The Golden State Warriors are staring at a problem they helped create.
When they swung the deal for Jimmy Butler, it looked like the kind of move that could tilt the franchise back into contention. The fit made sense on paper: Butler’s downhill game paired cleanly with Stephen Curry’s pull on the perimeter, and the Warriors ripped off one of the league’s best stretches after the 2024-25 trade deadline. In those 30 games, Butler put up 17.9 points per night and shot 47.6% from the field.
Then the wheels came off. Butler was hurt in Round 1 of the playoffs against the Houston Rockets and never looked fully right the rest of that run. Golden State then stumbled through the Western Conference in 2025-26 before Butler suffered a torn ACL in January, effectively ending the season.
The contract only deepens the bind. To land Butler, the Warriors had to give him the two-year, $111 million deal he signed, and that kind of commitment was part of the bargain from the start. After Butler felt under-appreciated with the Miami Heat, Golden State likely needed that level of security just to get him on board.
Now the same deal that brought him in is making life harder. Butler is out until at least the middle of this season, and the Warriors are reportedly reluctant to move him. That leaves them in a brutal spot, because the structure of their roster makes Butler’s contract one of the few paths they have to a major offseason upgrade.
This isn’t some sudden surprise to anyone around the team. There was already chatter about Butler’s contract being sent out in a Kawhi Leonard trade near the deadline, and just about every big-name trade target this offseason has had Golden State mentioned somewhere in the mix, even when the Warriors weren’t directly involved.
Still, NBA Insider Marc Stein reported earlier this week that the Warriors remain hesitant to include Butler in any deal. That hesitation appears tied not only to how it would reshape the roster, but to the personal side of moving on from a player they went all in to acquire.
That was always the gamble. Butler will be 37 when Golden State enters the second season of his contract, and there was always a chance the decline would arrive early, whether because of injury or something else. If the Warriors don’t land a major star this offseason and Butler doesn’t come back at the top of his game, this team is dead in the water.
Even if they wanted to unload the contract, it would not be simple. Golden State would likely need to attach multiple unprotected future first-rounders to convince another team to take Butler’s money in a star trade. As a standalone piece, the contract doesn’t carry real value beyond matching salary, and a perfect situation would be required to make any deal work.
So the Warriors wait while Butler rehabs his ACL, boxed in by a move they made in pursuit of a title push. At this point, it’s almost impossible to picture the problem solving itself through a trade.
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Warriors Fans Wont Love Where This Former Champion Is Suddenly Linked
Mitchell Robinsons move to Boston has already sent a ripple through the center market, and the Knicks are now sorting through the fallout of losing a rim protector in free agency. One name that has surfaced in the search is Kevon Looney, the longtime veteran big man who spent a decade with Golden State and built his reputation on playoff experience, dependable minutes and the kind of frontcourt steadiness teams tend to value when the summer gets thin.
Looneys path has already taken him to New Orleans on a two-year deal last offseason, and his fit in a new stop would come down to what a team wants from the position at this stage of his career. For the Warriors, the linkage is a familiar reminder of how often a championship cores old faces keep circulating through the league, especially when another franchise is looking for a steady answer in the middle. [Read more 🡒]
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What makes this situation so unusual is the framing around the choice itself. The report suggests James is weighing a move built around championship potential rather than the biggest paycheck, which keeps Golden State squarely in the picture as the league waits for his decision. For a franchise that has spent years defining the title race, even the possibility of joining the mix changes the temperature of the offseason in a hurry. [Read more 🡒]
Warriors Just Watched A Curry Window Move Slip Away
A stunning star-for-star deal out of Boston has already changed the conversation around the league, and it is the kind of move that naturally sends Warriors fans thinking about what might have been. The swap brought Paul George and a bundle of future draft picks back to the Celtics, a return strong enough to underline just how expensive it is to chase high-end talent at the top of the market.
Golden State, meanwhile, did not make a similar push and is still operating as if Jimmy Butler remains part of its plan. That commitment matters even more with Butler working his way back from a torn ACL and not expected until January at the earliest, which leaves the Warriors waiting while other contenders keep reshaping their windows around the same kind of opportunity. [Read more 🡒]