The Golden State Warriors are primed to win a lot of games this season, and they're an obvious threat to go deep in the playoffs with their new core. And yet, the fanbase can't help but wonder what would have happened if the Warriors had been able to pair up Stephen Curry and Jimmy Butler three years ago rather than now.
This is another classic case of two superstar players getting together just a little bit past their prime, when it would have been most effective to have them operating alongside each other. There are countless examples of this in the recent history of the NBA, and one of the best is when Steve Nash and Kobe Bryant teamed up on the Los Angeles Lakers.
Those two guys were still stars playing at a high level in 2012, but their best basketball was also clearly in the past for both of them by then. They produced winning basketball and some fun moments, but it's hard to say that team wouldn't have been more fun if Nash and Bryant had teamed up in 2006 instead.
2023 Butler would have been a dream teammate for Stephen Curry
And the same rings true here and now with this Warriors team. It's not that Stephen Curry and Jimmy Butler don't still work very well as a duo in 2025. But can you imagine if the Warriors had gotten Curry 2022-23 Jimmy as his number two option?
Golden State would have had one of the league's best clutch performers and ceiling-raising stars to operate alongside the greatest shooter of all-time when he was just a bit younger, and coming off winning a championship and a Finals MVP. Hindsight is 20/20, but you can't blame Warriors fans for dreaming about this.
Butler had two of the most memorable playoff runs that didn't end in a championship of any player in the twenty-first century in 2020 and 2023. In fact, you could argue either of those runs were just as impressive as the performances of some of the guys that did go on to take home Finals MVPs this decade. Jimmy played his tail off, but it didn't matter when he had LeBron James and Nikola Jokic lining up across him.
When he was at his best, Jimmy Butler in the playoffs was a truly scary sight to see. Now, at 36 years old, he's still a reliable producer that will elevate the Warriors in the playoffs. But he's admittedly not the game-changing force he was a few years ago, and the FOMO is real for Warriors fans.