IN THE EIGHT months since Jimmy Butler’s right knee buckled during the hottest streak of his 15th NBA season, his mood and memory of the traumatic moment have improved as his leg has slowly healed.
He remembers the high-arcing pass from Brandin Podziemski while rolling toward the rim, the instant he felt Miami Heat guard Davion Mitchell slide under him on the catch and that shooting pain on the landing that incited an arena-silencing scream.
In a conversation with ESPN following the Warriors’ third training camp practice, Butler relived the scene. From a padded seat on the sideline, he pointed toward the left block of their temporary practice court in Hawaii. That’s where -- face down in the hardwood, eyes closed, letting out a few painful howls -- he can still hear Buddy Hield’s distinctive voice off in the distance.
“Get up, Jimmy! Get up! We need you!”
Even in the darkest of split seconds, Butler beamed about his three-word retort to a former teammate he loved to torment: “No s---, Buddy.”
Then, Butler rolled over onto his back as everyone began to circle.
“When I opened my eyes, I swear to you,” Butler said, raising his hands toward the roof. “It was like Jesus was standing over me.”
Butler is referring to Stephen Curry. Butler locked eyes with his star teammate, whom Butler calls Batman, and noticed an unnerved look on Curry’s face. Curry knew.
“He’s super tough,” Curry told ESPN. “He’s not very dramatic when it comes to stuff like that. He usually plays it off. Him and Buddy started talking trash to each other, and in that moment, I knew he was trying to kind of cope.”
After a wobbly 13-15 start to the regular season, the Warriors were 11-4 in the 15-game stretch before Butler’s ACL injury vs. Miami, coinciding with a ferocious stretch of productivity from Butler, who averaged 21 points, five rebounds and five assists.
In his last game before the injury, Butler went for 32 points on 14-of-22 shooting in a blowout over the eventual champion New York Knicks. The Warriors’ record had spiked back to a reasonable 25-19.
“We knew we were still good,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr told ESPN. “And we knew as long as we were healthy, we were dangerous and we’d make some noise. But Jimmy goes down, and instantly you just know deep down your championship aspirations are gone.”
Butler’s injury occurred more than two weeks before the trade deadline. To acquire Giannis Antetokounmpo, the Warriors would’ve needed to trade either Butler’s or Draymond Green’s contract, had the Milwaukee Bucks desired Golden State’s pick package, which included its four available first-rounders. But the Bucks balked, and Butler has never been offered in other potential trades, team sources said.
Though the market views an injured Butler as a negative value on an expiring $56.8 million deal, general manager Mike Dunleavy still sees him as an essential part of the next few years. A large part of Dunleavy’s offseason inactivity is rooted in his belief that Butler is a major ingredient toward winning, with impactful days still ahead.
The Warriors didn’t show an appetite to offer Butler for Anthony Davis or Jaylen Brown this summer, considering the pick packages required and contracts attached to both. All other Butler-plus-picks conversations -- for what the Warriors believe are ultimately lesser players once Butler returns -- were shut down, team sources said.
That unwillingness to move Butler has put the Warriors in a perceived purgatory to open the season. They are an afterthought, missing $69 million in starting wings (Butler and the injured Moses Moody) and predicted by most as a lottery-bound team in the bottom third of the Western Conference.
But almost every bigger-picture conversation with those in the organization almost immediately shifts to Butler, who just turned 37, and the perhaps unfair burden he might face to rescue their hopes in his first few months back from ACL rehab.
“I’m almost looking at this like this could be the exact opposite of last season,” Kerr said. “We get Jimmy back around February instead of losing him in February. So, what’s our job? Lay the best foundation, best platform for success before that, that can put us in a good position where we’ve got momentum, and all of a sudden, we’re adding him with the playoffs coming a couple months later. I think the plan is there.”
CURRY WAS AMONG a large contingent within the Warriors initially skeptical of acquiring Butler after his elongated final chapter in Miami played out like a soap opera.
They had discussed Zach LaVine as an alternative option, team sources said. Curry was also fond of Andrew Wiggins, a beloved teammate who helped push Curry to that legacy-cementing fourth title in 2022 but would need to be moved to make a deal work. So Curry, while informed, stayed mostly out of front office business, as he prefers.
Dunleavy pushed hardest for the Butler trade, convincing Warriors owner Joe Lacob and the necessary power players of it before delivering a two-year, $111 million extension to satisfy Butler and muscle it across the finish line.
Dunleavy, a 15-year pro, played with Butler in Chicago for three seasons. Dunleavy was around when Butler declined a four-year, $44 million max extension before his fourth season, and Butler has said Dunleavy was one of the Bulls’ veterans who convinced him early he was on a star trajectory.
“Then, he just blew up,” Dunleavy said. “Unquestioned max. That was fun to watch as a teammate.”
Dunleavy was confident that Butler would appreciate Kerr, Curry, the winning atmosphere and the relaxed climate both have cultivated. Dunleavy figured Butler would vibe with Green off the court and click on the defensive end. Dunleavy assumed that Butler’s toughness, approach and superior ability would win over everyone.
Dunleavy proved correct. Butler debuted in Chicago for a middling Warriors team (25-25 record) and already had Kerr, Curry and Green beaming about him postgame, calling his turnover-averse, interior-focused, free-throw-heavy style a perfect complement to Curry’s and Butler’s attitude and exactly the jolt a flat season needed.
“He’s a lion,” Kerr called him.
The Warriors sprinted to a 23-8 finish with Butler, upset the Houston Rockets in the first round and still internally believe they could’ve and probably would’ve eliminated the Minnesota Timberwolves in the second round had Curry not injured his hamstring.
That bred an unwavering confidence in the Warriors’ championship viability last season until Butler tore his ACL.
“He’s such an alpha,” Kerr said. “Everyone feels so confident when he’s on the floor. He’s also a total wiseass. The humor, the dynamic that exists with him in the locker room. There’s just a sense of swagger that you have when Jimmy’s on your team. So, it felt like we lost that instantly.”
The rest of the season was a slow nightmare. Curry was sidelined for two months to tend to a persistent knee issue. They traded for Kristaps Porzingis, who was in and out of the lineup. They went 12-26 after the Butler injury, fading to the background in a season that opened with quiet title belief.
“I really felt like I let Steph down,” Butler said. “I let Draymond down. I let Steve down. Because they took a chance. If you don’t know me and you haven’t been around me, you don’t know what I’m about because of the things that you may read and hear. But they said, ‘F--- all of that s---. This motherf---er knows how to win.’ They took a chance, and I felt I let them down.”
MOODY RUPTURED HIS left patellar tendon in late March, a frightening injury that required a stretcher to get him off the floor, further debilitating the supporting cast in the fading seasons of the Curry era.
But Moody has since described it as a “best-case scenario” rupture. Doctors told him it was a clean tear from the bone instead of a rupture in the middle of the tendon, which should simplify and quicken his rehab.
The recovery results have been encouraging. Team sources indicate that Moody is ahead of Butler’s pace, and the internal expectation is that Moody will return before Butler.
Neither has advanced beyond individual court work, and there are several checkpoints to hit, but the current belief is Moody could return in the December-to-January range, and Butler could be back in the January-to-February range. Butler said the next step in his rehab is landing from a game speed-type jump without issue or concern.