September 27, 2018
Timberwolves basketball player Jimmy Butler wants to leave Minnesota, according to nearly every national basketball reporter out there. Where he’ll end up is anyone’s guess. The NBA season starts in a little more than two weeks. Everything about the situation is quite strange.
On The Bill Simmons Podcast, plugged-in basketball writer Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer offered up a little nugget about the Sixers’ involvement in Butler trades: The Wolves reportedly asked for Ben dang Simmons.
Yes, that Ben Simmons.
The full exchange, from this podcast:
Kevin O’Connor: With the Sixers, for example, the initial offer they made, the counter-offer was like, ‘We need Ben Simmons in a deal.’
Bill Simmons: Is that for real?
Kevin O’Connor: It’s things like that, counter-offers like that, that make you wonder, ‘Is this actually real?’
PhillyVoice’s Kyle Neubeck reported last week that the Sixers were “extremely wary” of trading for Butler, in part because of his past clashes with younger teammates. The Sixers, according to this author, probably want Simmons playing for them.
To put it plainly: This deal would not be amenable to the Sixers.
And thus, the Butler trade wheel keeps spinning. Thank goodness the regular season is nearly here.
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