The immediate future of the Timberwolves is messy.
The Wolves are headed toward a divorce with Jimmy Butler that is going to sting everybody involved. It's a matter of when, not if, the Wolves are going to deal Butler, who made a request last week in a meeting with coach and President of Basketball Operations Tom Thibodeau for the Wolves to trade him.
But as the organization prepares to host media day without Butler on Monday in advance of opening training camp Tuesday, at least Wolves fans were able to take solace in another bit of news that secured the long-term future of the franchise.
Karl-Anthony Towns signed his five-year, $190 million super maximum contract Sunday, a deal Towns had agreed to late Saturday night. With the signing, the organization is signaling its future rests, for better or for worse, with Towns and Andrew Wiggins, who is entering the first season of the maximum deal he signed before last season.
"Since Day 1, I always said I was going to do something special," Towns said in a video posted to the Wolves' official Twitter account shortly after the signing, "and I tend to keep my word."
Towns' signing and Butler's inevitable unceremonious exit essentially reset the Wolves to where they were before Butler arrived. They were a team tlooking to build around two young cornerstones, and Butler was supposed to help take the team to a higher level. He did, if only for one season.
Now the Wolves are back to where they were before the 2017 draft night Butler trade with Chicago — dependent on Wiggins and Towns, albeit with other key veterans — among them Taj Gibson, Derrick Rose and Anthony Tolliver — in the mix who weren't here the last time the focus was on the two youngsters.
In a way Butler is doing the Wolves a favor in the long term. If his relationship was strained beyond repair with Towns and Wiggins, Butler's trade demand put the future in focus for the Wolves and Towns.