Jimmy Butler said he’s “happy to be playing basketball again” in his introductory press conference with the Golden State Warriors on Thursday. He was emphatic about his singular focus of winning a championship while downplaying the idea that the Warriors were not his preferred destination after all reporting had indicated Butler preferred joining the Phoenix Suns as he angled for an exit from the Miami Heat.
In fact, it was reported that the only reason Butler didn’t end up in Phoenix — with Kevin Durant being the one to head back to Golden State instead — was because Durant shot down the prospect of a Warriors reunion.
Either way, Butler has landed with the Warriors and says he can’t wait to get to work (he’s expected to make his debut on Saturday against the Bulls) in pursuit of a championship with a team that is outfitted with, as he puts it, “some hellified talent.”
At the top of that list is of course Stephen Curry, who will surely welcome a second scorer that the defense has to honor with the utmost respect. Butler, who will wear No. 10 in honor of soccer star Neymar, doesn’t expect the job description of playing alongside Curry to be terribly complicated.
“Pass the ball to Steph and get out the way,” Butler joked. “Easy.”
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Kidding aside, Butler, who agreed to a two-year, $111M extension to remain with Golden State through 2027, noted how much respect he has for both Curry and Draymond Green as guys who “always play winning basketball” and can “teach me a whole lot.”
“I’m glad that I get the opportunity to get here and help get us to winning, and do something special,” Butler said. “I think that’s why I’m here. And I’m going to do my best to do what everybody wants, and that’s to win a championship. I mean it.”
How will Jimmy Butler fit with the Warriors?
Warriors coach Steve Kerr, who said earlier Thursday that he had previously “never actually spoken with [Butler],” also isn’t concerned about the fit of Curry and Butler, saying that “great players figure out how to play with other great players.”
Kerr said that he’ll simplify some of Golden State’s offensive actions to allow Butler to “settle in with a few different things we run with good spacing, and just let him play basketball,” but his bigger focus is who will fill out the lineups around Butler.
That will most likely be an ongoing experiment over the season’s final 30 games, but the Warriors, who dropped to 25-26 on Thursday, don’t have a ton of time to dial this all in. An eventual starting lineup (once Jonathan Kuminga is back) could have Green as a small-ball center, Butler and Kuminga on the wings, and either Brandin Podziemski, Buddy Hield or possibly even Gary Payton II with Curry in the backcourt.
Or Kerr could start big, and finish small, so Green doesn’t have to guard centers the entire night and they don’t get killed on the boards. Problem is, none of their centers — Kevon Looney, Trayce Jackson-Davis or Quinten Post — can shoot, which would make Curry the lone 3-point threat in a Curry-Butler-Kuminga-Green-Center lineup and defenses will be able to sag pretty heavily into the paint to clutter Butler’s scoring office.
If Kerr wants that “good spacing” he talked about for Butler to operate in, playing with a center and Green at the four is going to be a tough lineup to run out there. That’s why he’s so focused on finding the right combinations. He’ll try to mix and match Moses Moody and Hield to get shooting out there, but Hield especially craters a defense. There are no perfect answers. Kerr will be searching for the best ones.
Butler can elevate Warriors in postseason setting
One thing Kerr noted for sure is that Butler will play the non-Curry minutes, meaning the Warriors will have the luxury, for the first time since Durant, of always having at least one superstar on the floor. That’s significant.
Golden State’s offense has fallen off a cliff this season when Curry sits.
At the end of the day, the Warriors did well to bring in a talent like Butler while retaining almost all of their future capital in the ways of draft picks and young players. If they can make some headway in the stretch run and crack the top six, as long as they get into a playoff series, that’s where Playoff Jimmy, whom Kerr called “pressure player” as we’ve all seen him elevate his game to extraordinary postseason heights, can really make his mark.
“The playoffs are different,” Kerr said. “It’s almost a different sport in some ways. So we’re getting a guy [in Butler] who’s a proven playoff performer. I like the idea that we’re healthy, we can put it together and give ourselves a chance. And Jimmy … we’ve seen what he can do [in the playoffs]. You don’t have a nickname like that for nothing.”
