The Warriors, sitting at 25-26 and 10th in the Western Conference on Feb. 6 were, to put it mildly, in trouble.
Golden State, after a red-hot start to the 2024-25 NBA season, cooled off significantly and struggled throughout the middle part of the campaign. That is, until one move changed everything.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr joined Tom Tolbert on the latest episode of “The Tom Tolbert Show,” where he discussed Golden State’s blockbuster trade for Jimmy Butler on Feb. 5 and how it came together after its failed trade pursuit of Phoenix Suns superstar Kevin Durant.
“I was all for it, just because we had nothing going. We were at the point in the season where you could just feel it, we were dead in the water. We were below .500 and it had been a long enough stretch where it was like ‘alright, this isn’t working.’
“So I think it was well-documented that we were trying to get Kevin Durant, that didn’t happen. Mike [Dunleavy] calls me and he goes ‘I think we’re just going to trade for Jimmy Butler, I’m going to vouch for him, I played with him for three years in Chicago. Guy is a gamer, hell of a player. I think it’s going to work.’ I said, ‘great, let’s do it.’ But more than anything, we needed a change.
Some within the Warriors organization had initial concerns about Butler’s fit with Golden State before the trade, and while everyone knew how good of a player he was, Kerr admits that it initially was hard for him to picture Butler playing in the Warriors’ system.
“I didn’t know his game that well, obviously we only played Miami a couple times a year. I’ve watched him and have been impressed, but he doesn’t have the game that jumps off the screen to you skill-wise,” Kerr added. “You watch him and once you see him every other every day you realize why he’s so good.
“But if you’re watching him from a far, he’s not a great shooter, he’s not super athletic, so I didn’t really know what kind of impact he would have. But literally within a game or two I was like ‘this guy is really good.'”
The Warriors ultimately made the right move, and went on to win 24 of their final 32 regular-season games before escaping the NBA Play-In Tournament and taking down the young Houston Rockets in the first round of the playoffs.
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