The Ringer - Everything You Need to Know About the Jimmy Butler Trade2018-11-14T23:18:04-05:00http://www.theringer.com/rss/stream/178512552018-11-14T23:18:04-05:002018-11-14T23:18:04-05:00Fitting Jimmy Butler in Is Going to Be a Process
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<img alt="Philadelphia 76ers v Orlando Magic" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/oiib5HFP_J-0bexvN4qV-UAcpnU=/0x0:2668x2001/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/62333264/1061534378.jpg.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Photo by Alex Menendez/Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p>It took five years and a whole lot of losses for Philly to find its Big Three. But the fourth quarter of Butler’s Sixers debut showed the team still has a long way to go to sort out its new reality.</p> <p id="r4yclS">The Sixers’ final eight minutes against the Magic on Wednesday night felt like a training simulation out of an X-Men comic, with Philadelphia coach Brett Brown assuming the role of Professor X, corralling his team into the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danger_Room">Danger Room</a> for a little critical-situation exercise. The game flow had suddenly aligned itself with the numbers we were all waiting to see tested: What happens when the one of the least-efficient fourth-quarter teams adds Jimmy Butler, <a href="https://stats.nba.com/players/traditional/?sort=PTS&dir=-1&Season=2018-19&SeasonType=Regular%20Season&Period=4">who is tied for the top spot in the league in fourth-quarter scoring</a>?</p>
<div class="c-float-right"><aside id="iGLYAB"><div data-anthem-component="readmore" data-anthem-component-data='{"stories":[{"title":"A Close Reading of Jimmy Butler’s First Day on the Job in Philadelphia","url":"https://www.theringer.com/nba/2018/11/14/18095283/jimmy-butler-press-conferences"},{"title":"Did Jimmy Butler Get What He Wanted?","url":"https://www.theringer.com/nba/2018/11/12/18088424/did-jimmy-butler-get-what-he-wanted-philadelphia-sixers"},{"title":"Everything You Need to Know About the Jimmy Butler Trade","url":"https://www.theringer.com/nba/2018/11/12/18087214/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-jimmy-butler-trade"}]}'></div></aside></div>
<p id="XtEG8k">But even when stars align, NBA games aren’t always in the business of wish fulfillment. Philly led by 16 with just under 11 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, but coughed up the lead through a drawn-out series of settled midrange pull-ups from both Joel Embiid and Butler. Whatever heroics were promised with Butler’s arrival would have to wait. In the game-clinching possession, Brown called for an after-timeout play to free up JJ Redick for a routine 3 off a Ben Simmons dribble handoff. After Redick and Butler curled figure-eights around screens set by Embiid and Mike Muscala to clear the right side of the floor, it was all up to Simmons and Redick to tie the game. Redick always vacuum-seals these handoff situations and maneuvers around a screen as tightly as possible to effectively wall off two defenders at once. Unfortunately, down three with just under seven seconds remaining to go, Redick realized what Sixers fans had already discovered this game: There just isn’t enough space. Simmons set his screen right where the right wing and corner connect, leaving Redick no room to squeeze around him. Redick stepped out of bounds. The Sixers lost, 111-106, in the first game of their new Big Three era. </p>
<p id="TU5C1D">For however long this feeling-out process lasts, the onus will be on Brown, who has been gifted just about everything he could have wanted this season (a fully functioning Markelle Fultz notwithstanding). In the first game of the Sixers’ new season, Brown began experimenting, trotting out supersized lineups with at least three 6-foot-10 sentinels on the court at once, and, strangely, opting to use up about 40 seconds of play in the first quarter without <em>any </em>of his three stars. When Brown did stagger his cornerstones, he opted to play Butler and Simmons together, likely to allow the two to get a feel for each other’s tendencies in game action. It went about as well as you’d expect of two power guards who would rather create opportunities close to the basket with the ball in their hands. Even successful possessions were almost painfully awkward.</p>
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<p id="8Ku5z3">The Sixers got an easy spot-up 3 at the top of the arc off a Simmons pass to Landry Shamet in the play above, but in the process of creating the shot, Butler and Simmons show just how cramped the floor can get when Simmons is down in the paint. Butler is forced to pass to Simmons along the baseline because Simmons is occupying his landing zone. The two are so talented that they suck four different Magic defenders into their vortex, but the Sixers acquired a third star to take advantage of an unlimited slate of mismatches, not to make the most of a bad situation. The Butler-Simmons dynamic will be something to monitor during the next 10 games; Simmons, while a willing screener, didn’t make the most of his opportunities away from the ball to lure defenders away from the action. The Sixers won’t ask Simmons to be shooting spot-up 3s any time soon, but if he isn’t going to space the floor traditionally, then Brown will have to find spots on the floor where he can influence the offense when it’s in Butler’s possession. The Sixers will surely need more than the pedestrian performance (nine points, three rebounds, six assists) than they got on Wednesday night. Simmons’s five shots were the fewest he’s taken this season outside of one game when he was in foul trouble and another game in which he played eight minutes.</p>
<p id="CHMLGe">If there was a bright spot in the Sixers’ performance on Wednesday, it was how comfortable Butler felt as the <em>second </em>option on the team. After his incendiary exit from Minnesota, you’d be forgiven if you found it hard to see past Butler’s domineering personality to find a former role player who has the skills to mesh with just about any team in the league. Butler was in the 92nd percentile of all NBA players at scoring off of cuts in 2015-16 with the Bulls, generating <a href="https://stats.nba.com/players/cut/?Season=2015-16&SeasonType=Regular%20Season&PerMode=Totals&sort=Poss&dir=1">1.53 points per possession on 126 possessions</a>; that number fell to an average of 65 possessions during the next two seasons. He is one of the smartest cutters in the league, and will be in a position to maximize his offensive output with easy buckets on feeds from Simmons and Embiid. </p>
<p class="c-end-para" id="ieyssI">“This, right here, right now, feels like the start of something big,” Marc Zumoff, the NBC Sports Philadelphia play-by-play broadcaster, said before Wednesday’s game. It very well could be. The Sixers have as much front-end talent as any team east of the Mississippi. But if there’s one thing the past decade of basketball has taught us, it’s that superteams take time. Unless you’re Kevin Durant joining one of the greatest teams in NBA history, incorporating a star into a prefunctioning system isn’t a matter of arithmetic. This may not be where Butler ultimately belongs, but he has all the tools to make it work. The pressure, then, might swing over to his teammates. </p>
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https://www.theringer.com/nba/2018/11/14/18096263/fitting-jimmy-butler-in-is-going-to-be-a-processDanny Chau2018-11-14T14:06:46-05:002018-11-14T14:06:46-05:00A Close Reading of Jimmy Butler’s First Day on the Job in Philadelphia
