During his relatively short-lived days in a Minnesota Timberwolves uniform, Jimmy Butler didn’t appear to get along with plenty of his teammates and obviously clashed with the front office on numerous occasions as well.
However, despite this, Butler’s ex-teammates have nothing but praise to heap on the four-time All-Star. In fact, when Butler’s new teammate Joel Embiid reached out to his former college sidekick Andrew Wiggins, Wiggins believes the trade puts them over the top and secures them the Eastern Conference. Following from ESPN’s Tim McMahon:
Joel Embiid talked with Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins about Jimmy Butler. "They thought that we were definitely going to get along," Embiid told ESPN. "He wants to win. Wiggs told me that he thought that we were going to win the East for sure."
— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) November 11, 2018
But Wiggins wasn’t the only ex-teammate who spoke highly of Jimmy Butler. Center Karl-Anthony Towns also expressed to ESPN his gratitude towards playing with Butler and the brief time they spent together as teammates.
“He’s one hell of a player,” Towns said Sunday. “I don’t know how many Jimmy Butlers there are in the world, so I think he’ll be missed.”
With Butler now joining Embiid and versatile forward Ben Simmons to form one of the premier trios in the NBA, their chances of ending the season atop the East have certainly increased considerably.
Still, the Sixers sit third in the East with an 8-6 record and will need to improve their play to catch the Bucks or Raptors. It’s a long season and now with the addition of a borderline top-10 player, the Sixers are in prime position to claim the Eastern Conference throne.
