Derrick Rose joined the Minnesota Timberwolves last season in March, so he hasn't been around the team for that long. That explains why the former league MVP was surprised when he heard star small forward Jimmy Butler requested a trade from the team.

Butler has reportedly wanted out because he doesn't want to play with Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins anymore. Butler had issues with Wiggins' work ethic and approach on defense last season, and got fed up with the nonchalant attitude of Towns.

After Friday's practice in San Francisco, Rose told Nick Friedell of ESPN he didn't know the situation between Butler and the franchise was that bad.

“Now in the NBA, everybody has a little bit of freedom to do a little more of what they want,” Rose told ESPN. “And he's expressing that he don't want to be here and he want to go somewhere else. I mean Kawhi [Leonard] did it last year, didn't he? Like he just didn't play. Jimmy just came out and said he didn't want to play here.

“I had so much [stuff] going on I couldn't even focus on what was really going on with the team. I signed early and I left everything up to Thibs. [Butler's trade demand] was just a surprise, not only to me, I think to everyone that he wanted to leave. … I didn't know what the situation is. I just didn't know it was that bad. Even being here, I didn't know it was that bad.”

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Derrick Rose and Jimmy Butler were teammates in Chicago and reportedly butted heads as well. Butler, per reports, took exception to Rose’s work ethic and viewed himself as the leader of the team. When Rose was traded to the New York Knicks in the summer of 2016, Butler was quoted as saying, “I knew it had to be one of us.”

Rose and Butler, however, have patched things up since then. The peacemaking began when both players attended a Cubs-Dodgers game in Los Angeles shortly after Rose was traded to New York.

The four-time All-Star has had issues with Rose, Joakim Noah, Rajon Rondo, Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg, Towns, and Wiggins. He's obviously a good player, but Butler might need to check his ego and stop being such a frontrunner. If he wants to be a leader, he should try and fix things instead of creating confrontations.