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<img alt="Images of Jimmy Butler at his opening press conferences in both Minnesota and Philadelphia" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/STSAPwAfyYb2A8FhAL1uMkzA4WI=/167x0:2834x2000/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/62329598/jimmy_butler_press_conferences_AP_Ringer.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>AP Images/Ringer illustration</figcaption>
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<p>Comparing what the disgruntled superstar said at his opening press conferences with the Timberwolves and 76ers</p> <p id="zDOLtV">It’s not true that you never get a second chance to make a first impression. For example, if you’re a chronically disgruntled NBA star like Jimmy Butler, you get three and counting. On Tuesday, Butler got a chance to make his latest first impression, this time for the Philadelphia media and, by extension, 76ers fans.</p>
<p id="MiGgDi">Given that at the time of his introductory press conference for the Chicago Bulls he was entering the NBA as the 30th overall pick in the 2011 draft, a slot from which the optimistic outcome is generally a solid rotation player, not much can reasonably be gleaned from Butler’s first interaction with the Chicago media. However, after turning himself into not just a role player but the 2015 Most Improved Player, an All-Star, and the best player on the team amid former MVP Derrick Rose’s injury issues, Butler grew discontent with the middling Bulls’ young locker room. Eventually, he forced the trade that reunited him with Tom Thibodeau in Minnesota. There, he arrived as a star, and with him came fanfare and optimism. That first impression would be a sign of things to come.</p>
<p id="RYeOMk">Unfortunately for the Timberwolves, it would not be a sign of good things to come. After leading Minnesota to its first postseason berth since the heyday of Kevin Garnett, history began to repeat itself. Butler again grew discontent with his young teammates. He demanded a trade, embarrassed the youngsters at practice <a href="https://www.theringer.com/nba/2018/10/10/17962184/jimmy-butler-holy-shit">to prove a point</a>, and, with the drama-embroiled Wolves off to a slow start, <a href="https://www.theringer.com/nba/2018/11/12/18088424/did-jimmy-butler-get-what-he-wanted-philadelphia-sixers">got his wish last weekend with a trade to Philadelphia</a>. On Tuesday, he arrived in a new city, for the second time in less than 18 months, again bringing fanfare and optimism, but this time wariness too.</p>
<h3 id="se1ClZ">Caveats</h3>
<p id="CHUUyv">Butler’s first press conference in Minnesota can help inform expectations for his run in Philadelphia. First, though, there is one key contextual difference. Butler was traded to Minnesota on draft night 2017, rather than during the season. This changed some of the types of questions Butler faced. In Minnesota, questions about his fit on the team, leadership, and expectations were more open-ended, allowing him to say all the right things about his new teammates’ talent without getting into on-court specifics.</p>
<p id="sjIa1X">By contrast, in Philadelphia, he was asked directly about his on-court fit and the difference in style of play between Brett Brown’s Sixers and Thibs’s Wolves, giving him a jumping-off point to discuss his skill set and willingness to plug himself into the Sixers’ fast-paced, ball-moving style of play. Because of that, it’s probably best to throw out his more strategic answers in Philadelphia.</p>
<p id="n2O0aS">Because of the harsh (but fair) reputation Philadelphia’s press and fan base have, it’s probably also best to throw away Butler’s responses about how he thinks he’ll be accepted by the city. Philadelphia’s fans are incredibly easy but necessary to pander to: All an athlete has to do is talk about how hard a worker they are, how blue-collar they are, and how all they care about is winning a championship. Butler did just that. If not for the singularly charismatic and talented Joel Embiid and the singularly Rockyish underdog T.J. McConnell, Jimmy G. Buckets would probably be every Sixers fan’s favorite player already.</p>
<p id="joN74U">The key differences in the press conferences, then, come down to the way Butler envisioned himself fitting into his new team’s culture, and the way he addressed the rocky road that brought him to his new city.</p>
<h3 id="dWEmE9">Culture</h3>
<p id="4z4IqK">“Thibs let me know you have to work in order to make it. … These young guys are really, really, really talented. I’m just here to push them to the best of their abilities. … They’re gonna come in each and every day and work, which is all you can ask for.”</p>
<p id="pHlVOX">After his <a href="https://www.nba.com/timberwolves/video/teams/timberwolves/2017/06/29/1498764286903-butlerintropresser-1502125">opening statement in Minnesota</a>, in which, for the first and last time, Butler thanked Karl-Anthony Towns for being in the same place as him, Butler spoke immediately about the importance of hard work. As it turned out, when Jimmy said, “They’re gonna come in each and every day and work, which is all you can ask for,” what he meant was, “I hope they aren’t too tired <a href="https://www.sbnation.com/lookit/2018/3/28/17171744/ben-simmons-roasted-hawks-pubg-karl-anthony-towns">from staying up all night playing <em>PUBG</em> with my future teammate</a> to try hard.” His hope was misplaced. By this offseason, Butler was “<a href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/sports/jimmy-butler-and-kyrie-irving-could-have-plans-to-try-and-take-over-the-east/">fed up</a>” with KAT’s nonchalance, refused to sign an extension, and, well, now he’s in Philly.</p>
<p id="RyvvVa">By contrast, in his <a href="http://www.nba.com/video/2018/11/13/20181113-jimmy-butler-philadelphia-presser?collection=video">Sixers press conference</a>, Butler addressed the same issue of hard work, but rather than being hypothetical (“I know they’re gonna … come in each and every day and work”), his comments were concrete. He mentioned that the one thing about the 76ers that stands out is “just how hard they play. … They play so incredibly hard, and they want to win, and that makes me smile, ’cause that’s who I am as a whole, as a person, every single day.”</p>
<p id="xUSlxE">The Sixers have an institutional reputation as a hard-working squad going back to the salad days of Sam Hinkie and athletic, unskilled second-round picks at every position — it’s how Brown managed to maintain a sterling reputation throughout the league during the Process years. The team always played hard even when it was engineered to lose, running on offense, shooting (and missing) 3s, and switching on defense.</p>
<p id="xRZjXh">The Sixers may have cause for concern, though, because along with this praise, Butler peppered in what could (and, given his history, perhaps should) be construed as a challenge: Immediately after talking about how talented the struggling Markelle Fultz is and (importantly) how he has a reputation as a hard worker, Butler answered a question about fitting into the team’s offense with: “Offense is easy. You shoot the ball when you’re open. When you can drive it you drive it. If you’re not, you pass it.” Later: “If I gotta spend countless of my hours shooting trey balls, I’ll do that.” Fultz and Ben Simmons, infamously, do not follow that first tenet of easy offense, and Simmons seems to have made few strides improving his jump shot in the years since he was drafted first overall.</p>
