SALT LAKE CITY — It was all there in this somber and nearly silent locker room. The shock of a trade. The hope. The risk. The heaviness of losing teammates. And the chance that this is the start of something big.
All there. All part of life in the NBA, but all impossible to fully process just an hour before tipoff — or maybe even over a few days or weeks.
The Warriors absorbed their momentous (but still unofficial) acquisition of Jimmy Butler in real-time, in front of the media, just about an hour before tipoff Wednesday night at the Delta Center in Utah. Andrew Wiggins sat in a corner as teammates approached him — just before reporters were asked to leave the locker room to let Steve Kerr address the team.
The Warriors were getting set for a new beginning after their biggest addition since signing Kevin Durant in 2016. But first, they had to say goodbye to Wiggins, Kyle Anderson, Dennis Schroder, and Lindy Waters — all heading out in this three-team trade.
“Our guys were in the locker room getting ready to play,” Kerr said, “then all of a sudden, you know, we’re saying goodbye.”
All of the emotions. All at once.
“I’m glad the way we did it, looking back,” Curry said after the Warriors’ distracted, come-from-ahead, last-minute loss to the woeful Jazz. “To have that moment with our team in the locker room and just us talking for Wiggs, especially, the amount of time he’s been here. What he meant to our team and our franchise, to help us climb the mountaintop again back in ’22. He changed a lot for us for the better, and I hope his experience with us changed a lot for him as well.”
In many ways, the depth of the Warriors’ emotions — so evident on every one of their faces and in the wobble in Kerr’s voice after the game — was exactly why Wiggins didn’t want to leave and also why the Warriors have a chance to get the best out of Butler after his latest tumultuous exit.
It might not work out. Butler might blow up on the Warriors in a year — even after he agreed to a two-year, $112 million extension — the same way he just blew up on the Miami Heat and blew up on the Minnesota Timberwolves before that. Nobody blows up like Butler. But the Warriors were a safe harbor for Wiggins back when they acquired him five years ago, and that led to the 2022 championship. As Curry said: He made them better, and they definitely made him better.
The Warriors and Wiggins mourned the ending of this relationship in those moments Wednesday. But they needed something new. They had to get a co-star for Curry to give him one or two more chances at another title. Butler is 35 and hasn’t been the most durable player recently. But he’s an all-time postseason player and could make a lot more playoff noise playing alongside Curry and Draymond Green.
“I’ve had the last three hours to kinda think about it while you’re playing a game,” Curry said of the Warriors’ new Big Three. “Biggest thing is just it creates expectations, which I love. I want to be in that kind of environment, whether you get it done or not, that is meaningful basketball that we all love and thrive in. I think we’re all going to be up for the challenge.”
That is the point here, and that is why the Warriors added this year’s first-round pick (protected 1-10) — they have been thoroughly mediocre this season, and they owe it to Curry, Draymond, and themselves to do their best to be meaningful again.
But also, the Warriors didn’t get reckless with this deal. By waiting through Butler’s suspensions with the Heat, they watched his price tag drop — which allowed them to keep Jonathan Kuminga out of this trade. They also only really tacked on one year to their financial commitment to Butler, who held a player option for next season that is being superseded by the new extension.
The Warriors still have massive commitments to Curry, Butler, and Draymond over the next three seasons, and they’ll also have to pay Kuminga this July, when he hits restricted free agency. They will not be exercising fiscal restraint anytime soon. But they didn’t have to max out Butler. And they can always think about trading Butler (or Draymond) in July or down the line.
It might not be enough to challenge Boston, Cleveland, or Oklahoma City at the top of the league — or Houston and Memphis in the top tier of the West. The Warriors have some depth issues after trading four-for-one. I don’t know who the backup point guard is going to be. I don’t know who’ll take on the toughest perimeter defensive assignment the way Wiggins always did. There might be one or two more trades coming by Thursday’s noon deadline.
But it’s not just about this season. It’s about the next few — the final spark of Curry’s prime, if you will — and it just made the next few months and years a lot more interesting than what we’ve seen so far. It wasn’t the home-run swing they tried to take by going after a reunion with Kevin Durant, but that always seemed far-fetched. Butler is the wild-card move, and a pretty canny one pulled off by general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr.
“We know who Jimmy is,” Curry said. “Been to two finals. He’s a winner. Understand there’s a lot of drama down there, and who really knows what the story is? We expect to have a motivated, committed Jimmy [who’s] ready to impact our team for the better.
“We’ve gotta work out the kinks of what it looks like. I’m excited to get to work and kind of feed off the energy of something new and somebody that’s obviously had experience at the highest of levels, has a lot to prove in a new situation, and we’re going to try to help each other do that.”
Curry said he texted a welcome to Butler at halftime and received “a very pleasant message” in response. And Curry acknowledged that both Butler and the Warriors will have to make stylistic adjustments — Butler is more of a one-on-one player, and the Warriors are famously about movement and passing.
But one of the lessons of this season is that the Warriors can’t do it like they’ve always done it and expect championship results. They need more talent. Whatever the style. Schroder wasn’t the answer. And now here’s Butler.
“It’ll look different than what we’re used to,” Curry said. “He can play, I’m sure, a little bit of motion. But he’s a shot creator, a finisher, and somebody you have to take into account no matter where he is on the floor. He plays at his own speed, he can get to the foul line, take advantage of matchups. So we’ve gotta be smart, high-IQ basketball to figure it out on the fly. But he’s obviously a competitor at the highest of levels. Being able to work off of each other — I’m excited to see what it looks like.”
Kerr can’t speak specifically about Butler until the trade is official — maybe Thursday, maybe Friday. But Kerr wasn’t in the mood for it either.
“I think today is the day to say goodbye to our guys,” Kerr said.
He continued: “Wiggs is one of my favorite players I’ve ever coached. Just a beautiful soul. Just a wonderful human being. We don’t hang that banner in ’22 without him. Everything he brings every single day: the laughter, the smile, the joy.”
Said Kevon Looney: “He’s a guy we’ve been through a lot of wars with. Got to the mountaintop with. Been at the bottom. … He’s always going to be a brother to me.
“Definitely was tough to see him have to go. I know he really wanted to be here. Kind of embodied what our culture is about: sacrifice and stepping up in big games.”
Then the Warriors had to go out and play this game with only 10 available players, including their two-way guys — and Gui Santos missed the second half with patella tendinitis. They started terribly, rallied to take a lead, then coughed it all up in the end.
“We’re finding new ways to lose, which is frustrating,” Curry said. “But hopefully a new chapter begins now.”
It wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t ever going to be pretty on this emotional night. It was momentous, though. It was stunning. And when this era ends, this night will be a turning point. One way or another.
