More on Jimmy Butler to Sixers?
The Sixers have agreed to trade forwards Dario Saric and Robert Covington as part of a package to acquire All-Star forward Jimmy Butler on Saturday, a team source confirmed to PhillyVoice. ... The 2022 second-round pick [headed to the Timberwolves] will be whichever is the better pick between Philadelphia's and Denver's. The Sixers picked up the option to swap seconds with Denver in their trade for Wilson Chandler this past summer.
Including the $30.7M Jimmy Butler free agent hold, Philadelphia will have roughly $21M in cap space for 2019-20. The room includes renouncing all free agents except for Butler and TJ McConnell. The 76ers would be close to adding another max slot if they find a home for former first overall pick Markelle Fultz.
For Timberwolves and president/coach Tom Thibodeau, accepting two players unlikely to crack his rotation and four draft picks with uncertain conditions was a non-starter, sources said. Around the NBA, there’s belief that the Heat and Philadelphia 76ers could re-emerge in the Butler discussions.
Sources familiar with the situation insist the Sixers' interest in Butler has been overstated throughout the process. High-ranking members of the front office have noted Butler's clashing with the young pieces surrounding him in Minnesota, primarily Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins, and remain wary of introducing Butler's personality into a locker room and culture they have spent years building under head coach Brett Brown, as PhillyVoice reported in mid-September.
There have been steady rumbles around the league in recent days that the 76ers will ultimately give the Heat some competition in the Butler Sweepstakes, after it appeared for the longest time that Miami was the only team seriously interested in trading for Butler before he becomes a free agent. Let's see.
Adrian Wojnarowski: "Houston, to me, is the one team in this entire process, the only team in this process, who can rightly believe, 'If we trade for Jimmy Butler, we think he helps us win a championship this year.' There's not another team who can say that who's really involved in this. The one team that has been on the periphery, and I still think could be heard from in this, is Philadelphia. Because I think they're a little like Houston right now in that they're evaluating themselves and they're saying, 'Not only are not sure we didn't improve from last year, I'm not sure we'll even be the same team.'"
Adrian Wojnarowski: "I still think Philadelphia may be heard from again in this, and Miami, I don't think they've given up on the idea of Jimmy Butler, but Houston is the one team who says, 'OK, we want to win it, this is our window, it's in the next couple of years, and right now we're probably not good enough to do it.'"
Taylor has tasked general manager Scott Layden with the focus of finding a trade, as Thibodeau concentrates on coaching the team. Miami and Philadelphia remain teams interested in potential deals for Butler, and Taylor has hoped that those teams would become more aggressive in their offers to pry Butler, league sources said.
But the Warriors won't have four in-their-prime stars forever. Chris Paul is 33. Towns has a chance to be the most versatile scoring big man in history. You're gonna leave that dude to go to Miami and play with ... who? You're gonna move to Brooklyn, even though Irving scuttled the dream of teaming up there? Philly would be a different story, and Butler has eyes for them, sources familiar with the matter say. The Sixers have expressed almost no interest in trading for him, sources say. There is some theoretical road map to a Clippers team-up with Leonard.
The Minnesota Timberwolves reportedly sought Ben Simmons in a potential Jimmy Butler trade with the Philadelphia 76ers. Appearing on The Bill Simmons Podcast on Thursday, The Ringer's Kevin O'Connor explained just how high the Timberwolves' asking price is for their disgruntled shooting guard: "One of the things that I've heard from a handful of sources is that—with the Sixers for example—the initial offer that they made, the counter-offer was like, 'We need Ben Simmons in a deal.'"
Sam Amick: All the noise about Jimmy Butler yesterday was about Miami, but it’s clear Minnesota’s price tag remains extremely high. To highlight one rumored team, I’m told Philly is currently completely out of the JB situation and has never had any traction after preliminary discussions.
Darren Wolfson: Interesting day that isn't close to being over. Have a few min. to post videos. Here's Thibs/Layden on Butler trade request. See @ Jon Krawczynski saying to not sleep on Nets, LAC, Philly, which I have heard. Heard Kings today too. Heat still pushing.
Would the Sixers entertain the idea of acquiring Butler if he came at a massive discount on the trade market? Almost certainly. They're not in the business of turning down the opportunity to acquire a star player for next to nothing, and they're not unique in that sense. In a competitive marketplace, with Butler declaring a preferred destination list that doesn't include Philadelphia? That's a different story. There's a reason the Sixers have continued to lock down one-year deals and not rock the boat after striking out on max free agents this summer — they like what they have in place, and they don't necessarily want to disrupt that with unnecessary or unworthy risk.
PhillyVoice conducted numerous discussions with people around the team after the Butler trade demand broke Wednesday, and my sense is the Sixers are extremely wary of the idea of Butler, specifically related to the clashes he's had with young teammates in both Chicago and Minnesota. The role players they have around their stars double as their most valuable movable trade chips, and the Sixers value their character as much as their output. ... Never say never, but Butler to Philadelphia seems like an unlikely proposition at this stage. With young stars in the fold and strong culture years in the making, the Sixers seem to view chasing Butler's upside as a risk they'd rather let someone else take.
