On his podcast, The Zach Lowe Show, Lowe said that Jimmy Butler's injury means that the Golden State Warriors won't make any win-now moves before the Feb. 5 deadline. He listed Michael Porter Jr. and Anthony Davis as two of the trades they could've made, but Lowe said he didn't think there was a real possibility either would've happened anyway, as it'd mean parting with Draymond Green.
As Marc Stein of The Stein Line reported on Wednesday, the Warriors' best option post-Butler injury could be to keep Jonathan Kuminga past the deadline (subscription required) and revisit a trade over the summer.
If the version of Kuminga that played on Tuesday, scoring 20 points on 7-of-10 shooting, is the one who shows up for the rest of the season, that'd do the Warriors a favor. Keeping him would mean picking up his $24.3 million team option for 2026-27, but maybe the demand for him will be higher over the summer than it is now. One game won't change that, though.
Jimmy Butler injury changes the Warriors' deadline plans
In the span of one night, Golden State went from trying to find a way to put itself in the best possible position to win a championship this season to possibly not making a significant move at all. Now, it seems they'll wait for Butler to return sometime next season and hope he's the player he was before he got hurt. In other words, the future looks bleak.
The problem is that they don't have the luxury of time, which is the reason why they rolled the dice on a Butler trade in the first place. Steph Curry will turn 38 in March, and although he's still playing at a high level, he won't be around forever. He might be enough to push the Warriors to be somewhat aggressive at this year's deadline, but they're not in an advantageous position.
In case it makes you feel better, it's not like Golden State was guaranteed to make the kind of win-now trade it needed to make a championship run even before Butler got hurt. Whatever might've happened, it wouldn't compare to what the Warriors received when they traded for the forward last year. Unfortunately, injuries have gotten in the way.
It feels like the season is already over, but don't give up yet. There are still two weeks left until the deadline, and even if the Warriors are quiet, you still have to appreciate what it's like to watch Curry play at this stage in his career.