<p id="kJNbJy">Perhaps Butler mentioned those jumpers more directly than he did Towns’s and Andrew Wiggins’s defense last summer in the hopes that shooting won’t become a similar sticking point, but given that Simmons seemingly shoots with the wrong hand and Fultz is dealing with an unprecedented case of shooting malfunction and just fired his personal trainer, challenging them to shoot more probably won’t bear much fruit. This could be reading too much into the comments because of Butler’s baggage, but would anyone actually be surprised if, in a month’s time, Jimmy is wearing a “<a href="https://store.barstoolsports.com/products/3-coward-tee?variant=12451931488353">Shoot a 3, Coward</a>” T-shirt to a postgame presser?</p>
<h3 id="xia9GI">Defense</h3>
<p id="xXXue9">“I better have a pretty big impact on [defense],” Butler said at his Wolves introduction. “Whenever you show them what defense can really get you in this league and how teams have turned around because they played defense, I think you really want to do it, and you realize whenever you play both sides of the floor that you are viewed as much more of a [complete player], and that’s your way to greatness, and I think all of these guys are chasing that, being greatness, so you gotta play both sides. So we’ll lock in on that end of the floor.”</p>
<p id="YL883W">KAT came out of Kentucky with a reputation for game-changing defensive potential, but has seen that reputation first stagnate and then be overgrown by a rep as something of a joke. He improved a bit throughout last season, but not nearly enough to overcome <a href="https://twitter.com/DaneMooreNBA/status/922259772966965248?s=19">his embarrassing early woes</a>. Wiggins, meanwhile, is still seemingly actively avoiding rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks, which one might chalk up to a Canadian politeness or metric-system thing before realizing it’s probably just that he’s not very skilled and doesn’t have very good basketball instincts, which, combined with his otherworldly athletic gifts, makes him essentially the perfect person for Butler to despise.</p>
<p id="ptx5sX">With his seemingly innocuous and rote answers about defense and effort, Butler drew his road map out of town in Minnesota: If his teammates did not meet his core expectations of hard work and commitment to technique and defense, he would not be happy. As it happened, the team won — they were the Western Conference’s third seed before he went down with a knee injury and the Wolves fell to eighth — but didn’t execute on defense, finishing <a href="https://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2018_ratings.html">with the league’s fourth-worst rating</a>. True to his word, Jimmy wasn’t happy, and now he’s gone.</p>
<p id="E25KbI">In Philadelphia, a different story: “I love to guard, and these guys have some really long arms, they’re strong, they get the basketball game on a mental level. So when you have that, the defense is gonna come, it’s gonna be easy.”</p>
<p id="hriTWX">The Sixers are in one way an ideal landing spot for Butler, because as mentioned above, under Brown’s tutelage, they’ve developed a tight-knit locker-room culture that prides itself on defense and effort. Rather than having to establish these as important pillars of a young team’s identity, which Butler failed to do in spectacular fashion under an outdated “defensive wizard” coach in Minnesota, he should simply have to put in the hard work he prides himself on, learn Brown’s defensive scheme, and fit into the team that finished last season with the league’s fourth-best defensive rating. That team just lost first-team All-Defense member Robert Covington, but Butler thinks he’s better at defense than Covington, so that should be no excuse.</p>
<h3 id="UVEhs6">History</h3>
<p id="snrVDd">Butler was brazen in his Minnesota debut when discussing his history with unhappy locker rooms, pulling a Mike Jones by giving out his phone number while addressing a question about Antoine Walker’s assertion that he was a bad locker-room guy (and later talking to fans on FaceTime, one of the more bizarre forgotten NBA tidbits of the past few seasons).</p>
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</div></a> <p style=" margin:8px 0 0 0; padding:0 4px;"> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BV77z3JhRVi/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_medium=loading" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;" target="_blank">taking all calls and y'all thought it was a game!</a></p> <p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;">A post shared by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/jimmybutler/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_medium=loading" style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px;" target="_blank"> Jimmy Butler</a> (@jimmybutler) on <time style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;" datetime="2017-06-29T20:13:21+00:00">Jun 29, 2017 at 1:13pm PDT</time></p>
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<p id="Xp65aN">Thibs and Butler both also addressed the importance of looking forward rather than backward (apparently <a href="http://www.espn.com/sportsnation/post/_/id/13927339/the-chicago-bulls-jimmy-butler-reportedly-took-car-rearview-mirror-reminder-never-look-back">a key tenet of Butler’s life philosophy</a>).</p>
<p id="ReXmtW">In Tuesday’s session, Butler was more willing to discuss his last stop, outwardly defensive and sniping: “I don’t think there’s too many of [my ex-teammates] that would tell you I’m a bad teammate. Whatever people wanna say [publicly], it is what it is, but I think I’m an incredible human being and teammate.” Later, less subtly: “All you hear is ‘sources say.’ You never hear ‘a player said.’ … Unless everybody in my past locker room was that fake, I don’t think that I was that big a problem at all.”</p>
<p id="KiuD4q">When coupled with seeming shots at his former teammates, his assurances that he is a good and cooperative locker-room presence are hard to take at face value, and point to a player who is aware of but uncowed by his reputation as a tough guy to get along with, one who will continue to place the burden of respect on his teammates to earn rather than on himself to give.</p>
<h3 id="V9WN05">The Litmus Test</h3>
<p class="c-end-para" id="JLHAu6">One important quote that falls into a shade of gray between praise of basketball IQ/toughness and challenge to his new teammates is a response from about five minutes into Tuesday’s presser: “When we get out there and play together, I think it’ll be a different story, hopefully a good one that ends with a happy ending. But when guys get out there and they know how to play basketball, which everybody on this roster does, it’s all going to fall into place. I don’t think that anybody’s gonna step on anybody’s toes.” Here, Butler is taking the same hypothetical and demanding tone he took when talking about how he knew the players on the Timberwolves would work hard. Like his talk about hard work and buying into defense in Minnesota, this statement is likely to prove predictive of this new partnership’s success. Whether that’s a good or bad thing for the Sixers, only hindsight can tell for sure.</p>
<p id="HLYcXi"><a href="https://twitter.com/boobie_styles"><em>Bobby Hallinan</em></a><em> is a writer living in Philadelphia, so he’s allowed to say stuff about Philadelphia fans.</em></p>
https://www.theringer.com/nba/2018/11/14/18095283/jimmy-butler-press-conferencesBobby Hallinan2018-11-12T13:51:36-05:002018-11-12T13:51:36-05:00Did Jimmy Butler Get What He Wanted?
