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Butler lost faith in T-Wolves' Towns, Wiggins early?
Jimmy Butler never seemed to be a good fit on the Timberwolves. Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports

Jimmy Butler lost faith in Timberwolves' Karl-Anthony Towns, Andrew Wiggins early?

The sentiment that Jimmy Butler is a bad teammate has been fueled since his days with the Minnesota Timberwolves, but considering he led the Miami Heat to this year's NBA Finals, the talk of that has been eliminated. 

Butler's days with the Timberwolves weren't great, and he reportedly didn't see eye-to-eye with fellow stars Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins. 

After busting into the league with the Chicago Bulls, Butler was traded to Minnesota in the summer of 2017. According to Zach Harper of The Athletic, Butler lost faith in both Towns and Wiggins early on during his tenure with Minnesota because he didn't believe the duo had the utmost desire to win. 

"Butler had his own opinions, but he also played the role of go-between for the coach and the young players failing to grasp the raspy barks from the sidelines. The work being put in by the veterans familiar with [head coach Tom Thibodeau’s] system wasn’t being matched by the young stars the franchise committed to grooming. Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins both worked hard individually, by most accounts. But the concept of 'work smarter, not harder' didn’t seem to shine through for them."

When Butler arrived to Minnesota, he knew he had to let Towns and Wiggins shine. However, that never ended up happening. Butler reportedly thought the two were never able to get on the same level he was. He then had the blow up at practice in order to force his way out of the Timberwolves organization. 

"He wanted to prove Towns and Wiggins didn’t have it, and that they didn’t want to have it. He wanted to prove it to the coach/president of the team, knowing it should force his hand."

To his delight, Butler was traded to the Philadelphia 76ers, but his time there wasn't great, either. In the Heat, he finally found an organization that wanted to win as badly as he did, resulting in his tremendous success.

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