Photo Credit: CSN Chicago

Jimmy Butler & Karl-Anthony Towns Are Actively Recruiting Kyrie Irving

As you know, Kyrie Irving requested a trade, and named four teams he would like ot get traded to. Among these four are the Minnesota Timberwolves, who also are interested in adding Kyrie’s talents to their roster.

According to Brian Windhorst, Timberwolves star players Jimmy Butler and Karl-Anthony Towns love the idea of teaming up with Irving and talked to the Wolves’ front office about how to make it possible.

League sources told ESPN that both Butler and Karl-Anthony Towns have been doing their part to recruit Irving on the idea of playing alongside them in Minnesota, and they’ve made it known to Wolves management that they want to add the Cavs star to the mix.

 

The biggest advatage the Timberwolves are having over Irving’s other potential landing spots, New York, Miami and San Antonio, is Jimmy Butler. Butler and Irving have become close friends during their time with USA Basketball, and, according to reports, Irving even requested a trade to Chicago in order to play with Butler, before Butler was traded to the Timberwolves.

This goes both ways. A couple of months ago, Jimmy Butler was on ESPN’s First Take and the question on who he would love to play with came up. His answer: Kyrie Irving. Butler not only would pick Irving, he also said that the Cavaliers star is his favorite player outside of himself.

“I’d probably have to go with my favorite player who is not myself, and that’s Kyrie. I love Kyrie’s game, man. And he’s a really good dude.”

The Cleveland Cavaliers are obviously the deciding factor, and won’t trade Irving unless they get something big in return. They would rather play with an unsatisfied Irving, than giving him away for some role-players. Minnesota most likely will have to include former Cavaliers’ number one pick Andrew Wiggins, as well as some other players like Gorgui Dieng, and/or some picks.