The Golden State Warriors are having a roller coaster season so far. They have gone from looking very good to very shaky and if this back-and-forth continues, or the team goes beyond their current three-game losing streak, we may see a different side to Jimmy Butler.
When the Warriors acquired Butler in a major trade last season, there was some fear that he would not be a great teammate given some issues in his past NBA stops, yet that has not been the case at all so far.
By all accounts, Butler has been a great teammate who understands his place on the team and knows that everything revolves around Stephen Curry. He has not tried to take up the spotlight or cause issues when they aren't necessary. He has even taken on a mentor role to young players like Jonathan Kuminga and has had a running comedy routine with Buddy Hield.
Warriors have seen the nice Jimmy Butler so far but that could change
Obviously, a big part of that has to do with the fact that the Warriors have been pretty good since Butler joined the team. Golden State finished the season on a 23-8 run after acquiring Butler and won the first series of the playoffs against the Houston Rockets, before losing in the second round to the Minnesota Timberwolves after Curry went down with a hamstring injury.
The Warriors began this season looking like they were picking up right where they left off before Curry got hurt, opening with a 4-1 record where they looked like a real contender in the Western Conference.
Now, after ups and downs, the Warriors find themselves at 9-9. After Golden State's latest loss to the Portland Trail Blazers, Butler had some of his most pointed criticism of the team yet:
"We’re just not guarding nobody. From what I can tell, I haven’t been here long, but that’s never been the formula here. To win a championship, you got to take each and every matchup personal. Yeah, help’s going to be there, but we got to do way better guarding on that side of the ball.”
Butler is not calling out anyone by name, but he knows that the team has to be better. He did not come to Golden State to finish his career in mediocrity, rather with the hope of helping them compete for another title.
It's still too early in the season to suggest the wheels are falling off or anything like that, but if things start to go in the wrong direction then the Warriors may see a different side of Butler going forward.