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ORIGINAL: JT2

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ORIGINAL: David Levine

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ORIGINAL: JT2

I'm a Siakam fan, and with Ibaka and Valanciunas getting older, I'm expecting big things from him this year.

I'm excited to see Kawhi and OG as a wing tandem. Plus I'm intrigued by their new coach.

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Giannis and Milwaukee could become scary good soon. Shedding Parker and adding Ilyasova makes them much better defensively, and now they finally have a C that can score.

Plus no team upgraded more at HC this offseason than the Bucks. (Although I also love the Fizdale upgrade in NY)

Huge upgrade. Of course going coachless would be an upgrade over Kidd.

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ORIGINAL: David Levine

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ORIGINAL: JT2

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ORIGINAL: David Levine

At least the league is giving us Boston/Philly tonight so we can forget about our woes for a couple hours.

That game should be fun. Starting Fultz makes Philly much better defensively on the perimeter.

The other game, probably not so fun. Schroeder, and his complete lack of defense, will make things extremely easy for Curry.

Its interesting that while the West is stacked, 4 of the 5 teams I'm most interested in watching are in the East.

Philly/Boston/Toronto/Milwaukee/Utah

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ORIGINAL: David Levine

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ORIGINAL: TJSweens

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ORIGINAL: David Levine

That's just not accurate at all. Not only has the deadline to rework his contract passed, but Miami had no way to clear nearly enough cap space to do it. Miami would absolutely need to wait until next offseason to do anything about his contract.

All of which adds to the difficulty in getting any value for him at this point. Teams will be reluctant to part with meaningful assets up front with no guarantee of resigning him even with Bird rights. The Miami offer may have been less than ideal, but that is the reality of what happens when a clusterfuck of an an ownership / FO lets things spiral out of control to this degree. A better offer is not waiting down the road unless all parties reign in the dysfunction.

But that happens all the time. Leonard and George are the 2 most recent examples. Bird Rights are super important because very few teams will have the cap space to sign Butler outright in the offseason, and even fewer that he'd want to go to will have it.

If teams like Miami or Houston want to add a superstar, the only way to do it is through trade - and Butler is the only one currently on the block.

And there probably are better offers down the road. Once December 15th roles around a ton of good players become eligible for trade.

I could also see Miami really struggle out of the gate in an improving Eastern Conference as they don't have a star player and panic sets in.

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ORIGINAL: TJSweens

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ORIGINAL: David Levine

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ORIGINAL: TJSweens

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ORIGINAL: David Levine

That's just not accurate at all. Not only has the deadline to rework his contract passed, but Miami had no way to clear nearly enough cap space to do it. Miami would absolutely need to wait until next offseason to do anything about his contract.

All of which adds to the difficulty in getting any value for him at this point. Teams will be reluctant to part with meaningful assets up front with no guarantee of resigning him even with Bird rights. The Miami offer may have been less than ideal, but that is the reality of what happens when a clusterfuck of an an ownership / FO lets things spiral out of control to this degree. A better offer is not waiting down the road unless all parties reign in the dysfunction.

But that happens all the time. Leonard and George are the 2 most recent examples. Bird Rights are super important because very few teams will have the cap space to sign Butler outright in the offseason, and even fewer that he'd want to go to will have it.

If teams like Miami or Houston want to add a superstar, the only way to do it is through trade - and Butler is the only one currently on the block.

And there probably are better offers down the road. Once December 15th roles around a ton of good players become eligible for trade.

I could also see Miami really struggle out of the gate in an improving Eastern Conference as they don't have a star player and panic sets in.

Sorry David, I just don't share your overall level of optimism of ultimately getting value on this one. I see a star player with a lot of hard miles on his body and prone to going nuclear, who wants to be paid like a superstar somewhere else; potential trade partners who see us trading from a position of weakness and are thus trying to low ball us; those same trade partners also have to determine how much they actually are willing to pay this asshole given his injury and attitude issues, a POBO who doesn't want to trade Butler and will do anything in his power not to, and all of this doesn't factor in the basic reality that the Wolves organization could f*ck up a one car parade. Unless Butler and Towns can agree to swallow their pride, join hands and sing kumbaya for the sake of their shared desire to get Butler the hell out of here, I don't see a great return down the road. I appreciate you trying to talk me off the ledge, but any sense of optimism I had has been spent. I hope to be delightfully surprised, but I am not holding my breath.

