Warriors' Jimmy Butler trade a high-risk gambit to net one more title

The Golden State Warriors have spent much of the last couple of months looking for a big swing to take in the trade market. They were linked to Kevin Durant, to Zach LaVine and Nikola Vucevic of the Chicago Bulls, and, most frequently, to disgruntled Miami Heat star Jimmy Butler.

After weeks of on-again, off-again flirting with Butler, the Warriors finally got their man on Wednesday night, in a five-team trade that sent Butler to San Francisco, Andrew Wiggins and Kyle Anderson to Miami along with a top-10 protected 2025 first round pick. The Warriors also sent point guard Dennis Schroder to the Jazz, who sent P.J. Tucker back to the Heat. Golden State also sent Lindy Waters III to the Detroit Pistons, who also got Josh Richardson from Miami in the deal.

As part of the deal, Butler agreed to waive his $52 million player option for next season and sign a two-year, $110 million contract to keep him in the Bay Area for at least a couple of seasons.

It may seem complicated, but at the end of the day, the Warriors got their man to make what they hope will be a legitimate title push. Now, the question is, will it be worth it?

In terms of on-court fit, the initial answer is absolutely. Butler provides something the Warriors have desperately lacked in recent seasons: a go-to scorer whose name isn't Steph Curry. While Wiggins and Jonathan Kuminga are nice, useful players, neither one is what you'd call a go-to scorer, especially in the clutch. This allowed teams to lock down Curry down the stretch, limiting his effectiveness.

In Butler, Golden State gets a proven on-ball playmaker, scorer and distributor. Butler may not be the force of nature he was a few years ago, but he's a perfect compliment to Curry's game, and brings the kind of on-court aggressiveness that can really elevate a team down the stretch and into next season.

Will it be enough to get Golden State where they want to go? That remains unclear; they're 25-25 right now, currently sitting outside the play-in despite being level with the Phoenix Suns on record. They're three games back of the Clippers for the sixth seed and safety from the play-in, in a conference that remains incredibly competitive. Butler will elevate them, to be sure, but can he get them into the top half of the standings?

Of course, on-court fit is only part of the equation here, and it's the off-court stuff that could really define his tenure in the Bay Area. He and power forward Draymond Green are both outsized, outspoken personalities who could politely be described as intensely competitive, and when you get two of that type of person on the same team, it either works beautifully or it goes catastrophically, with very little in-between.

But the questions don't stop there; how will Butler jell with, say Jonathan Kuminga, a talented player who has expressed frustration with his role with the Warriors in the past? How will the dynamic work?

If things jell, and Green and Butler and Kuminga all get along, this has the potential to be a stellar move for a team looking to nab one more title in the greatest run in franchise history. If they don't, it will likely end the way most of Butler's stops in the NBA have: explosively.

One thing's for sure with Butler: whether it goes well or poorly, it will absolutely be a show you won't want to miss.

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