ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reports that the Heat, who have been discussing a Jimmy Butler trade with the Timberwolves for a bit, are pushing Minnesota to take or leave the deal on the table. (We don’t know what’s in the deal.) Woj also reports if the deal doesn’t happen, Tom Thibodeau plans to push Butler to join the Wolves upon the team’s return from a preseason road trip on Thursday.
This Jimmy Butler thing is either going to get resolved or really weird soon
We have that and more in Thursday’s NBA newsletter.
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Meanwhile, Butler is apparently nursing his wrist, which he had surgery on last year. It doesn’t take a Nobel Prize winning physicist to figure out Butler could theoretically claim his wrist will keep him out of action for the foreseeable future, and that being traded to a preferred team would provide a magical salve.
So this saga could either end quickly with a deal to send Butler to Miami, or it could drag on with the Timberwolves trying to force Butler to report. A clean break or a messy tangle.
Given the Timberwolves’ history, we have an idea of which way this would historically go. We’ll see.
Schedule check
Just two games on Thursday, both on NBA TV: Pacers-Rockets at 8 p.m. ET and Kings-Lakers at 10:30.
The regular season begins in 12 days.
Links galore
Matt Ellentuck explains why the search for the next WNBA president has never been more important. Tamryn Spruill asks where the WNBA goes from here.
The 2018-19 GM survey is out. It looks like 26 of the 30 general managers picked the Warriors to win the championship, with two picking the Rockets and two picking the Celtics. (Keep in mind that GMs can’t vote for their own team or players, so Bob Myers had to throw Houston or Boston a bone.) LeBron and Kevin Durant are the MVP favorites (Durant is not going to win an MVP in Golden State unless Steph Curry misses half the season). The most striking vote: Karl-Anthony Towns finished No. 1 last year in the question about who you’d start a franchise with. He didn’t get a single vote this year. And he made the All-NBA team last season! Sheesh.
I wrote about Klay Thompson’s desire for individual recognition and the internal battle he faces approaching free agency.
The bad news is the Kings’ 2018 NBA draft board leaked because an excited college coach posted a photo of his player signing with the team in Vlade Divac’s office. The good news is the 2018 NBA Draft is over and so this really doesn’t matter at all. That 29-53 scrawled on the board is pretty interesting, though. High hopes in Sacramento!
Michael Pina warns the Jazz’s offense is about to set the NBA on fire.
The Kings put four big men — Willie Cauley-Stein, Marvin Bagley, Harry Giles, and Skal Labissiere — on the floor together the other night. Dave Joerger calls it his “four sevens” lineup and promises more. The Kings just moved up the universal League Pass rankings.
For The Athletic, Michael Scotto evaluates the first year of the two-way contract.
When asked if he has talked to the NBA about potential fines over his Supreme logo tattoo, J.R. Smith replied that he “doesn’t talk to the police.”
Derrick Rose says most players who dealt with what he dealt with would have retired.
Be excellent to each other.
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