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<p>Now that the swingman is playing for a contender and will be eligible to sign a five-year deal in Philly after the season, it seems like he left a disastrous situation for an optimal one. But if Butler doesn’t jell with the Sixers, this move could be costly next summer.</p> <p id="OqvIpZ">It took nearly two months, but on Saturday, Jimmy Butler got exactly what he wanted. He left a Minnesota Timberwolves team led by two young maximum-salaried players who don’t always play with effort and intensity, who have yet to display a consistent commitment to stopping the other team from scoring, and who he didn’t seem to believe would be good enough to ever win anything meaningful. He joined a Philadelphia 76ers team led by two young players—one on <a href="https://www.theringer.com/nba/2017/10/9/16450398/joel-embiid-76ers-max-extension">a max</a> and another headed for <a href="https://twitter.com/bobbymarks42/status/1043951736963158016?lang=bg">his own next fall</a>—who have already established themselves as reliably tenacious competitors, who already play NBA defense at an elite level, and who can credibly be considered the core pieces of a viable contender in an <a href="https://www.theringer.com/nba/2018/11/12/18086712/east-nba-jimmy-butler-trade-lebron-james">increasingly competitive conference</a>.</p>
<p id="nApzA2">Butler moved from the Western Conference, in which his disintegrating Wolves were <a href="https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2019-nba-predictions/">more likely to miss the postseason than make it</a>, to the East, in which the scuffling Sixers are expected to compete for home-court advantage. He exited the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_television_stations_in_North_America_by_media_market#Continental_States,_Alaska,_and_Hawaii">15th-largest media market in the United States, and entered the fourth</a>, a marked upgrade for a player whose initial list of preferred trade destinations suggested an interest in <a href="https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1042479195371266050">landing where the lights are brightest</a>, and whose brand recognition inside the basketball world far outstrips his public profile outside of it. (When I shared the news with my family on Saturday, my wife’s first reaction—well, after being displeased that I was checking Twitter and Slack during Negotiated Non-Work Time—was, “Wait, which one is he again?”)</p>
<p id="cZPQUn">And, crucially, Butler, who reportedly plans to opt out of the final year of his contract next summer to enter unrestricted free agency, made all of that happen while keeping the possibility of a huge payday alive.</p>
<div class="c-float-left"><aside id="yHNfIa"><div data-anthem-component="readmore" data-anthem-component-data='{"stories":[{"title":"Losing Jimmy Butler Gives Wolves (and Their Coach) a Chance to Refresh","url":"https://www.theringer.com/nba/2018/11/11/18084790/timberwolves-jimmy-butler-trade-saric-covington"},{"title":"Jimmy Butler’s Arrival in Philly Signals the End of the Process","url":"https://www.theringer.com/nba/2018/11/10/18082584/jimmy-butler-sixers-trade-the-process"},{"title":"The Winners and Losers of Jimmy Butler’s Trade to the Sixers","url":"https://www.theringer.com/nba/2018/11/10/18082546/jimmy-butler-trade-sixers-winners-losers"}]}'></div></aside></div>
<p id="eG4yFC">The <a href="http://www.cbafaq.com/salarycap.htm#Q25">Larry Bird exception</a> to the collective bargaining agreement allows a player’s incumbent team to offer him a contract up to five years in length, compared to four years for other prospective suitors, and higher annual raises than anyone else. Since Butler made it crystal clear that he wasn’t staying in Minnesota, that path would not have been available to him without an in-season trade; Saturday’s swap preserves Butler’s Bird rights, and with them the chance to ink a five-year deal worth $190 million. Whether or not new 76ers general manager Elton Brand—or Sixers managing partner Joshua Harris, who <a href="http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/25245073/adrian-wojnarowski-look-final-days-jimmy-butler-saga-nba">reportedly worked through the deal</a> with Timberwolves counterpart Glen Taylor—will be interested in signing Butler to that deal remains to be seen, but Philly reportedly made this trade intending to sign Butler for the long haul.</p>
<p id="0i1Dmj">No matter how you slice it, <a href="https://www.theringer.com/nba/2018/11/10/18082546/jimmy-butler-trade-sixers-winners-losers">Butler won</a>. But hitting Powerball <a href="http://time.com/4176128/powerball-jackpot-lottery-winners/">doesn’t always have a happy ending</a>. Now comes the tricky part: making the most of a good situation. Butler brings another proven shot-creator and <a href="http://bkref.com/tiny/VmqCC">foul magnet</a> to a Sixers team that has struggled to <a href="https://stats.nba.com/teams/advanced/?sort=OFF_RATING&dir=-1&CF=MIN*GE*15&Season=2018-19&SeasonType=Regular%20Season">generate efficient offense</a>—especially in the half court, where Philly ranks 21st in the league in points per play, according to <a href="https://www.cleaningtheglass.com/stats/league/context"><em>Cleaning the Glass</em></a>. He should pay dividends in close-and-late situations for a team whose possessions too often grind to a halt in those spots; among high-usage players, only LeBron James averaged <a href="https://stats.nba.com/players/clutch-traditional/?sort=PTS&dir=-1&Season=2017-18&SeasonType=Regular%20Season&CF=GP*GE*15">more “clutch” points per game last season</a> than Butler.</p>
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<p id="KqAcFs">His prowess as a secondary ball handler and offensive initiator gives coach Brett Brown (even more of) a reason to scrap the <a href="https://www.theringer.com/nba/2018/10/17/17990990/markelle-fultz-sixers-opener">Start Markelle Fultz Experiment</a>. The Ben Simmons–Markelle Fultz pairing <a href="https://stats.nba.com/lineups/traditional/?Season=2018-19&SeasonType=Regular%20Season&PerMode=Totals&TeamID=1610612755&sort=PLUS_MINUS&dir=-1&GroupQuantity=2">has been outscored on the season</a> while <a href="https://stats.nba.com/lineups/advanced/?Season=2018-19&SeasonType=Regular%20Season&GroupQuantity=2&TeamID=1610612755&sort=MIN&dir=1">producing points</a> at a level 40,000 leagues <a href="https://stats.nba.com/teams/advanced/?sort=OFF_RATING&dir=1&CF=MIN*GE*15&Season=2018-19&SeasonType=Regular%20Season">beneath the worst team offenses in the NBA</a>. (Fultz should be able to function better with more leeway on the second unit, anyway.) And Butler’s All-Defense on-ball bona fides soften the loss of Robert Covington, one of the best team perimeter defenders in the game, in pursuit of greater offensive gains.</p>
<p id="gwY4C2">The fit isn’t pristine—it’d be a hell of a lot neater if Butler could shoot it like Klay Thompson, Paul George, or Bradley Beal rather than like a slightly-above-league-average swingman—but <a href="https://www.theringer.com/nba/2018/11/10/18082592/jimmy-butler-trade-sixers-fit">it can work</a>. And honestly, for Butler, it kind of has to.</p>
<p id="XsNeXA">Butler is 29 with more than 17,000 hard-driven NBA minutes on his body. He’s missed 15 or more games in four of the past five seasons and has a surgically repaired meniscus in his right knee. Butler wants to get paid and he wants to be <a href="http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/24953655/transcript-comments-minnesota-timberwolves-star-jimmy-butler-issues-minnesota">“appreciated”</a>—as often as not in the NBA, those two things overlap completely—but he also insists that his spoiling for a new home is about wanting to win. This next deal, the one that he hopes will carry him through age 34, could be his last chance to do it.</p>
<p id="U2myLU">And so he lands with Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons, an MVP candidate and an ascendant positionless marvel, each of whom lords over the court in his own way. Embiid flashes his snarl and smirk, constantly trying to <a href="https://www.theringer.com/nba/2018/10/24/18020180/joel-embiid-mental-real-estate-andre-drummond">get inside the heads of his opponents</a>. Simmons glides through conflict with an aristocrat’s imperiousness, unconcerned with whether you think he’s playing the right way or being <a href="https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/2906327-shoot-a-3-coward">a coward</a>.</p>
