Warriors’ Jimmy Butler Making ‘Promise’ on Injury Amid Trade Rumors
· Yahoo Sports
The Golden State Warriors‘ offseason has been dominated for the last two weeks by a simple question: Will they get lucky enough to land LeBron James as a free agent, preferably on a small deal that gives them a Hall of Fame star at a discount price? But that question has led to a half-dozen tangential questions that have put the Warriors’ mindset here at the end of Stephen Curry‘s career under the microscope. One of those tangential questions involves star wing Jimmy Butler.
As we know, Butler is out as he rehabs following surgery to repair a torn ACL. The injury happened in January, giving Butler a generous return date of around Thanksgiving, which would be 10 months of recovery. More likely, Butler’s return will come around Christmas or shortly thereafter, meaning he should miss about half the season.
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Butler is on an expiring $57 million contract, and because the Warriors lack other contracts that have such heft–and don’t have any other contracts that can be combined to land around that number–Butler is the Warriors’ best means of matching a significant salary to bring back a star in a trade. They’d have to include first-round draft picks, but such a package could bring in a top star.
Jimmy Butler Would Have to Go in a Warriors Blockbuster
Those are the basics behind Butler’s Warriors situation. But the question is whether the Warriors would actually go through with a trade of Butler while he is rehabbing. He is a respected veteran, well liked in the front office and in the locker room. The Warriors are said to have told Butler they’re not planning to trade him. It’d be an ugly move to boot Butler to another team after the knee injury.
If the Warriors wanted to get Anthony Davis, for example, Butler would have to go. It could be a move that secures James’s signature with Golden State–he is a close friend of Davis–but it’s a pretty cold and cynical maneuver.
Jimmy Butler Promising a Big Return
It’s one that we’ve been told the Warriors are not planning to do (with the caveat that things change, of course). But ESPN insider Brian Windhorst says that the Warriors are trying to get Butler back on the floor quickly, and if they trade picks for players, it won’t necessarily involve Butler.
Windhorst wrote this week on ESPN.com: “Butler is promising to return strong from his injury, and the front office is still looking for ways to trade future first-round picks to improve the roster for Curry.”
Warriors Have Limited Options
Again, there aren’t many options for the Warriors to trade apart from Butler. Salaries need to come close to matching in any deal, and after the Curry and Butler deals, the Warriors have whatever Draymond Green signs for , and he’s not being traded. So the first real, tradeable salary is Moses Moody‘s $12.5 million, which could conceivably be packaged with the $5.5 million for Brandin Podziemski.
That would allow the Warriors to get back a player worth about $18 million, but there aren’t a lot of players in that price range worth more than Moody and Podziemski, let alone both players and draft capital.
So it comes back to Butler–if the Warriors want to make a major trade, it will need to be him. But, as Windy says, he’s promising a strong return. Likely, it’s just a question of whether he returns to a roster that has James or not.
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