The Minnesota Timberwolves have shopped Ricky Rubio in trade talks throughout the tenure of Tom Thibodeau and Scott Layden, but their decision to trade away Kris Dunn and Zach LaVine for Jimmy Butler may change that position.

The Wolves may need to keep Rubio, who is on an affordable contract, if they are unable to sign a point guard in free agency.

"He's going to have a great career here," said Layden the day after the Butler trade.

Minnesota was encouraged by how Rubio played in the second half of the season where he had a PER of 20.4 after the break compared to 15.1 as well as a True Shooting Percentage of .553 compared to .529..

Rubio is one of the NBA's better defensive point guards, but his lack of shooting is problematic due to the ball dominance of Butler and Andrew Wiggins.