The Golden State Warriors must scramble to make a season-saving trade if they want their 2025-26 campaign to fall off the rails.
Unfortunately, a torn ACL will sideline Jimmy Butler for several months, forcing Stephen Curry and the Warriors to compete without their second-best player.
CBS Sports’ Sam Quinn believes that although Butler’s trade value isn’t as high as it could be, there’s a world where the Dubs could feature him in a blockbuster deal for a 6-foot-10 former Los Angeles Lakers star forward.
“There are teams out there with longer contracts owed to players who are worse than a healthy Butler, but obviously more productive than the version of him Golden State has now,” Quinn wrote Tuesday. “Those teams might love the idea of shaving a year or two off of their own bad contracts by swapping them for Butler.”
“Take Anthony Davis, whom the Warriors were already linked to. He and Butler are owed the same amount this year. Davis makes slightly more next season. But after that? Butler expires while Davis has a $62.8 million player option.”
“There's a very easy construction here. The Warriors would send Butler, Jonathan Kuminga, and Will Richard to Dallas. The Mavericks would send Davis, Klay Thompson, and Jaden Hardy to Golden State.”
Butler and Davis are in similar situations in late January. Both superstars are nursing significant injuries that’ll keep them out of their respective teams’ lineups for an extended period.
The only difference is that Davis has a chance to return to the hardwood before the end of the year, which would allow a contending franchise to use his services during the postseason.
Could a Curry and Davis tandem help lead the Warriors to a deep playoff run? Perhaps, and with Golden State in desperation mode, acquiring Davis from the Mavericks isn’t out of the realm of possibility.
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