The Timberwolves are willing to get involved in trade talks for Jimmy Butler, with a catch

The The Minnesota Timberwolves have been up and down through the first half of the 2024-25 NBA season, is currently 22-20 after Saturday night’s home loss loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers. Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo still don’t seem entirely comfortable in their new roles, and Anthony Edwards’ new three-point-focused style of play hasn’t led to much success thus far.

The big story of the offseason for the Timberwolves was the team’s shocking decision to trade Karl-Anthony Towns for Randle and DiVincenzo; however, there is now speculation that the team could be looking for further moves to try and save their season.

One of the hottest names on the market right now is that of the Miami Heat star Jimmy Butlerwho played for the Timberwolves in 2018, and the team has recently been linked to the star again in trade talks – but not on the road you might think.

“The Raptors are volunteering to participate in a possible Butler trade as a facilitator for a third or fourth team that doesn’t bring Butler, but participates in the transaction,” Marc Stein reported on his Substack, citing data from Toronto’s Doug Smith. Star.
“When I relayed this to a well-placed source, I was told that ‘about half the league’ has shown similar sentiments to the Heat as they try to figure out a trade that brings this saga to an end.”

That group is believed to include the Timberwolves … but, again, in the role of brokering a trade, not with the intention of bringing Butler back to Minnesota.

At this point, it’s unclear what contracts or players the Timberwolves would want to absorb to help with such a trade.

Are the Timberwolves cooked?

Normally, a team just eight months away from the conference finals with a 23-year-old MVP would be in one of the more enviable situations in the entire league.

That’s not necessarily the case with Minnesota, however, which confused its fans by trading away its franchise cornerstone in September and has experienced a regressive run on the roster so far this year.

Of course, there’s still plenty of time to turn things around, and the Western Conference hasn’t been as elite this year as many expected.

The Timberwolves next take the field on Monday against the Memphis Grizzlies.