We can pontificate all we want about what the Golden State Warriors will do before the February 5th trade deadline. In the meantime, though, there are still games to play — and they might be rough to watch due to the Warriors' offensive struggles with their second-leading scorer now sidelined. Dan Devine of Yahoo Sports brought up the Warriors' struggles when Jimmy and Steph are both absent on The Big Number podcast:
"108.3. That's the Warriors' offensive rating when neither Steph nor Jimmy are on the floor this season, according to Cleaning The Glass... Without your two best players on the floor, if you're the Warriors, you're scoring a little over 108 points per 100 possessions..."
That's bad, of course. It would be the worst offensive rating in the league, for the record — but that comes with an asterisk, as that would be comparing the Warriors' offense without its best players to every other team with its best players. Still... Not so promising.
Now, the Warriors are faced with the question of who can step up in Jimmy Butler's place until reinforcements (potentially) arrive. Can Will Richard play a bigger role? Can Moses Moody's scoring output rise? The answer to both of those is probably, but the biggest problem is that, in order to replace Jimmy, it will take about four different players with specialized skillsets.
Warriors lose multiple dimensions without Jimmy Butler
It's not just Jimmy's scoring that will be missed, of course, it's his playmaking and the intelligence he provides as a passer, driver, cutter, and connective piece. There's a reason his teams have been considerably better with him on the floor literally every year of his career, including 9.6 points per 100 possessions better this year. He plays so many roles that one player can't replicate what he does — that's what makes him special. He's never been the volume scorer that some other stars are, but his impact is felt in so many facets of the game.
And as we know, the Warriors offense stumbles along when he and Steph Curry are both on the bench. Luckily, Steph is good enough on his own to keep the offense functional even when Jimmy isn't there.
The problem is that Steph plays just under 32 minutes per game, meaning that unless there's a drastic minutes increase for the 37 year-old, the Warriors will be running a league-worst offense for about 17 minutes per game.