Ohm Youngmisuk
SAN FRANCISCO — After playing playoff-level basketball since Jimmy Butler III‘s debut with the team in early February, Golden State superstar Stephen Curry said he is excited about the Warriors chances of contending with Butler in what is expected to be a two-year championship window.
One day after the Warriors’ season ended in a Game 5 Western Conference second-round series loss to Minnesota, Curry, Butler and Draymond Green spoke about how they believe the Warriors can win a title with a few more improvements to the roster and good health.
“Our contracts — me, Draymond, Steve, Jimmy — are all two years [more],” Curry said. “And we want this ride to last as long as possible. But it’s just about what does this team need for next year, answering those questions over the summer, everybody preparing themselves individually to get through another 82-game season hopefully with a little bit more of a comfort room down the stretch where we don’t have to have a two-month gauntlet just to make the playoffs.
“I’m excited about it because there’s clarity [to the top of the roster], although there are a lot of decisions that need to be made over the summer.”
Curry, Butler and Green are left to wonder what could have been this postseason had Curry not suffered a Grade 1 strained left hamstring in the second quarter of Game 1 against Minnesota. Without Curry, the Warriors lost four straight games. Curry said had the Warriors been able to extend the series, everything was aligned for a potential return in Game 6 on Sunday. Curry still had to be cleared and get through some live basketball.
“Disappointed for sure,” he said. “We’ll imagine and believe that we could have won everything had we been healthy. But you move on.
“… You look at the sample size the last two months and even the Houston [first-round] series when we had our mind focused on a goal, we had enough to accomplish it and get to a point where we were playing pretty high-level basketball. Does that mean we can win a championship? We hope so.”
After a frenetic three months with the Warriors after his trade from Miami, Butler reiterated how thrilled he is to have landed alongside Curry and Green.
“I’m completely content with who I am as a basketball player, the way that I play the game,” Butler said. “And to come here and know that I’m second to Steph, I think that’s a really good thing, actually, when you talk about one of the greatest players ever to play this game. I get to come here and be his sidekick for a couple more years hopefully. It’s just refreshing. Then you’ve got some really high-level young talent that want to do well, that want to be great, and then the energy is at an all-time high. I don’t think there’s too much more that you can ask for.
“I landed here, and we hit the ground running, and I’m comfortable. I’m happy. I got my joy back, as Buddy [Hield] would say, and I’m very fortunate to be here.”
The Warriors were 25-26 before Butler made his Warriors debut on Feb. 8. They went 23-8 and had the third-best record the rest of the regular season. The Warriors ranked first in defensive efficiency, third in points per game allowed and first in assists per game during that span.
Butler averaged 17.9 points, 5.3 rebounds and 4.3 assists, but he turned the Warriors’ season around with his presence and playmaking. In their play-in game, Butler secured the biggest defensive rebound and finished with 38 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists to beat Memphis.
He took a nasty spill after being undercut on a rebound in Game 2 and sustained a deep bruise in his tailbone, an injury that Warriors coach Steve Kerr said “compromised” Butler’s physical ability against Minnesota. Butler took only nine shots in Game 4 while dealing with an illness before shooting 4-for-11 and scoring 17 points in a 121-110 loss to Minnesota in Game 5.
“The biggest change that needed to be made was we needed someone like Jimmy Butler,” Green said of offseason priorities for the Warriors. “And we made that change. I think the hardest part is done.
“It’s harder to get guys like that through trades, through free agency. It just doesn’t come up often. That part is done. It puts us in a much better situation going into this offseason than last year where we were kind of looking for that.”
Butler, Curry and Green are looking forward to having an offseason to work out, and a training camp and full season together.
“There was a lot of chatter whether that was the right trade or not when it happened,” Curry said. “… But from the first game in Chicago to last night, it was a seamless fit. Me and him complemented each other so well. He gave us so much belief that we could beat anybody any given night and make a legitimate run at climbing up the standings and even having some playoff experience to look forward to.
“I think it was a success, and now you have to build off of that with a full season hopefully in front of us. I’m excited about it.”
