler, but the Minnesota Timberwolves coach has to face reality now that Butler is officially a member of the Philadelphia 76ers. On Monday, Thibodeau opened up a bit about the process that led to Butler finally being dealt.
When asked about the level of interest the Timberwolves received in Butler from other teams, Thibodeau said there were plenty of solid offers.
“It was fine,” he said. “We knew we had to be patient. We felt we had a few offers that were good. Once we got the offers to the point where we felt good about what the offers were, we thought this was the best one for us so we executed.”
One interesting claim Thibodeau made was that the report about Butler giving the Timberwolves a list of his preferred destinations was not true.
Thibodeau denied the initial report about Jimmy Butler’s shortlist, claims the all-star never specifically asked about the #Nets and #knicks. #nyk
— Brian Lewis (@NYPost_Lewis) November 12, 2018
I’ll point out that all the reports at the time about Butler’s shortlist were extremely credible. Just passing along Thibodeau’s comments. #Nets #Knicks #nyk
— Brian Lewis (@NYPost_Lewis) November 12, 2018
Initial reports claimed that Butler wanted to play in a big market like New York or Los Angeles, so he supposedly told Minnesota he would prefer to be sent to the Knicks, Nets or Clippers. Another team was later added to the mix and it sounded like they were going to land Butler, but talks continued to fall apart anytime progress was made.
All indications were that Thibodeau wanted to keep Butler, but that didn’t matter to the start swingman. It also didn’t matter to Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor, who did not want to give off the impression that there was dysfunction within his organization. Regardless of what Thibodeau says about the deal with the 76ers, it was not outcome he had hoped for.
