The Minnesota Timberwolves are reportedly willing to give up the No. 5 pick in this year's draft in a trade for Chicago Bulls star Jimmy Butler. That's no surprise: Butler is one of the league's best when it comes to putting the ball in the basket and stopping others from doing so. He is also on a team-friendly contract that will keep him away from free agency until 2019 at the earliest. The Wolves already have the most promising young roster in the NBA -- adding Butler would seem almost unfair.
It turns out it is also unrealistic.
According to 1500ESPN's Darren Wolfson, the Bulls aren't interested in sending Butler to Minnesota -- and reuniting him with former Chicago coach Tom Thibodeau -- unless they receive Andrew Wiggins in return.
If the Bulls are serious about exploring the trade market for Butler, of course they would love to rebuild around Wiggins. Of course Minnesota would love to add Butler to its core. A swap, however, simply does not make any sense.
There is no reason for the Wolves to trade Wiggins, who just finished his second season in the league and is on the same developmental track as Karl-Anthony Towns. They want to let those two grow into the best duo in the NBA.
>>Disgraced NBA Official Accuses League of Conspiracy
Disgraced former NBA referee Tim Donaghy told Sports Illustrated that he thinks the NBA suspended Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green for Game 5 of the NBA Finals because the league wanted to prolong the series.
Via Sports Illustrated, Donaghy said quote:
"I think when you look at the overt acts that Green has committed before, they were definitely more severe than this act, and yet he's going to end up with a flagrant foul and suspension because of it. In the past, I believe it was disregarded because [the Warriors] were down in the series. Here, they're up in the series, so I think it's a situation where, with that, it gives Cleveland a better chance of prolonging the series."
He added quote - "Definitely indirectly with the tape sessions that took place and how they would show you plays that they wanted you to concentrate on in the game that. It was always a situation where the team down in the series was going to benefit from those calls."
Donaghy was fired in 2007 after betting on NBA games, and he went to prison for it. He has since accused the league over and over again of manipulating games with officiating. All along, he insisted that he never fixed games when he was a referee. Research from Henry Abbott and Haralabos Voulgaris suggests that this is, at the very least, a questionable claim.
