For the Golden State Warriors, the first chunk of the season can’t just be a countdown to Jimmy Butler’s return.
That’s the temptation, of course. Butler is the big swing, the piece the Warriors are counting on to help complete the picture when he comes back at mid-season from the torn ACL he suffered in January. But if Golden State treats the early months like little more than a holding pattern, it could be setting itself up for the same kind of grind that has dragged it down the last two seasons.
The Warriors need Butler to become a real secondary scorer next to Stephen Curry and Kristaps Porzingis by the end of the year if they’re going to have any real shot at pushing through the Play-In Tournament and into a playoff berth. He doesn’t have to look like the same player athletically, but he does have to give them meaningful scoring to make the rotation feel complete again.
That’s where the danger comes in. Butler’s return can be the boost, but it can’t be the whole plan. Golden State has to use the regular season to build something sturdier than survival mode, because a team waiting around for rescue is a team that can slip fast.
There’s also more riding on the supporting cast than just Butler’s timeline. Moses Moody matters here, too.
He’s an important rotational defender and perimeter shooter, and when he’s back he’ll have a chance to start in the backcourt alongside Curry. If Moody gives them what they need and the rest of the perimeter group starts to click, the Warriors can at least stabilize while they wait on Butler.
The early lineup could still give them a fighting chance on a nightly basis. With Porzingis, Draymond Green, Yaxel Lendeborg, Brandin Podziemski or De’Anthony Melton, and Curry, they should be able to hang with most teams. Podziemski’s late-season momentum and an immediate impact from Lendeborg would go a long way toward keeping this thing afloat.
That’s the real point: Golden State needs cohesion now, not just hope later. If the Warriors can get through their first 35-40 games with a winning record, then Butler can come back into a team that’s already positioned to matter. That would give him time to find his legs again without having to drag the whole season uphill.
And that’s the nightmare scenario Golden State has to avoid - Butler stepping into a group that already looks beaten down and out of sync. The last two seasons have shown how costly it is when the Warriors have to burn too much energy just to fight their way into the Play-In Tournament late in the year.
Butler can’t be asked to return to full strength and also carry them into the seventh or eighth seed on force alone. If the Warriors want him to be the piece that helps lift them, they have to do their part first.
In Other News...
Warriors Fans Will Hate Where This Latest Spurs Hype Went
Charles Barkley already has the basketball world talking again, this time with a comparison that will land hard in the Bay Area. After praising Spurs guards Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper, Barkley floated the idea that San Antonios young backcourt could grow into something reminiscent of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, a bar so high it practically comes with a warning label. The Spurs do have reasons to dream, with Victor Wembanyama anchoring a promising core and a pair of talented guards giving the franchise a new kind of upside.
For Warriors fans, the bigger issue is how casually those comparisons get made before anything has been earned. Curry and Thompson helped define an era, and matching even a slice of that success is a long way off for any young pair, no matter how much talent they show early. San Antonio also has its own roster questions to sort through as this core develops, and until those pieces settle, the new Steph and Klay talk feels more like a provocation than a prediction. [Read more 🡒]
Warriors Just Lost The Lakers Threat They Feared Most
LeBron James is no longer part of the Lakers regular-season picture, and for Golden State that changes the equation in a way that is hard to ignore. The Warriors had spent years dealing with a matchup problem unlike most others, because James consistently seemed to raise his level when these teams crossed paths and gave Golden State a very specific kind of trouble on both ends of the floor.
The Lakers have already shifted their attention toward Luka Doncic in the wake of James departure, but the immediate effect for the Warriors is simpler: one fewer proven problem to game-plan around. Even if Los Angeles still has enough talent to matter, the absence of James removes the player who has so often made that rivalry feel heavier, more physical and a little more personal for Golden State. [Read more 🡒]
Warriors May Have Avoided A Ben Simmons Role Problem
Ben Simmons latest stop came with a familiar wrinkle, as Sacramento officially signed him and listed him as a 6-foot-10 guard, keeping the conversation around his best NBA role alive. Rich Paul has suggested Simmons could be used more like a center in pick-and-roll looks, but the Kings current roster does not appear built to make that experiment easy, which makes the fit feel a little awkward before the season even gets going.
For the Warriors, the intrigue had looked a bit different. Golden State had shown interest in Simmons and could have tried to use him as a backup point guard or a versatile forward, the kind of Swiss Army piece that sometimes finds a lane in their system. Even then, he would have had to win a preseason roster spot over Brandon Williams, so the path was never going to be automatic, and the latest Sacramento move suggests the Warriors may have sidestepped a role puzzle before it reached their own locker room. [Read more 🡒]