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As soon as Jimmy Butler crumbled to the floor against the Miami Heat on Monday, Warriors center Quinten Post knew it wasn’t good. Butler screeched in pain holding his right knee, while Post, just a few inches away, stood in fear grabbing the back of his head with both hands.
When Butler went down, so too did the Warriors’ chances of making a deep run this season. That’s the cruel thing about it all. The Warriors had emerged as a legitimate West threat. With a three-point lead at the time of Butler’s injury, the Warriors were on their way to their 12th win in 16 games, having established themselves as a top-5 defense with a still-incandescent Stephen Curry powering the attack.
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Twenty-four hours later, the wound left by Butler’s absence was gashed wide open. The Warriors gave up 145 points to the visiting Toronto Raptors, the most the Warriors had surrendered in a non-overtime game in over 15 seasons. Reeling from Butler’s injury on the second night of a back-to-back, they couldn’t stop the bleeding.
If there is a silver lining to the Butler torn ACL, it is the calendar. There is no opportune time to tear an ACL, certainly not at Butler’s age (36), but the Warriors have some time before the Feb. 5 trade deadline to figure out what’s next.
(Hayden Hodge/Yahoo Sports Illustration)
At 37, Curry has turned back the clock, improving his scoring average to 27.1 points per game, the most he’s registered since the 2022-23 season. He is now the oldest player to ever average 27 points per game, per Stathead.com tracking. Scoring this much at this age is not something LeBron, KD, MJ or Kobe has ever done. To put it in perspective, Ray Allen, to whom Curry was often compared to earlier in his career, has never averaged 27 points per game, period.
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Which is why the Warriors have a tough decision ahead of them. Do they maximize Curry’s title window or preserve the post-Curry war chest?
Here are three pathways for the Warriors in the aftermath of Butler’s injury.
Path 1: Wait for Butler to come back
The Jimmy Butler trade last year had its doubters, but you can’t deny he changed the…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/article/zion-anthony-davis-stand-pat-3-paths-forward-for-steph-currys-warriors-160634202.html
Author : Tom Haberstroh
Publish date : 2026-01-22 16:06:00
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