<p id="vwRnU4">Philly won 52 games and a playoff series without Butler. The Sixers don’t need his confusing brand of leadership—the one that <a href="https://www.slamonline.com/archives/scottie-pippen-jimmy-butler-leadership-problems-chicago-bulls/">curdled</a> in Chicago and metastasized in Minnesota—to spur their growth. They need him to make plays, hit shots, get stops, and buy in.</p>
<p id="VakgtK">They need a top-15-caliber player to accept that some nights—maybe even most nights—he’s going to be the Sixers’ third-best player. When those nights end in losses, what nobody needs is a notebook full of eagerly lobbed quotes about how Some Dudes Just Need to Want It More. If that happens, again, and Philly stumbles rather than soars, it’s going to be hard to dismiss the idea that maybe everybody else isn’t the problem.</p>
<p id="ulhffY">“He has to be on his best behavior [in Philly], and he knows it,” a league executive <a href="http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/25245073/adrian-wojnarowski-look-final-days-jimmy-butler-saga-nba">told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski</a>. “If he screws up that team, that’ll be three straight teams. Someone will sign him in free agency, but he won’t get all that he’s asking for.”</p>
<p id="RJdr7F">And there’s the rub: Is Butler really willing to sign up for that, after doing everything his way has gotten him this far?</p>
<p id="RlnnTE">“Like, you can’t judge the way I do things, whether you like it or not,” Butler <a href="https://theathletic.com/645899/2018/11/10/exclusive-jimmy-butler-opens-up-about-his-trade-request-mysterious-absences-and-the-ongoing-mess-in-minnesota/">told Sam Amick of <em>The Athletic</em></a> just before the trade. “Because I think that that’s the best way that I know how to express myself and how to get you to do what I’m asking you to do, and however you want me to do what you ask me to do. It’s how you go about it.”</p>
<p class="c-end-para" id="yI3KOG">How Butler goes about his business in Philadelphia could be the difference between the Sixers rejoining the championship conversation or spiraling out of control, and between Butler cementing himself as one of the premier versions of the league’s most valuable type of player or being branded as a stay-away malcontent. Butler <a href="https://www.theringer.com/nba/2018/10/11/17964524/jimmy-butler-holdout-thibodeau-wolves">played the Wolves heads up</a> and won big. But another hand is about to start, and now the stakes are even higher.</p>
https://www.theringer.com/nba/2018/11/12/18088424/did-jimmy-butler-get-what-he-wanted-philadelphia-sixersDan Devine2018-11-12T08:13:34-05:002018-11-12T08:13:34-05:00The Butler Trade, Dallas Survives, Trubisky Groupies, and Week 11 Lines With Cousin Sal
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<p>Cousin Sal joins Bill to discuss the Minnesota Timberwolves trading Jimmy Butler to the Philadelphia 76ers</p> <p id="erE9wG"><a href="https://art19.com/shows/the-bill-simmons-podcast/episodes/6be2566f-a8fd-4d91-9d1a-1dcb0968c4f4">Bill Simmons is joined by Cousin Sal</a>, after watching a long day of football together, to discuss the Minnesota Timberwolves trading Jimmy Butler to the Philadelphia 76ers, the Cowboys squeaking past the Eagles, the Titans’ beatdown of the Patriots, and the Steelers’ hot streak before guessing the NFL lines for Week 11.</p>
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https://www.theringer.com/the-bill-simmons-podcast/2018/11/12/18087138/jimmy-butler-trade-dallas-cowboys-trubisky-groupies-week-11-lines-with-cousin-salBill Simmons2018-11-12T06:15:04-05:002018-11-12T06:15:04-05:00The East Is Where the Wild Things Are
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<p>The Eastern Conference is sparing no expense to try to take LeBron James’s vacant crown. With Jimmy Butler now in Philly, the “Leastern Conference” is suddenly filled with some of the best, most compelling teams in the NBA.</p> <p id="90Gkfu">Giannis Antetokounmpo contorts his face as if the question pains him. Inside the visiting locker room at Staples Center after an overtime loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday afternoon, a reporter wonders whether the Milwaukee Bucks’ hot start to this season—a 10-3 record, a top-three defense and offense, and second place in the East—is sustainable. The confusion Giannis had just expressed over the Bucks’ poor spacing in the game is gone, giving way to unabashed confidence. He nearly scoffs at the inquiry. “Oh, yeah,” Antetokounmpo says. “No doubt.” </p>
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<cite>Ben Golliver, <em>Sports Illustrated</em></cite>
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<p id="9Iv4eQ">Giannis does admit that Saturday’s close game felt weird to him. Again, he doesn’t mince words. “Because we’ve been blowing teams out,” he says. </p>
<p id="eBTdpF">He’s not wrong. Milwaukee’s average margin of victory this season is 17.6 points, and its point differential is a league-leading plus-11.9. On Thursday, it was the Bucks, not the Warriors, blowing their opponent off the floor at Oracle Arena. And on Sunday, they beat the Nuggets in Denver on the second night of a back-to-back. This is the Bucks’ new reality. They are no longer just a middling team in the Eastern Conference; they are one of the squads that the middling East teams are chasing. </p>
<p id="qpW9Ep">But as good as the Bucks have been, they’re not running away with the conference either. The Raptors currently <a href="https://www.theringer.com/nba/2018/11/9/18077470/raptors-most-complete-team">lead the entire NBA</a> at 12-1. The Celtics, despite an <a href="https://www.theringer.com/nba/2018/11/9/18078374/kyrie-irving-saves-celtics-suns">ugly start on offense</a>, may still have the most talented roster in the conference. And on Saturday, the Sixers vaulted back into conversation. Just as the Bucks were waking up in Los Angeles before their game against the Clippers, Philadelphia <a href="https://www.theringer.com/nba/2018/11/10/18082546/jimmy-butler-trade-sixers-winners-losers">agreed to trade for Jimmy Butler</a> in exchange for a package centered on Robert Covington and Dario Saric. It was an aggressive move with clear intentions: The time to win is now. </p>
<p id="gr29Yt">In the wake of LeBron James’s exodus to the West, the rest of the East has seen the light at the end of the tunnel and they’re bolting for it. The Bucks have taken a leap in Mike Budenholzer’s system. The Sixers are making a bet on Butler being their third star. The Raptors made a high-risk gamble on Kawhi Leonard, and the Celtics are stocked thanks to prior bold acquisitions (from which they’re still <a href="https://www.boston.com/sports/boston-celtics/2017/06/20/celtics-future-draft-picks-list">reaping the benefit</a>). </p>
<p id="dxjb4e">“Even the Pistons can beat us,” Bucks center John Henson said Saturday. Well, probably not the Pistons. But, overall, he has a point. There’s room for competition in a conference that used to be a practice run for James. And if the past year of transactions is any indication, the arms race to take his vacated crown after eight straight years will be as compelling as the games. </p>
<p id="xLi8Gq">As bold as the Sixers’ decision was to swap <a href="https://www.theringer.com/nba/2018/11/10/18082584/jimmy-butler-sixers-trade-the-process">two critical figures of the Process</a> for an older superstar who has clashed with his past two organizations, they may not be done shaking things up. Losing Robert Covington and Dario Saric means Philly will be back on the market in search for shooting for the second straight year. The Sixers were able to find a solution via buyouts last season and could do so again if someone like Kyle Korver or Trevor Ariza shakes free. Or they could go the more extreme route and use Markelle Fultz to find someone who fits the starting lineup far better than their shooting-averse former no. 1 overall pick. </p>
