The Golden State Warriors and Jimmy Butler will go forward together for at least the next 2.5 seasons, with the franchise trading for the 6x All-Star while also providing him with a new two-year, $112 million extension on Wednesday.
However, it's well known that Butler and the Warriors were not each other's first option. For weeks the 35-year-old had voiced his desire to head to the Phoenix Suns, while Golden State made an aggressive move to reunite with 2x Finals MVP Kevin Durant in the days leading up to the trade deadline.
Kevin Durant may have unknowingly helped the Warriors
In fact, the only reason Butler is a Warrior right now and not with the Suns is because of Durant. The superstar forward had no interest in pairing back up with Stephen Curry and Draymond Green, essentially blocking a move back to the Bay in what would have been a 3-team trade.
According to ESPN's Shams Charania, the proposed deal would have seen Durant head to Golden State, Butler, Jonathan Kuminga and a raft of the Warriors' future draft capital head to Phoenix, and Andrew Wiggins and other pieces heading to Miami.
"The Timberwolves were a team that pursued [Kevin] Durant this week."@ShamsCharania on the other teams that made offers for KD before the trade deadline. pic.twitter.com/C6mUtaxDkP
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) February 7, 2025
It turns out that Durant may have actually done the Warriors a favor by rejecting their approach. Would Golden State have been better with Durant, or with what they have now in Butler, Kuminga and a slew of their future assets?
Time will tell but right now you could make the argument for the latter, particularly if a motivated Butler can return to his All-Star level best. Kuminga meanwhile is expected to return from a severe ankle sprain later this month, having averaged an impressive 24.3 points, 8.0 rebounds and 3.2 assists on nearly 53% shooting in six games prior to the untimely injury.
While many fans and analysts were left bewildered as to why the Suns were actually considering trading Durant, you can actually see why they had interest in changing up a team that held a mediocre 25-25 record at the deadline.
They could have obtained another veteran star in Butler, an extremely talented young forward in Kuminga, and had multiple of Golden State's first-round picks in a period after the Curry-Durant-Green era. That's not awful value for a 36-year-old, even if Durant remains one of the best players in the world.
Now the Warriors can go forward not only with the experienced trio of Curry, Green and Butler, but also with Kuminga who may actually figure as the biggest difference in whether this team can return to significant relevance or not.