Warriors validate the Jimmy Butler trade with playoff series win over the Rockets

New York Times

05-05-2025

HOUSTON — In fairness to Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob, this was the farthest thing from a victory lap.
He was standing still, for starters, playing the role of head cheerleader in the corner of the Toyota Center court where the players whose massive paychecks he covers were practically skipping back to the visitors' locker room to celebrate their Game 7 finish over the Houston Rockets. And secondly, he was asked to reflect on this latest moment of 'meaningful basketball,' as Steph Curry likes to call it, rather than the other way around.
Advertisement
But just as Lacob began to discuss the player whose arrival in February made this all possible, and whose very presence in its midst says so much about why this organization has been elite for so long now, the man himself ran right by without saying so much as a hello.
'Jimmy!' Lacob yelled at Jimmy Butler, as the Warriors small forward stopped and turned around.
They hugged. They shook hands. It had been nearly three months since Butler came to town — with Lacob wisely deciding to listen to his general manager, Mike Dunleavy, when he insisted this deal was worth the risk — and the time had finally come to say the obvious part out loud.
'Sometimes you get them right,' he told The Athletic with a laugh. 'That's all I can say.'
If the Warriors hadn't found a way to get out of the first round, then the entire conversation surrounding Butler and his Warriors' existence would have been different heading into the summer. Sure, it was nice that he helped them avoid missing the playoffs altogether by dominating their Play-In win over Memphis.
But the entire premise of this partnership has been about this version of Golden State convincing the masses that it was a legitimate title contender. And regardless of what happens next against the Minnesota Timberwolves in the second round, it's indisputable that these Warriors were truly in the championship mix in Year 1 of the Butler experiment.
This is why Lacob agreed to give Butler a two-year, $121 million extension that runs through the 2026-27 season, turning a blind eye to all the messiness that took place with him in Miami (and Minnesota before that) while counting on the Warriors' culture to help the 35-year-old get back on track. And that's why, with the Warriors becoming just the seventh No. 7 seed to beat a No. 2 seed since 1984, the sight of Butler and Lacob reveling in a series win together for the first time was so important when it comes to their overall plan.
Advertisement
All of the Warriors' stakeholders need to truly believe in the collective ceiling of this group to avoid the sense that it might have been a mistake. That's the harsh reality of this roster, as the advanced ages of all their most important players mean there's no time like the present.
Those 'We'll get 'em next year' speeches just don't land the same when your stars are all on the back end of their fourth decade. And while the Warriors' regular-season showing with Butler was nothing short of elite — a 23-8 record, the league's third-best net rating, No. 1 defense and the eighth-best offense — surviving this Rockets team that looked so capable of sending them home served as a confirmation that adding Butler was, in fact, the way to go.
This Game 7 finish was yet another new achievement in an absurdly long list of them, a 103-89 win that was the NBA equivalent of a father winning the game of pick-up against his teenage son when everyone in the family thought those days had long since passed. The old man in the middle, 35-year-old Curry, figured out the Rockets' zone defense and somehow survived the tenacity, athleticism and length of young Amen Thompson (he finished with 22 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists and a plus-16 mark).
His longtime Warriors partner, 35-year-old Draymond Green, picked the perfect time to showcase his generational defensive skills while also providing vital offense early on (eight of his 16 points were in the first quarter). Buddy Hield, the 32-year-old who was signed to a two-year deal last summer to fill the shooting duties of the departed Klay Thompson, practically earned all of the $21 million deal he was given in one evening's work (33 points; 9-of-11 on 3s). Butler, who's also 35, had 20 points, eight rebounds, seven assists.
It didn't even matter to Lacob that Butler wasn't the star this time around. What mattered, and what Lacob acknowledged in our chat afterward, was that the Warriors' choice to strike that balance between desperation and calculation that led to adding him had clearly paid off.
Advertisement
'Yeah, there were (concerns about Butler),' Lacob said. 'But you do your analysis, you make your choices, and, yeah, it was a little bit of a risk. But we've got to take risks in this life. And he's worth every freaking penny. That's all I can say. He's fantastic.'
The Warriors were barreling toward irrelevance without Butler, with the chatter growing louder by the month that all their most important people might be pondering the notion of heading elsewhere. Warriors coach Steve Kerr was a popular pick in league circles to eventually replace Gregg Popovich in San Antonio. Green has acknowledged his concern about the possibility that he might have been traded. Curry, whose epic performance in the gold-medal game at the Paris Olympics last summer was a reminder that he was still truly great, had every reason to wonder if that would be the last meaningful game he might play in his career.
'We're still trying to do it,' Curry said. 'So you can tell there's such a care factor for every guy on this team that starts with me, Draymond, (Kevon) Looney, who has been here with us, and now obviously (with) Jimmy and his playoff experience. So I had to rely on that as long as this ride continues.
'You know you're figuring out the chessboard in between the series, and sticking with it, and not letting go of the rope (while) being able to turn the page from one game to the next and meet the moment. It's so much fun out here. I think that's what we talked about with our guys the most. There's no more fun that you can experience in basketball than a playoff series, especially if it goes the distance. So embrace it.'
The feeling from Butler is mutual, to say the least.
'The way that everybody locked in (when he arrived), it made me feel welcome,' Butler said. 'And we took off. … We never wavered. The confidence never went anywhere. (It's a) really good group of hoopers. A really good group of people. So that's what I'm gonna take into this next round, is (that) we've got some guys. We play at an extremely high level, and on any given night we can beat anyone.'
As Indiana Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said recently, Butler would likely have been in the MVP race if he had started the season with the Warriors and played as well as he had since arriving. The question now, for him and for them, is whether they can keep it going against a younger Timberwolves team that is even deeper and more experienced than the up-and-coming Rockets.
'It's nice,' Lacob said of beating the Rockets. 'But we have 12 more (wins) to go. That's all I can say. Four down, 12 to go.'