<p id="bQBWXb">The East could ripple from there: If the Celtics fall behind the Raptors, Bucks, <em>and</em> Sixers, maybe Danny Ainge fires up the Trade Machine looking to cash in on Terry Rozier or one of his precious future draft assets. Masai Ujiri is always active, and with the Raptors only assured one season of Kawhi Leonard, maybe he deals from his incredibly deep roster to ensure he maximizes his title window. Even the Pistons could get into the mix. Detroit, at 6-6, isn’t on the level of Toronto or Boston, but it took on more risk than any of them by dealing for Blake Griffin’s monster contract last year; what does it have to lose by mortgaging even more of its future?</p>
<p id="o7SDGD">The West has been where all the competition was for years; the idea of abolishing conferences and seeding the playoff teams 1 to 16 has made it all the way up to the commissioner’s office in large part because average East teams make it over West teams with far better records all the time. But as the search in the West for a capable Warriors challenger becomes the cloudiest it’s been since 2014-15, the East has quietly become the conference of right now. The Trail Blazers have the same record as the Bucks, but star power dictates postseason success, and the East now has four teams that can each send two or more players to the All-Star Game, with organizations behind them capable of maximizing their potentials. Even teams currently scraping the bottom of the East can project themselves in that mix through one good summer: The Knicks are banking on landing a max free agent this summer, and the Nets, finally free of their draft debt, may be able to open up two max slots. The East has been rebuilding for years and now it’s reaping the benefits. </p>
<p id="CVqo06">LeBron used to squash any hope these teams had by flipping the switch come playoff time. Now that he’s gone, East teams are taking advantage of their new opportunities like a teammate of Russell Westbrook after being traded to a new team. </p>
<p id="hrczrH">The race among the conference’s top teams should be even more fascinating from here. Just don’t ask Giannis how it all plays out. “I’m not gonna [make] predictions,” he said when asked whether he thought the Bucks were a top-three team in the East. “I’m not gonna put pressure on my team.” </p>
<p class="c-end-para" id="RM4kPw">Antetokounmpo won’t have to. The rest of the top of the East will do it for him.</p>
https://www.theringer.com/nba/2018/11/12/18086712/east-nba-jimmy-butler-trade-lebron-jamesPaolo Uggetti2018-11-11T21:42:15-05:002018-11-11T21:42:15-05:00Jimmy Butler Is a Sixer
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<p>It finally happened. Breaking down the long-awaited trade, and what it means for Philly and Minnesota</p> <p id="ww1hFo"><a href="https://art19.com/shows/the-ringer-nba-show/episodes/fd19b5ca-3f49-4389-bd4b-ac39570bf781">The Minnesota Timberwolves</a> finally traded Jimmy Butler to the Philadelphia 76ers.</p>
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https://www.theringer.com/2018/11/11/18086386/jimmy-butler-is-a-sixerJohn GonzalezChris RyanJason Concepcion2018-11-11T12:11:05-05:002018-11-11T12:11:05-05:00Losing Jimmy Butler Gives Wolves (and Their Coach) a Chance to Refresh
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<p>Saturday’s trade was a blow to Tom Thibodeau’s tribute to his Chicago glory days, but it could finally force a coach stuck in the past to maximize a team built around their state-of-the-art center.</p> <p id="Lp84Bo">The other shoe finally dropped in Minnesota, as <a href="https://www.theringer.com/nba/2018/11/10/18082546/jimmy-butler-trade-sixers-winners-losers">they sent Jimmy Butler to Philadelphia for a package headlined by Dario Saric and Robert Covington</a> on Saturday. The Butler saga had cast a shadow over the organization ever since his trade demand became public before the start of training camp. Wolves head coach and team president Tom Thibodeau didn’t want to trade him, but their miserable start (4-9 record with a net rating of minus-7.2) left him no choice. There’s no way to replace an All-NBA talent like Butler in a trade. The only hope is to make up the difference with pieces that fit better around Karl-Anthony Towns, the one star the Wolves have left.</p>
<p id="PaVIwS">Towns, despite signing a five-year, $190 million extension in the offseason, <a href="https://www.theringer.com/nba/2018/10/26/18025946/karl-anthony-towns-jimmy-butler">has been in a funk all season</a>. The 7-footer is averaging his fewest points (19.9) and rebounds (10.8) since his rookie season, as well as a career low field goal percentage (45.9). While he hasn’t said much about Butler, it’s not hard to connect the dots when you look at his play. Towns is averaging 27.3 points in the three games Butler has missed this season. Talent has never been the issue for the former no. 1 overall pick. He’s coming off his best game of the season: 39 points and 19 rebounds in a 121-110 loss to the Kings on Friday. </p>
<p id="BmU3fc">The plan when the Wolves traded for Butler was to accelerate the rebuilding process around Towns and Andrew Wiggins by developing them next to one of the most hard-driving stars in the NBA. Instead, both players seemed to wilt under the pressure, stagnating defensively while taking a backseat to Butler on offense. But even at their best, <a href="https://www.theringer.com/nba/2018/9/27/17910312/karl-anthony-towns-tom-thibodeau-wolves">the team Thibs put together never made much sense</a>. Minnesota was built more to win in 2011 than 2018, relying on outdated schemes on both sides of the ball while leaning on too many players from his glory days in Chicago. It was every criticism of a coach-GM come to life. </p>
<aside id="2oqDkB"><div data-anthem-component="readmore" data-anthem-component-data='{"stories":[{"title":"How Jimmy Butler Meshes With the Sixers’ Young Stars","url":"https://www.theringer.com/nba/2018/11/10/18082592/jimmy-butler-trade-sixers-fit"},{"title":"Jimmy Butler’s Arrival in Philly Signals the End of the Process","url":"https://www.theringer.com/nba/2018/11/10/18082584/jimmy-butler-sixers-trade-the-process"},{"title":"The Winners and Losers of Jimmy Butler’s Trade to the Sixers","url":"https://www.theringer.com/nba/2018/11/10/18082546/jimmy-butler-trade-sixers-winners-losers"}]}'></div></aside><p id="khAVRM">The Butler trade could allow Thibs to modernize his approach. Saric has been struggling this season, but he established himself as one of the better small-ball 4s in the NBA last season, averaging 14.6 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 2.6 assists, while shooting 39.3 percent from 3 on 5.1 attempts per game. He’s a better version of Nemanja Bjelica, <a href="https://www.theringer.com/nba/2018/11/6/18066284/sacramento-kings-start-marvin-bagley">who has been one of the key pieces in Sacramento’s turnaround</a> after spending the last two seasons in the doghouse in Minnesota. Thibs played Bjelica at the 3 next to two traditional big men (Towns and Taj Gibson) instead of using him to open up the floor at the 4. Saric, who is tougher and more defensive-minded than Bjelica, should have an easier time getting on Thibodeau’s good side. </p>
<p id="g897Q0">Saric was an uneasy fit in Philadelphia. The Croatian forward was at his best overseas when making plays with the ball in his hands, but he didn’t have many opportunities to create next to Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid. </p>
<p id="Urnqni">The Sixers cornerstones are two of the most ball-dominant players in the league, and neither spaced the floor well enough to create driving lanes for Saric. He became a 3-and-D player whose lack of athleticism put a ceiling on his value in that role. A frontcourt of Saric and Towns could be better than the sum of its parts. Saric can feed Towns inside better than anyone on the Minnesota roster, and Towns can open up room for Saric on pick-and-pops. </p>
<p id="ZaXtSh">Towns has to buy in on defense for it to work. He has been a conscientious objector on that end of the floor his entire NBA career. The Wolves are tied for the worst defensive rating (114.3) in the league this season, and Towns has been one of the primary culprits. Their defensive rating drops all the way to 105.4 in his 191 minutes off the floor. Thibs brought in Gibson to protect Towns on defense, but the veteran big man has only doubled down on his flaws. The two have a defensive rating of 115.3 in 332 minutes together this season. </p>
