The Timberwolves aren't biting on another reasonable Jimmy Butler trade offer

Jimmy Butler continues to drum up trade interest around the NBA. (AP)

A week after Miami Heat team president Pat Riley “pulled the plug” on negotiations when Minnesota Timberwolves coach and team president Tom Thibodeau asked for more than Josh Richardson and a protected first-round pick, the Wolves brass is balking at a reported offer of four first-round picks and salary cap filler from the Houston Rockets, according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania.

Minnesota is showing no inclination to move on Houston offer of two injured players and four first-rounders for Jimmy Butler, per sources. On @WatchStadium: pic.twitter.com/NnXkMwXd9N

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) October 26, 2018

The offer, per multiple reports, is built around Houston’s first-round picks in 2019, 2021, 2023 and 2025. That’s the maximum number of picks allowed in a deal under NBA rules that restrict teams from trading first-rounders in consecutive seasons or further out than seven years. Teams also cannot place protections on picks that prevent them from conveying biennially. Marquese Chriss and Brandon Knight would serve to match Butler’s salary in the deal once they become trade eligible on Oct. 31.

Why would the Wolves not make this deal?

The league has not seen that many picks change hands since the Brooklyn Nets dealt three unprotected first-rounders and a first-round pick swap to the Boston Celtics for past-their-primes Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Jason Terry. History was not kind to the Nets, whose aging core failed them as the Celtics recouped Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, among other assets, as a result.

The concern for the Wolves is that Houston’s picks may never fall so high in the draft. Whereas Garnett, Pierce and Terry were all in their late 30s when the Nets acquired them, Butler and Rockets star don’t turn 30 until next year, and Houston center Clint Capela is only 24 years old. While Rockets point guard Chris Paul is approaching his mid-30s, Houston has all the key pieces of a team that nearly reached the NBA Finals last season signed through at least 2022. If they were to acquire and re-sign Butler, that group would all but ensure those 2019 and 2021 picks fall late in the first round.

We also don’t know what kind of protections Houston general manager Daryl Morey is looking to put on those picks. The protections cannot create the possibility that picks fall in consecutive years, so instead: a) the pick could not convey at all, b) it may become a pick swap or c) it becomes a second-rounder. None of those options are as appealing as any of the picks Boston landed from Brooklyn.

Chriss was a lottery pick just two years ago, but he has yet to show signs of ever reaching the potential that so many once saw in his raw athleticism. The 26-year-old Knight produced like an All-Star for the Milwaukee Bucks in 2014-15, only to be traded midseason. He has since suffered a series of injuries that left him fighting to be considered anything more than a 2020 expiring contract.

So, while the foundation of the trade from Houston’s end — four first-round picks and a pair of once-promising players who presumably still haven’t hit their prime — looks sexy at first glance, the Wolves see two injured players and four picks that may never pan out, none of which helps them in their short-term effort to build around Karl-Anthony Towns on a team that made the playoffs last year.

Good ? From @brittrobson to Thibs: is it more important for wolves to get a deal that helps short term or long term? “
TT: “Just have to do what’s right. If something is a good deal and you’re getting good value for the franchise you have to do what’s right.”

— Jon Krawczynski (@JonKrawczynski) October 26, 2018

Is Minnesota ever going to get a better offer?

Richardson, the emerging 25-year-old two-way wing who was the centerpiece of Miami’s offer, is a safer bet to help the Wolves now, and he would have come with a single protected first-round pick. Neither offer is close to equal value for Butler, an All-NBA talent in his prime, but nobody is making a fair deal for a guy who wants out of Minnesota and will become a free agent at season’s end.

The only leverage the Wolves hold over Houston and Miami is the fact that neither team has the cap space to absorb Butler in July, so this trade is the only chance either team has to land the four-time All-Star. Butler would bump Miami into the East elite or make Houston an even greater threat to the Golden State Warriors. Minnesota can try to play one against the other, but Riley and Morey are smart enough to set limits in a bidding war for a guy who has disrupted locker rooms everywhere he’s been.

It is mildly encouraging for Minnesota that Houston’s offer has driven Miami to reportedly reenter the trade discussion, but it is unclear whether the Heat are willing to add pieces to the previous package.

I can confirm that the Heat and Timberwolves have reopened trade talks for Jimmy Butler. First reported by @5ReasonsSports @Lefty_Leif

The Wolves have shown NO movement on the reported Rockets offer from last night.

— Stefano Fusaro (@FusaroESPN) October 26, 2018

Should the Wolves continue to stand pat on legitimate offers from Butler’s two biggest suitors, they must drum up interest elsewhere. The Dallas Mavericks and Los Angeles Clippers are among the interested parties, per ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, and Charania reported that “teams are still identifying [the Philadelphia 76ers] as a team that could get involved here,” which sounds less than promising.

We’re nearing November, Towns has looked downright disinterested, fellow Minnesota building block Andrew Wiggins continues to be asked about his frayed relationship with Butler, and the Wolves are at risk of losing another season to organizational dysfunction. If we’re not there yet, we’re inching closer to the point where Thibodeau must pull the trigger on a deal or risk his trade demands backfiring.

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Ben Rohrbach is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at rohrbach_ben@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @brohrbach

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