The Golden State Warriors, despite being the sixth-seeded team in the Western Conference standings at the moment, are looking like a fearsome title contender as of late. The Jimmy Butler trade has done wonders for the Warriors, as they have gone 15-1 with the 35-year-old star in the active lineup — with Butler providing some much-needed playmaking, defense, and ballhandling for a team that struggles to create much of anything when Stephen Curry is not involved.
There were plenty of discussions surrounding the Warriors and what they must do to pry their championship window wide open. In the end, they chose to buy low on Butler, which is paying dividends. But Butler wasn’t their first choice, per reports; prior to pulling off that trade with the Miami Heat, the Dubs reportedly looked into trading for old pal Kevin Durant — who didn’t seem too pleased about the idea.
Now, with the Butler trade working out as well as the Warriors envisioned, there is no chance that they will change anything even when given the chance. Bill Simmons now wonders whether or not Durant would have had the same impact that Butler has on this current iteration of the Dubs.
“If they had gotten Durant instead of Butler, do you think the Warriors would be playing this well? Butler doesn’t care what his stats are. Butler will have games where he doesn’t really shoot. He’s doing the 2015 Iguodala, ‘I’ll just play some defense. I’m over here if you need me.’ For the most part, he’s completely bought in,” Simmons said on his eponymous podcast, via The Ringer. “I don’t know if Durant, at this point in his career, would be able to do all the glue guy stuff that Butler is doing.”
The Golden State Warriors are now 14-2 since Jimmy Butler joined the team.
Would they be playing as well if they had traded for Kevin Durant instead? pic.twitter.com/11IJDKLmUu
— The Ringer (@ringer) March 17, 2025
Jimmy Butler restores Warriors’ swagger
Throughout the Warriors’ dynastic run, there was a sense that the Dubs knew how much better they were than their peers and they played like it. For Bill Simmons, Jimmy Butler restored that sense of arrogance that the Warriors thrive with.
“There some swagger s**t with him too that I think is really important. That team has an arrogance to it again, and I mean that in a good way. That team got its thing back,” Simmons added.
Of course, there is no doubting that Kevin Durant would be very impactful for this current Warriors squad as well. There is little to no acclimation process required after all between Durant and the Dubs. But times have changed, and while Durant may be a better player than Butler in a vacuum, the latter is looking like the exact kind of player the Warriors need considering where they are at the moment.
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