Jimmy Butler Finally Traded

Jimmy Butler has long been disgruntled in a Minnesota Timberwolves’ uniform and has finally had his wish of a trade granted. Butler has been moved to the Philadelphia 76ers in a package centered around Philly’s Robert Covington and Dario Saric.

According to The Athletic’s Shams Charania and ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski the final deal is that Minnesota will receive Covington, Saric, Jerryd Bayless, and a 2022 2^nd round pick in exchange for Butler and Justin Patton.

According to Woj, Butler and the Sixers are fully expected to reach a long term agreement to keep Butler in Philadelphia. This will form one of the league’s most dominant Big Threes when you pair Butler with Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons.

Minnesota may not have gotten the haul that they wanted for Butler, but Covington is one of the best ‘Three and D’ players in the league and Dario Saric is a solid young power forward who can do a lot of things well. Bayless was thrown in to make salaries match, and the 2nd round pick was probably a bit of insurance to make the TWolves feel a bit better about losing a top-15 NBA player.

Butler is an interesting fit in Philly, as he not one of the spot up shooters that you would want to surround Simmons and Embiid with. He is a dominant two way star whose biggest deficiency is shooting, but that is not to say that he is a bad shooter.

This trade definitively leaves a question mark at the power forward position for the 76ers, but I have a feeling that Simmons will move back to playing point forward, and JJ Reddick may be reintroduced to the starting lineup. This could leave a very versatile lineup of Fultz, Reddick, Butler, Simmons, and Embiid playing the majority of the minutes in Philadelphia.

As for Minnesota, this will allow the resurgence of Derrick Rose and the continued development of Wiggins and Towns to flourish, while adding solid role players around them. You should expect Covington to slide into Minnesota’s starting small forward role, and Wiggins to move back to the shooting guard. Dario Saric will probably play a lot of minutes from the first seat on the bench.

The implications of this trade are massive in the NBA. Philadelphia has been struggling a bit to start the year, but this moves them back into the top three teams in the East and maybe even a favorite to win the Eastern Conference. With their new piece, they should be one of the best defensive teams in the NBA as the Butler, Embiid, Simmons trio should all garner some All-NBA and All-NBA Defensive team votes.

Minnesota should still be in the playoff hunt with this roster, and this will also allow the team to focus a bit more without the distraction of the Butler situation looming overhead.

This roster will cause matchup problems for any team that is faces, including preseason finals favorites, the Boston Celtics and Golden State Warriors. In my opinion, this new trio are all top 20-25 players in the league, but Butler and Embiid in the top-15 range. The talent will be hard to match, even though their bench is going to be a bit thinner.

With the introduction of Kawhi Leonard to the East, the reintroduction of Butler to the East, and Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward returning to the C’s, the Eastern Conference has gotten much more interesting this year.