Jimmy Butler, throughout his 15 seasons in the NBA, has shared the court with a lot of elite basketball players. From Derrick Rose, Dwyane Wade, and Rajon Rondo with the Bulls, to Kevin Love and Andre Iguodala with Miami, Butler has developed a good idea of what greatness looks like. But as many of his peers in the league have already noted, playing alongside No. 30 in blue and yellow is a different deal.
"I can say I'm probably with the greatest player that I've ever played with right now on this team with the greatest organization," the six-time All-Star told Kerith Burke in the latest episode of Dubs Talk.
Now nearly nine months removed from the ACL tear he suffered against the Miami Heat in mid-January, Butler is itching to serve as Robin again. However, recovering from that type of injury entails a long, monotonous process with no step-skipping possible. He mentioned in the interview that he's started playing basketball again, doing some light on-court drills.
From a physical standpoint, he's reintroduced running into his rehab, which in reality means that he's jogging and walking at a faster pace rather than sprinting full speed. As he proudly pointed out during media day last week, he can also dunk, with the main focus now being more on the landing aspect than the take-off part. Still, he's reached a point in his recovery where he can see tangible proof that he's getting closer to competing on a basketball court.
Butler made his presence felt at Warriors camp
The injury, though, hasn't stopped Jimmy from being Jimmy. He's been around the team throughout its five-day training camp in Hawaii in addition to hosting a players-only camp at his house in San Diego during the summer. Despite the paradise-like surroundings, Butler hasn't stopped putting in the work. While the team watched film every day, Jimmy was in the gym getting shots up, Kerr said in a post-practice presser.
Then it was time for his daily rehab work with the Warriors' vice president of player health and performance Rick Celebrini and Armando Rivas, his personal trainer who's followed him since his Chicago days. During the team's practices, Butler could be seen hovering around the court, dribbling a ball, taking layups, or giving pieces of advice to his teammates, dying to be out there with them.
"Jimmy is a guy that's trying to help you," Gui Santos told 95.7 The Game last week. "If he's not on the court, he's gonna help someway different, and he's doing that a lot on the side of the court. He's being very vocal with everybody, like if he sees something and he's the first one to go there and talk to somebody and trying to help improve something that he sees we can do better."
As for his well-known sense of humor? It hasn't gone anywhere, as Butler spent all training camp dressing up Malevy Leons with all kinds of accessories to "get his swag up." Headbands, arm sleeves, leg sleeves, wristbands, you name it.
Training camp also offered him opportunity for him to remember everybody how competitive he still is, even with an ailing right knee. Kerr shared with the media that he likes to make his guys shoot free throws in front of the whole team on the first day of practice with a punishment at stake. If they miss one of the freebies, the whole team has to run; if they sink both, they're good. On their first day at BYU-Hawaii, Kerr made one of the rookies decide who should take the free throws. The rookie went with Butler. With his very own swagger, Butler, an 84.4% career free-throw shooter, stepped to the line and knocked them both down. Business as usual.
"He was so happy to be actually engaged physically in the practice, so he can't wait to get back," Kerr said of the moment.
That competitiveness and his relentless drive to win were a couple of the reasons why the Warriors brought him to the Bay last February. The general hope surrounding this upcoming season is that the team can keep its head above water until both Butler and Moses Moody return to competition around the trade deadline to make a push for a playoff berth. Because, at the end of the day, nobody wants to see the trio of Curry, Butler and Draymond Green in a playoff setting. Nobody, even at their advanced ages.
Due to different injuries, the trio hasn't gotten to play in a ton of meaningful games together over the past season and a half. The only somewhat full playoff series they went through together was last season against Houston (Butler missed Game 3), when they defeated the No. 2 seed Rockets in seven games in the first round.
First order of business: reach the postseason. Something the Warriors have failed to do in two of the last three seasons. For one very specific reason, Butler, despite all the changes taking place on offense, believes this team will be just fine.
"We got Steph. Nobody else does."
Hard to argue.
Add us as a preferred source on Google