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The NBA offseason isn't even officially underway, and already one thing is clear: The Jimmy Butler trade rumors aren't going anywhere, whether the Chicago Bulls move him or not.

On Monday, ESPN.com's Marc Stein and Chad Ford reported that the Minnesota Timberwolves are dangling the No. 5 overall pick in next week's draft in hopes of prying Butler loose from Chicago.

Despite recent declarations to ESPN.com's Nick Friedell from the two-time All-Star that he'll still be with the Bulls this fall, general manager Gar Forman and vice president John Paxson didn't rule out trading him when asked of the possibility at the end of the regular season. His at times contentious relationship with head coach Fred Hoiberg and awkward on-court partnership with Derrick Rose cast some doubt on his long-term fit.

The Timberwolves rumors are intriguing on a number of levels, but it's highly unlikely anything comes of it for a few reasons.

The acrimonious nature of the Bulls' 2015 split with new Timberwolves coach and president Tom Thibodeau is well-documented, and there's still a lot of bad blood there—especially after the Bulls missed the playoffs in their first year under Hoiberg. If Paxson and Forman do decide to cash in on Butler as a trade asset, it likely won't be to help Thibodeau build a contender in Minnesota.

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For a player of Butler's caliber, the Bulls will want a significant collection of picks and impact players. If they do engage in trade talks with the Timberwolves, they'll ask for Andrew Wiggins, which should (rightly) be a non-starter for Thibodeau.

Wiggins is 21 years old, on an ultra-cheap rookie contract for two more seasons and is one of Minnesota's two primary building blocks along with 2016 Rookie of the Year Karl-Anthony Towns. Wiggins also duplicates much of Butler's skill set, with an even higher upside given his athleticism and young age.

The two could play together, but neither is a great shooter and it would make no sense for the Timberwolves to give up Wiggins for Butler at this point in their respective careers.

In a vacuum, there's a reasonable, logical trade here, something involving the fifth pick and some combination of the Wolves' secondary prospects such as Zach LaVine, Gorgui Dieng and Shabazz Muhammad. Taj Gibson, another Thibodeau favorite, could be included as a salary dump if the Bulls decide to rebuild and go young.

But it's difficult to imagine Paxson and Forman swallowing the idea of trading Butler to Thibodeau after the way his five-year tenure in Chicago ended.

If the Bulls decide to shop Butler, the Timberwolves won't be the only team making a bid, and they may not have the best offer. The Boston Celtics have been known to be interested, per the Chicago Tribune's K.C. Johnson, and they're reportedly shopping the No. 3 overall selection, according to CSN New England's A. Sherrod Blakely.

If Celtics GM Danny Ainge is willing to package Jae Crowder with that and other future picks, Boston could have the deal to beat.

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All of this is assuming Paxson and Forman are willing to actually pull the trigger on a Butler trade, something that would be out of character for what has been a historically conservative organization.

The symbolism of trading Butler is just as important as the pieces the Bulls would or would not get back. Trading him would mean choosing to rebuild from the ground up, since no one else on the roster comes close to qualifying as a franchise cornerstone. And a rebuild comes with its own set of risks and no guarantee of success.

Even if they go into it with a plan, they have to nail every draft pick, trade and free-agent signing to have a chance at becoming elite. The most notorious full-on rebuild in recent NBA history is the Philadelphia 76ers' controversial #Process, and even that has produced mixed results.

It took them three years of out-and-out tanking to finally land the No. 1 pick, yet they still don't have a clear-cut player to build around. And they started with a much stronger collection of assets and draft picks than what the Bulls have.

Butler is the only sure thing on this roster: a 26-year-old All-Star who plays both ends of the floor and is on an affordable contract for the next three years. He's slated to make $17.5 million next season, $18.6 million in 2017-18 and $19.8 million in 2018-19, per Basketball Insiders—max money under the old salary cap but role-player money once the league's new television deal kicks in this summer and the cap skyrockets.

No other Bulls player has much trade value around the league—Rose and Gibson are expensive and expiring, while Doug McDermott, Nikola Mirotic and Bobby Portis are still unknown quantities as NBA contributors.

Nam Y. Huh/Associated Press/Associated Press

Unless Chicago is getting back a blue-chip prospect (ironically, much like the Timberwolves did when nabbing Wiggins from Cleveland for Kevin Love in 2014) or the opportunity to draft a franchise-changing talent like Towns or Anthony Davis, the negatives of dealing Butler outweigh the positives. The five-year, $92 million max deal he signed last summer is cap-friendly (for keeping or eventually moving later) during the next two offseasons, and he's locked up through 2019.

It would be foolish for the Bulls not to at least listen to offers—Butler's value will likely never be higher than it is right now. But with three more years until he can opt out of a below-market contract, and not much else of long-term potential on the roster, Chicago should be in no rush to part with him.

And certainly not to help out Tom Thibodeau.