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Warriors Front Office, Players Address Jimmy Butler Acquisition

February 8th 2025 at 8:13am CST by Tristan Tucker

The Warriors made a bold move at the deadline in acquiring six-time All-Star Jimmy Butler, consolidating four players to bring him in and change the makeup of the roster. Before Golden State’s game in Los Angeles this week, members of the Warriors and Butler himself discussed the move to the media.

“I’ve always loved him,” owner Joe Lacob said of Butler, per The Athletic’s Anthony Slater. “I love Draymond [Green]. So we’re dealing with something similar. Incredible competitiveness. My kind of guy.”

Outside of the Warriors, the Suns were the other team reportedly in final contention to acquire Butler. As Slater writes, the Suns would have been able to offer a longer term extension than the two years and $112MM he got from Golden State. He also reportedly saw a future playing alongside Devin Booker and Kevin Durant, but Bradley Beal‘s no-trade clause proved too difficult to move and thus, Butler wound up in Golden State and Durant stayed put in Phoenix.

“[Butler] was trying to get where he thought he wanted to go,” Lacob said. “He just happened to be thinking incorrectly at the time. That’s now been amended.”

Because of Phoenix’s reported desire to make a change to the roster, the Suns were in talks regarding Durant himself in moves that could have sent him to either Golden State or Miami. However, Durant didn’t want to play with the Warriors again, leading to the Warriors’ acquisition of Butler from Miami directly.

Green, who played with Durant from 2016-19, downplayed Durant’s reported unwillingness to reunite forces, according to Sportskeeda’s Mark Medina. “Didn’t affect my life one bit,” Green said.

“When you walk on the court and you look on the other end and you see guys that you respect, half the battle is fought,” Green said of the Warriors trading for Butler. “And with Jimmy, that’s half the battle. So that’s going to be fun because we can compete at the highest level.”

Warriors players like Green seemed to express gratitude that Golden State’s front office made a move that makes them more competitive this year after the team slid out of the playoff field over the course of the last couple months. Tied with the Kings but sitting in 11th, the Warriors have the final two months of the season to climb into the postseason.

“We’re going in a direction,” general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. said. “We have three kind-of-older generational players. But the beauty of the whole thing to me is we’ve got a lot of good complementary pieces. We’ve got assets, we’ve got young players. So in some ways in terms of our financial stuff, there’s a commitment. But on the whole, we’ll have a lot of flexibility.”

The Warriors explored other moves leading up to the deadline, according to Slater, but they valued what the likes of Kevon Looney and Gary Payton II brought to the locker room instead. The rest of the season will also be about filling out the roster after ending the deadline with four open spots on the team. They filled one of those by converting center Quinten Post to a standard deal and Santa Cruz Warrior Kevin Knox could be another consideration, per Slater.

Dunleavy and Lacob both applauded each other for their willingness to be aggressive. This move allowed them to add a star player without sacrificing the likes of Brandin Podziemski or Jonathan Kuminga. According to Slater, the team will be able to reassess in the summer and still be in position to make big moves if they see fit.

As for Butler, he expressed excitement about having the chance to play alongside the best shooter in the world in Stephen Curry, according to ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk. He’s hoping to make his Warriors debut on Saturday against the Bulls.

“I got a feeling I’m [going to] be back, in a big way, too,” he said. “So I’m smiling. I’ve been going at it, I’ve been training, I’ve been doing everything I’m supposed to be doing. I know that I have my joy back now. I’m in a different situation, different group of guys.”

Butler himself was a big winner of the deadline, finding a destination that paid him big money in a CBA landscape that makes teams have to be more conscious with how they allocate their finances.

“I’m not going to say that was a big part,” Butler said of his contract playing into his exit from Miami and the new one he received from Golden State. “But I’m happy about it. I am happy about it. I think the biggest part was getting me to be able to play basketball again. I just want to be able to go out there and do what I’ve been doing for a very long time. And have fun, smile, rip and run and not feel like I’m just doing cardio majority of the game. So I’m very, very, very happy that I’m not getting suspended no more.”

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