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ORIGINAL: TJSweens

The problem here is in trying to apply a rational and logical argument to anything Timberwolves. Like I said, my optimism has had the living dog shit kicked out of it by being a fan of this team for so long. I will pessimistically expect the situation and our eventual return to only get worse, until it's proven otherwise. I don't have it in me to have any hope about it anymore.

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ORIGINAL: David Levine

My one saving grace is Thibs has not made any bad trades.

The trade for Butler was very good.

Trading Rubio was a bad basketball decision, but he still got good value in the deal.

Turning down Butler for Richardson/Winslow/1st round pick was the right move.

He didn't trade for Rose, Deng or Noah when he had ample opportunities/offers to do so.

He's resisted trading away 1st round picks for moderate upgrades (CJ Miles).

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ORIGINAL: David Levine

From the StarTrib....

Taylor was asked to assess how Tom Thibodeau, the Wolves coach and president of basketball operations, has handled the Butler situation.

"Well, I'm OK with it," Taylor said. "Initially, when Butler told [Thibodeau] he wanted to leave, you know Tom did everything he could to try to keep Jimmy here and I understand that. They have a close relationship.

"Thibs brought him here so that he would stay here. But eventually I think that in listening to Jimmy, Thibs and I are lined up on this. We need to be looking at a trade."

Thibodeau has three years left on a five-year contract worth about $40 million. Is he coaching for his job?

"No, no, the only thing now is that we are starting to play games and I am asking him to concentrate on coaching," Taylor said. "GM Scott Layden will help to see if any trades are available."

Some media outlets this week reported Butler requested a trade immediately following the Wolves' exit from the playoffs last season. Taylor said as far as he knows, that is incorrect.

"Back about three weeks ago, when [Butler's request] came out in the news, Thibodeau called me and said that he had a meeting with Butler out on the West Coast, and Butler had told him at that time he wanted to be traded," Taylor recalled. "That was the first I had heard anything about it."

While supposedly the reason Butler wants out is because he questions the work ethic of Towns and Wiggins, Taylor said all three players have told him they can collaborate on the court.

"When I ask them, they all have said they can play together in the games," he said. "I don't know why they wouldn't be telling me their true feelings."

Is Taylor still happy he hired Thibodeau in April of 2016?

"Yes, yes, he is a good coach and I have faith in him," he said.

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ORIGINAL: David Levine

I think there is a really good chance KAT's relationship with the Wolves is irreconcilably destroyed over the season, and he asks for a trade over the summer.

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ORIGINAL: twinsfan

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ORIGINAL: David Levine

I think there is a really good chance KAT's relationship with the Wolves is irreconcilably destroyed over the season, and he asks for a trade over the summer.

IMO he is too young and not far enough into his career to have the cache to demand a trade.

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ORIGINAL: David Levine

Wow.

KG just said on live TV that "Glen Taylor doesn't know shit about basketball".

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ORIGINAL: El Duderino

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ORIGINAL: David Levine

Wow.

KG just said on live TV that "Glen Taylor doesn't know shit about basketball".

As the kids say on the twitter, I don't see no lie here.

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ORIGINAL: David Levine

This season is going to be a dumpster fire.

Glen isn't going to fire Thibs, creating tons of conflict with the minority owners and operations people.

But Taylor promised Jimmy face-to-face that he'd trade him.

Thibs has no desire to trade Jimmy, and has been actively making things difficult with other GMs.

Jimmy promised to only be a passive aggressive asshole instead of a fully aggressive one - provided Taylor keeps his word and actively seeks to trade him.

KAT was told Jimmy and Thibs would be gone, and he and his agent are furious about what is happening.

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ORIGINAL: twinsfan

I wish we woulda made that trade with the Sixers. Hopefully it's still an option, but I doubt it. Teams don't wanna rethink their strategy once the regular season begins. It's not like baseball or hockey.