Stephen Curry doesn’t have that many chances left to win a fifth championship. The Golden State Warriors know that. It informed every decision they made during the 2024-25 season. When ESPN’s Shams Charania reported at the trade deadline that the Warriors were “legitimately calling about every All-Star player,” they did so because they understood how precious the end of 37-year-old Curry’s prime really is. It might be decades before Golden State gets another player like this. The organization is all-in on capitalizing now. That’s why they traded for Jimmy Butler.
The on-court benefits were apparent quickly. The Warriors were 25-26 before Butler arrived and closed the season 23-8 with him in the fold. The off-court benefit, though, was that he was cheap. The only first-round pick he cost came in 2025, leaving their future picks unencumbered by the Stepien Rule. Andrew Wiggins was the only core player in the deal. The hope was that Butler alone was enough to lift the Warriors into true championship contention. The unspoken reality was that if they found out quickly enough that he wasn’t, they still had the ammunition to take another swing somewhere.
That’s what makes Curry’s second-round hamstring strain (in their five-game series loss to the Wolves) so devastating for the Warriors. It’s not just a lost chance at that elusive fifth title. It’s a lost chance to figure out how far away it really is. This playoff run should have been a measuring stick. It almost was. If the Warriors had lost Game 7 to the Houston Rockets, that would have been that. They would have known then and there that more help was needed.
But what do you do with a second-round loss like this, in which Curry plays 13 minutes and disappears? Golden State dominated that quarter or so with Curry, but that’s hardly a reliable sample. What does it say about Butler that he couldn’t keep you afloat long enough for Curry to return? Can anything from Butler’s postseason be trusted after the injury he suffered against Houston? What about a supporting cast that really only makes…
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