<p id="6e28Dm">The scheme hasn’t helped. Minnesota is one of the only remaining teams in the NBA to start two traditional big men. Thibodeau made his reputation as a defensive mastermind, but the league has long since passed him by. He popularized the idea of overloading the paint with multiple defenders, a strategy that no longer works given how many shooters and playmakers that other teams have on the floor. The irony of his time with the Wolves is that the only offense his defense ca actually slow down is his own. Thibs crossed the line between a coach who sticks to his principles and one too stubborn to acknowledge they no longer work a long time ago.</p>
<p id="AxO6Tm">There are other blueprints out there. A lineup with Towns, Saric, Covington, and Wiggins could switch screens and be interchangeable across four positions. Covington (6-foot-9 and 225 pounds) and Wiggins (6-foot-8 and 194 pounds) are now the longest and most athletic wing duo in the NBA. Wiggins, like Towns, has never figured out how to translate his athleticism to defense, but Covington, a first-team All-Defense selection last season, is the rare player who isn’t much of a downgrade from Butler on that side of the ball. He fits better with Wiggins and Towns. Compared to Butler, he’s an elite spot-up shooter (shooting 39 percent from 3 on 5.9 attempts per game this season) on a more affordable contract without as many miles on his body.</p>
<p id="jcKHTl">The trade could create a domino effect in the Wolves rotation. Jeff Teague, who has missed the last six games with a knee injury, will return shortly, and he could share a starting lineup with four good 3-point shooters when he does. A pick-and-roll between Teague and Towns would be hard to defend in so much space, while posting up Towns should be more effective in four-out lineups. One of the few bright spots in Minnesota this season has been the career-high 3-point shooting from Wiggins (39.6 percent on 5.3 attempts per game). The Wolves could go from one of the worst floor spacing teams in the NBA last season (they were no. 30 in 3-point attempts per game) to one of the best.</p>
<p id="xtgHgC">It isn’t just the starters, either. Gibson should be more effective as the sole big man on the floor on the second unit, a role which would have the added benefit of removing Gorgui Dieng from the rotation entirely. Derrick Rose would be free to hunt shots while sharing a backcourt with Tyus Jones, arguably the best passer on their team. Josh Okogie, the no. 20 overall pick in this year’s draft, has shown promise as a hard-nosed perimeter defender on the wing, while Anthony Tolliver could space the floor next to Gibson. </p>
<p id="G3qRa9">This version of the Wolves has more lineup flexibility, theoretically giving Thibodeau the ability to stagger the minutes of his best players and give each more time with the ball. There’s a reason most NBA teams don’t play five-man bench units anymore. It makes no sense to give Towns and Wiggins max contracts and force them to spend the entire game spotting up on Butler, while keeping all of them on the bench as more limited offensive players like Jamal Crawford and Rose dominate the ball. The easiest way to get buy-in from young players on defense is to give them freedom on offense.</p>
<p id="qPlWUe">It’s unclear whether Thibs would be willing to make many changes to his philosophy on such short notice. He could just as easily keep Gibson as a starter and close games with two shot-happy guards in Teague and Rose. His job is on the line, which is why offers for Butler built around future assets, <a href="https://www.theringer.com/nba/2018/10/31/18049568/houston-rockets-end-slump-mike-dantoni-jimmy-butler-kevin-love">like a trade package from Houston with four future first-round picks</a>, were dead on arrival. After what has happened the last few seasons, the odds of Thibs being given another head coaching job, much less one with as much authority as he has in Minnesota, are low. This is his last chance to run an NBA team, so he may triple down on his beliefs about the right way to play the game. </p>
<p id="RoqkNw">It doesn’t matter in the big picture. Trading for Butler only made it seem like Minnesota was a contender. Butler isn’t good enough to be the best player on a championship team, and Wiggins and Towns weren’t ready for that responsibility, either. They are both in their early 20s, and they don’t become free agents until 2023. Going all-in on the present at the expense of their growth was short-sighted if understandable, given how long the franchise had missed the playoffs. The Wolves have to dig themselves out of a massive hole to get back there this season. Staying in the lottery could be the best thing that happens to them, if it forces Thibs out and brings in a coach better suited for Towns. </p>
<p id="i6z9Fe">Everything in Minnesota ultimately comes back to Towns. It was only two seasons ago that <a href="http://www.nba.com/gmsurvey/2017">NBA GMs voted him as the best player in the league to build around</a>. He hasn’t been in the best situation to maximize his skill set, but a guy paid like a superstar is expected to thrive regardless of his environment. Towns was a well-rounded prospect with no holes in his game in college. There’s no reason a player with his physical gifts should be such a poor defender, and he’s too smart a player to average as many career assists (2.3) as turnovers (2.3).</p>
<p class="c-end-para" id="rHQXzi">The Wolves now have the right pieces around Towns. Wiggins may never be a star in his own right, but he’s still a supersized wing who can shoot 3s and create his own shot. Saric could be the perfect playmaking 4 next to a stretch 5. Covington is an elite 3-and-D player. Okogie and Jones are the perfect role players to round out a rotation. Minnesota can still be a long-term power, but only if Towns becomes the player everyone expected coming out of Kentucky. He should be playing in the NBA into the 2030s. Thibs and Butler will be footnotes in his career by that point. Towns, who is in the last year of his rookie contract, will make $27.3 million next season. He’s officially on the clock.</p>
https://www.theringer.com/nba/2018/11/11/18084790/timberwolves-jimmy-butler-trade-saric-covingtonJonathan Tjarks2018-11-10T19:24:10-05:002018-11-10T19:24:10-05:00How Jimmy Butler Meshes With the Sixers’ Young Stars
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<p>Philly now joins Golden State as the only teams with three of the NBA’s top 20 players. It can all work out, with a little creativity from the coaching staff.</p> <p id="a6sKMp">Philadelphia raised its ceiling on Saturday, and Sam Hinkie’s dream of turning flexibility into championship contention is closer to becoming a reality, two leadership overhauls later. In acquiring Jimmy Butler, the Sixers now join the Warriors as the only two teams with three of the NBA’s top 20 players. A franchise that tanked three seasons under Hinkie <a href="https://www.theringer.com/nba/2018/11/10/18082584/jimmy-butler-sixers-trade-the-process">has ended the Process</a>. But as Joel Embiid <a href="https://twitter.com/JessicaCamerato/status/864699762733461505">said in 2017</a>: “We’re always going to be trusting the Process.”</p>
<p id="YKJ0kV">Head coach Brett Brown had talked about “<a href="https://www.mcall.com/sports/basketball/sixers/mc-spt-sixers-column-moore-20180623-story.html">star-hunting</a>” during his time as acting interim GM; now that he’s gotten his prize, his next challenge will be synthesizing the on-court talent of Butler and his new star teammates, Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons. The work isn’t over for the Sixers front office, either. General manager Elton Brand must replenish the team’s depth after sending two of Philly’s best shooters (Dario Saric and Robert Covington) to Minnesota.</p>
