How Jimmy Butler's season-ending injury impacts Warriors' trade deadline plans
On "Dubs Talk," Bonta Hill and Monte Poole discuss how Jimmy Butler's season-ending ACL injury impacts the Warriors' NBA trade-deadline plans.
How Jimmy Butler's season-ending injury impacts Warriors' trade deadline plans originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
Video Transcript
Do you think the Warriors would think about moving Jimmy Butler if there's a team?
A team willing to move off that contract?
Now, there are only a few options here.
Right?
There are only a few options, first 'Cause not a lot of players are making the money Jimmy Butler's making.
So, you have to look at those teams.
But, hypothetically, Let's use Milwaukee for this exercise, and they have Giannis Antetokounmpo.
I'm not...
I'm just using it as a hypothetical, because we know how much money he makes.
Right?
Unless you, unless you're trading... Would the Warriors even do something like that, knowing Jimmy's not coming back?
Until next January?
You've got to consider everything now.
Okay.
You've got to consider everything now.
And, um, yeah, if you have a chance to make a colossal move, and move off Jimmy, if another team will take it.
Yeah.
And you're right, it's very different from the Milton's situation, becauseright, of the money.
Yep.
The money.
But, um, Jimmy, when he re-signed with the Warriors, He got a couple of years in there.
Mm-hmm.
And so it's a little bit different.
Well, it's a lot different in terms of the money involved.
But if the opportunity is there to do that, and you're Mike Dunleavy and Joe Lacob, I think you absolutely have to do that.
Um, 'cause I, I... Again, to me, so much of what they did in the off-season.
Mm-hmm...
In trying to put this thing together.
Bringing back Jimmy, bringing back Milton, signing Al Horford.
I mean, they had...
They were waiting for Jonathan Kuminga.
But they knew what they had lined up once he signed.
Right.
And to me, it was all about making a push.
Season, and now that's all thrown into chaos.
Mm.
It's all thrown into chaos.
And I'm telling you, Man, when Jimmy went down last night, the first person I looked at was Steph.
'Cause Steph knew how much this meant, this year means.
Yep.
He knows.
He's getting up there in age, but he's still playing at a high level.
At a super elite level, but he's still He understands that this year, Any move the Warriors make towards a real push for a deep playoff run.
Right?
Jimmy is going to have to be a part of that.
So, yeah.
If you can get somebody who gives you the kind of lift Jimmy got you last year, Yeah, you've got to think about that.
Because again, It's, it's, to me, it's about trying to get the most...
Maximize one of the best players we've ever seen, a generational talent in Steph.
54 million Jimmy Butler's making, and it's an expiring contract.
An expiring $54 million deal.
You'd obviously have to take on some Money from this season, but it's 54 next year.
This is the last year of his deal.
So when you look at that contract, maybe there's a team out there that would be willing to bite the bullet on that and wait for him to get healthy.
Let him rehab in their facility, and then they could maybe flip Jimmy at the deadline contending team that wants possibly a Jimmy Butler on, on their roster.
But again, $54 million, so you've got to match that salary with another player and another team, and how many players are on these Teams that make that much money?
Or is it two players, or what not?
So, it's...
I'm with you.
Everything's on the table right now.
Yep.
And I guarantee you, The Warriors are exploring that option, yeah, because of the Steph timeline.
Yeah.
You don't have a lot of time to waste.
Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, and you're starting to make a run.
Here, and a lot of people in this organization believe, Whether or not you agree, the West could be had.
Oklahoma City needs to come back.
A little bit.
They're the champs.
They're a tough team, there's no doubt.
San Antonio's young.
Up and coming.
Denver will get healthy.
Hopefully, with Nikola Jokic and Gordon.
And Gordon's already back.
I should say, yeah.
Jokic is on his way back.
But the Rockets, they're a flawed team right now.
The Lakers are flawed.
Minnesota doesn't have a point guard.
So, I'm very intrigued to see if the Warriors look down that avenue, saying, Maybe we could trade Jimmy for the right salary slot.
Now, Again, there aren't too many players making $54 million a year.
There's a handful, and I think we know who those players are.
But if Milwaukee, for example, here's the difference with the Warriors.
And the Knicks, 'cause I do think the Knicks are gonna try to get Giannis.
And I'm just using Giannis as an example, 'cause I think it's a pipe dream that he ever wears a Warriors uniform.
But, as we talked about on our Podcast last week, Monty, he got booed in Milwaukee last week.
His team got booed.
He booed back.
That ship is sailing.
Time is expiring for Giannis in Milwaukee.
The Knicks are losing games left and right.
Karl-Anthony Towns is, You know, has...
He and Mike Brown see eye to eye now.
But the Knicks don't have many picks, because they gave them up for Mikal.
Bridges.
The one thing the Warriors do have is picks.
Yes.
They have picks and that salary slot.
So maybe there's an avenue there, but I do think that everything is on the table.
And you have to explore that option with Jimmy Butler.
As cutthroat as that sounds, less than 24 hours after he tears his ACL.
That's how these guys are thinking in the front office: "What do we do now?"
Where do we pivot?
And I think that's an avenue you have to explore.
No, I totally agree with that.
Totally agree with that.
And you know what?
I think Jimmy would understand.
I don't think he'd have any hard feelings about this.
Yep.
You know, Jimmy, he's a basketball player, but he's also a businessman.
Yep.
He's a business executive, so he understands.
How these things work, and if they were to make a move that involved moving him, I think he would look at it and say, "You know what?"
Yeah, I can see why they did it.
Yep.
You know.
I don't think he'd be mad about it.
He probably wouldn't be happy, though.
But he would understand, business is business.
He understands that as well as anybody.
League.
So, uh, yeah, but if you're the Warriors, I think you have to look, as agents always say, Explore all options.
