In an interview with WCCO radio’s Chad Hartman on Monday, Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor was asked if he was concerned about Jimmy Butler’s decision to have surgery to repair the torn meniscus in his right knee.

The question was framed as if Butler had two options — undergo one surgery that would allow him to return to action sooner, or take a different surgical route that would keep him out for an extended period of time but might be better for his career long term.

“I think Jimmy, as most athletes, they sort of know their body,” Taylor said. “They know what they can tolerate, they know just how they feel. As long as he made the decision, I think I’m comfortable with it and support him with it.”

Butler’s exact injury and treatment plan were never discussed publicly, “because it’s not something that had to be discussed,” his agent Bernie Lee said when asked about the comment, adding he was “surprised” to see it discussed in the radio interview. Lee said it’s “totally inaccurate” to insinuate Butler had a choice in terms of treatment and said it was a “mistake” to frame it that way.

“He didn’t have an injury that’s going to impact him long term in terms of if you look at the scope and scale of what he dealt with. He was on the very lower end of the scale,” Lee said. “He didn’t choose to do anything. He accepted medical advice from three different people, three different people offered the exact same advice, he went forward with the treatment plan and was able to return to play.”

Butler had surgery on Feb. 25, two days after suffering the injury. After missing 17 games, Butler’s return to the Wolves’ lineup on April 7 helped lift Minnesota into the playoffs as the No. 8 seed. The Wolves head to Houston on Wednesday for Game 5 of their first-round playoff series trailing 3-1. A loss would end the Wolves’ season.

As he looked ahead to the offseason later in the radio interview, Taylor told Hartman that part of the team’s attempt to lure free agents to Minnesota this summer would rely on Jimmy Butler’s communications with other players.

Lee doesn’t see it that way.

“That’s not Jimmy’s role,” Lee said when asked about Taylor’s comment. “I don’t think that’s something Jimmy should be responsible for. Jimmy should be responsible for trying to become the best player he possibly can and trying to help this organization win as many games as possible.”

The organization, Lee said, should be responsible for building a championship-level structure around Butler, who he called “a top five to 10 NBA player right now.” Lee said Butler’s championship window is now and his expectation to compete for championships is now. Remember, Butler has just one year remaining on his contract after this season. Extending the All-NBA guard this summer should be the franchise’s top priority. Related Articles Timberwolves head into team bubble excited to spend time together, on and off the court

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“In terms of the recruiting aspect of it, in a way, the organization is recruiting Jimmy,” Lee said. “Jimmy is coming up to a window here where he has to decide where the next window of his career is going to take place and those things like that, so along with thinking about him in a perspective of him adding other pieces, the organization also has to be mindful of what they should be responsible for. And something they should be thinking about now is retaining the pieces that they do have.”

How can Minnesota build a championship roster around Butler? Taylor told Hartman Wednesday that what “better teams have been able to do is to get some fairly good, experienced people to come to their teams at a minimum salary.”

“I’m just telling you that really helps when you can have that clout within the league that people want to come and play on your team,” Taylor said.

Lee said franchises that have organizational alignment from players to coaching to management to ownership “instill stability” and win. Players want to play for winners.

“So no matter what, whether it’s Jimmy or another player on the team saying to you in June or July and August when you’re making decisions in regards to free agency,” Lee said, “ultimately players are going to go to places where they can increase their value and they can win.”

That’s not to say Lee doesn’t think Minnesota can build a winner. He looks at the Wolves’ success this season, winning 16 more regular-season games (47) than the year prior (31) and advancing to the playoffs for the first time since 2004, and the current group of players and takes away “more positives than negatives.” Butler has spoken out in support of coach Tom Thibodeau throughout the season.

As of Monday, Taylor told Hartman it was still too soon to classify the season as a success, because the expectations were raised when Minnesota brought in an influx of veteran talent last offseason in Butler, Taj Gibson, Jeff Teague and Jamal Crawford. Taylor didn’t think to improve any less than Minnesota did this season “would necessarily be acceptable.” Taylor said he’d wait until the conclusion of the playoffs to evaluate Thibodeau’s performance, noting a major reason he brought Thibodeau to Minnesota was to steer the Wolves to postseason success.

When asked about those comments, Lee said from his outside perspective, he’s been struck by the contrast between expectations and reality in Minnesota. He noted that trades and free-agent signings don’t win games in the NBA, adding that the players already on the roster weren’t previously viewed through a lens of expectations. Related Articles Timberwolves head into team bubble excited to spend time together, on and off the court

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“Now you enter in expectations and the daily expectation of doing things that it takes to win, you get a sense of what you have and you have to evaluate again,” Lee said. “Things have to come together and you see what happens over the course of the year, and you work and you build and you do things every day to improve.”

Lee noted how rare it is for a team to win a championship months after revamping its roster via trade. It’s happened just once in recent memory, with Boston winning the NBA title in 2008 after trading for Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen in the summer of 2007.

“Minnesota is one of the few teams over the last couple of years that’s said to themselves, ‘We’re going to go all-in via trade. We’re going to trade for an expensive asset that’s in the middle part of his career,'” Lee said. “They created these expectations, but I just don’t think this expectation that it’s an overnight success story, that just doesn’t seem to happen.

“I haven’t understood … the inability of the bubble that’s around this team, at some point, to appreciate what the growth is.”