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<p id="gI0odg">Butler’s impact on the Sixers will be manifold, but it will be seen immediately in late-game situations. Philly ranks <a href="https://stats.nba.com/teams/advanced/?sort=OFF_RATING&dir=1&Season=2018-19&SeasonType=Regular%20Season&Period=4">29th in offensive rating during the fourth quarter</a> after finishing <a href="https://stats.nba.com/teams/advanced/?sort=OFF_RATING&dir=1&Season=2017-18&SeasonType=Regular%20Season&Period=4">30th last season</a>. The Sixers run pick-and-rolls and isolations the least frequently of any team in the league, but those bread-and-butter plays are a necessity in situations when good defenses clamp down, clog the paint, and fight harder through screens to neutralize a standard offense. Philadelphia didn’t run many of these plays because of its personnel. Simmons’s shooting dysfunction makes him predictable in the half court and Embiid is more of an interior threat who needs perimeter balance. </p>
<p id="6eTGe3">Butler doesn’t have either problem; Brown can put him any spot on the floor, and he can thrive. Butler will step in and assume the closer role, and jumpstart the Sixers’ stalled offense as a threat who can pull up to shoot from anywhere, attack the rim, and create opportunities for his teammates.</p>
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<p id="ajKbME">Butler’s presence<em> should</em> be the catalyst that forces Brown to revise the team’s offense, because solving their fourth-quarter scoring woes isn’t as simple as plugging Butler in as a supercharged Covington. Butler has shot a pedestrian 36.3 percent on spot-up 3s through the past six seasons, and now he’s joining a team that features one incumbent cornerstone who’s a career 32.3 percent from 3, and another who is hesitant to shoot with his left hand outside the restricted area.</p>
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<p id="ThHxg3">Butler and Simmons will cut into each other’s touches, which is simply the reality of playing two players who are at their best in possession of the ball. It won’t be difficult for Butler to play without the ball after rising through the ranks as a player who had to prove his worth with limited chances. Butler is a star today, but he first cut his teeth playing away from the ball.</p>
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<p id="VoJiGA">Butler can spot up, attack closeouts, and he’s a savvy cutter. It’s easy to imagine Simmons passing to Butler with a little high-low action, as Butler cuts to the rim. The roles could be reversed with Butler feeding Simmons, and how well Simmons handles that is the real source of intrigue. Butler isn’t an ideal off-ball threat to pair with two ball-dominant stars the way Klay Thompson is with Steph Curry and Kevin Durant, but he’s fine. Simmons is the one who may have to make the biggest adjustment.</p>
<p id="8rw8aw">Brown has an opportunity to get creative with his unconventional point guard. Why not use Simmons as a pick-and-roll screener for Butler? Simmons is an explosive athlete with the body of a center; he can throw down lobs like DeAndre Jordan, or grab the ball and create on the short roll like he’s Draymond Green. If defenses switch, then either Simmons or Butler could have a mismatch that enables them to isolate or slide into the post. Simmons has served in the screening role in the past:</p>
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<p id="Psecci">Saric made one of these passes to Simmons, while T.J. McConnell made the other. Now imagine how it’d look with Butler, who can jack up a 3 or probe looking for the right pass. Philadelphia’s spacing won’t be great, but it can be passable when its two worst shooters on the court are the ones engaged in the play. If JJ Redick and a fifth player, like Landry Shamet, are spotting up with Embiid stretching a big away from the paint, then there will be room to operate.</p>
<p id="mA41BE">Butler and Simmons shouldn’t have to stagger minutes to an extreme level. However, there’s no longer any reason for Simmons and Markelle Fultz to share the court for more than a few overlapping minutes per game. Butler is the shot creator that Brown desired when he put Fultz in the starting five (and that former GM Bryan Colangelo desired when he drafted him). But Simmons looks scared to shoot and Fultz looks like <em>it hurts</em> when he shoots. Now they can be staggered, allowing Fultz to lead the second unit, or at least serve as a Simmons stand-in as the only non-shooter on the floor next to Butler and Embiid.</p>
<p id="nkVDSm">Butler could be a blessing for Fultz in the short term, but he could spell the end of his tenure in the long run. It’s a win for the Sixers that they didn’t need to give up Fultz, rookie wing Zhaire Smith, or any future first-round picks in the trade. Now these pieces can be used to go acquire something else to help the team. The Sixers need shooting in a bad way after losing Saric and Covington. They talked a trade with the Cavaliers for Kyle Korver during the offseason and retain interest now, according to league sources. Knicks shooting guard Courtney Lee is also available. Shooters are a scarcity on the market, though; the Sixers may need to look to the buyout market like they did late last season with Marco Belinelli and Ersan Ilyasova. No matter the player, it should be a priority to retain flexibility heading into next summer.</p>
<p id="oXAmdH">Butler is eligible next summer for a five-year max salary worth close to $190 million with the Sixers; other teams can sign him for about $140 million over four years. There is no guarantee that Butler re-signs, but financially the Sixers do hold a significant advantage considering Butler will turn 30 next season. Butler has a cap hold of $30.7 million, so they can create about $22 million in cap space before re-signing Butler and after renouncing all other free agents, including Redick. If they dealt Fultz in a deal that created cap space, they could create around $30 million—nearly enough to sign a player to a max contract, or slightly overpay to acquire a second-tier star on the market. In a worst-case scenario in which Butler decides to leave, they could create more than $50 million in space.</p>
<p id="UsVuz0">In the meantime, Philadelphia needs to make this work now to assure that Butler doesn’t leave. The Sixers “fully expect” to sign Butler long term, <a href="https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1061316374616776704">according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski</a>, unless there are “physical issues or Butler failing to fit into the Embiid-Simmons dynamic.” Those are two big caveats. Butler is fierce, and he’s about to enter a locker room with Embiid and Simmons, two other huge personalities. Things will be different, at least; he got fed up with Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins for their passiveness, not because they challenged him. Towns and Wiggins are also sieves on defense; Embiid and Simmons are foundations of a top-10 defense. Three alphas can work as long as they coexist on the court. </p>
<p id="bnnYIM">That’s what the front office and coaching staff is betting on. Embiid can be the best player on a title team, but he needs a scoring partner. It was supposed to be Fultz, and it’s not. It could someday be Simmons, but he’s not there yet. Now, it can be Butler. Friday night’s win against the Hornets was a reminder of why the Sixers expressed interest in Butler back in September, and completed the deal on Saturday. The Sixers blew a 21-point lead in the second half, and during the last seven minutes of regulation Embiid was the only source of offense. Embiid drew foul after foul to keep Philadelphia alive, and hit the team’s only field goal (a difficult step-back 3) during that rough stretch. Butler could turn those blown leads into easier wins for the Sixers.</p>
<p class="c-end-para" id="95BZUt">Managing the present and future is always a delicate balance. Butler’s future max contract could look like an albatross by the end if he doesn’t age well in his 30s. But in the short and long term, it’s a risk that the Sixers had to take. Philadelphia is built for sustainable winning into the 2020s, during which both Embiid and Simmons will be entering their respective prime years. But the Finals window is open now for any postseason-bound team in the East. The Sixers took a gamble to establish themselves as elite both now and later. The pieces they gave up were good, not great. This was a play for greatness. But to reach those heights in the playoffs, there is much more work to be done.</p>
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https://www.theringer.com/nba/2018/11/10/18082592/jimmy-butler-trade-sixers-fitKevin O'Connor