The Warriors hope Playoff Jimmy is also available for the play-in
Golden State traded for Jimmy Butler, is what I'm trying to say. Also, hella more trades happened on the eve of the deadline.
Good morning. Let’s basketball.
The Departure of the Fleet; J.M.W. Turner; 1850
Our long national nightmare curiosity is over: Jimmy Butler has been traded. Specifically, he’s been traded to the Golden State Warriors for Andrew Wiggins, Kyle Anderson and a protected first. P.J. Tucker heads back to Miami. Dennis Schroder goes to Utah to make salaries work. Lindy Waters and Josh Richardson head to Detroit.
The cost for Butler in the trade is rather low, given the player’s upside even at age 35. There is an added cost, though: an extension. Butler signed a 2-year, $110 million extension with the Warriors upon the trade’s completion, keeping Jimmy off the market. That does create some salary inflexibility and extra tax burden for Golden State, given the need to re-sign Jonathan Kuminga. The Warriors mint money, and should pay every cent required to build a great supporting cast around Stephen Curry while he remains Stephen Curry.
Is this supporting cast now great? Butler is substantially better than Wiggins overall and provides additional playmaking, something the Golden State offense has desperately needed. He is, however, yet another player without perimeter gravity. Butler takes threes even less frequently than Draymond Green and Kuminga. If you assume the Warriors’ crunch time lineups will include those three plus Curry, you really need to have another shooter out there to prevent opponents from building a wall and trapping Curry. Let’s put it this way: this season Green, Kuminga and Butler are averaging a combined 8.7 threes attempted per game. Klay Thompson alone averaged 9 threes attempted per game last season. Buddy Hield is a decent Thompson proxy, but there’s just not enough perimeter gravity for a top-tier offense.
So the Warriors will have to do it on defense, which they absolutely can with Butler and Green together, provided they get alone as a pair of ultra-competitive beasts who, uh, have a habit of wearing out young teammates. This is a second reason Butler’s arrival puts Kuminga’s future in a bit more doubt: not only is the money suddenly tighter, but Kuminga is probably going to hear it every time he makes a mistake (which is not infrequent, despite his growth).
Butler has been a top-tier playoff performer through his career. That requires the Warriors to make the playoffs and avoid the buzzsaw Thunder. It’s an interesting gambit, and Golden State absolutely needed a gambit to avoid the slow death of the Curry era. Eager to see how the team develops.
For Miami: this is the type of haul you get when the ornery star has damaged the market due to general orneriness and the extension requirement. But the Heat obviously appear to want to compete for a guaranteed playoff spot, and a playing Wiggins and Anderson will help more than a suspended Butler. They really need Terry Rozier to get on track and for Bam Adebayo to get a bit more offense online to support Tyler Herro. The pick Miami nabbed should fall in the No. 11 to 20 range this season — not a blue chip asset earned on a top-20 caliber player being traded away, but useful, especially considering the Heat’s draft acuity.
Golden State’s initial Schroder trade failed on the court but the salary made this more possible. I guess those net two seconds that Schroder initially cost sort of paid off.
Trade War
The Pelicans traded Brandon Ingram to … the Raptors! Coming back are Bruce Brown, Kelly Olynyk, the Pacers’ top-4 protected 2026 first and a future second. That is some decent cheese for Brandon Ingram, considering he (like Butler) is due some more cheese this summer. I thought Brown had some value out there despite a big salary number — he was just a tough fit on the Raps — and I thought the Ingram market was low enough that maybe valuable players and a pick wouldn’t be the cost. Alas.
Toronto is clearly trying to retool instead of bottoming out, and there’s a world in which Ingram helps the Raptors’ bottom-10 offense rise up the rankings. But the defense is bad (despite some recent improvements) and Ingram will make it worse. And at a steep price, which comes alongside pretty steep prices for Scottie Barnes, R.J. Barrett and Immanuel Quickley.
Olynyk is the only player on the books for another year, and can help New Orleans if the team is able to stay healthy long enough next season to compete. Otherwise, this is a dump for a pick for the Pelicans. That’s pretty good work considering Ingram’s time in New Orleans had totally expired.
It’s Wizards’ Chess!
The Bucks traded Khris Middleton for Kyle Kuzma. I get it and I don’t like it.
The Kings traded two seconds for Jonas Valanciunas. I get it and I like it.
Good work on both deals for Washington. Kooz had to go. JV did his job. The Wizards should keep Jordan Poole. This was Wizards Talk with Tom Ziller. See you next time.
Finally, Someone Who Likes Mark Williams As Much As Me And Eric Collins
The Lakers aren’t done! They acquired Mark Williams from the Hornets for … get ready … Dalton Knecht (!), Cam Reddish (…), their 2031 unprotected first (!!!) and a 2030 pick swap option.
Look, I love Mark Williams. And he’s perfect for playing with LeBron and Luka: I’d call him a better but less durable Dereck Lively II. Williams is a stronger rebounder and free throw shooter; he’s only played in 40% of Charlotte’s games since being drafted.
But that’s a heckuva price! Knecht (worth a first right now, in my opinion) and 1.5 firsts, basically. If Williams can stay on the floor, it fills a huge need in the short term with the two-headed snake and fills a long-term need with Luka. If he can’t stay healthy, it’s a huge miss with some key assets and the hole is still gaping at center.
I will say that winning the Luka deal by such a massive margin makes the Williams deal possible. You don’t take that swing on MW without getting a player like Luka first.
On the other side, I can’t blame Charlotte for taking that deal. It’s a lot of value for Williams. On the other hand, don’t you at least want to have some good young players even while you’re losing 60 games? Perhaps they were just not sold on his long-term viability, which would make me worry were I the Lakers, who just traded for a superstar whose prior team did not appear sold on his long-term viability.
Scores
Spurs 126, Hawks 125 — Helluvan exciting way for the Spurs to win De’Aaron Fox’s first game in the kit. San Antonio led by 20, let Trae Young roar back and closed it down in the clutch. The final sequence (which took like 5 minutes in real-time) was pretty cool.
For those keeping score at home, that final sequence is: Victor Wembanyama tip dunk off a Fox blow-by, Trae jumper to tie, Big Vic slips a screen and Fox hits him in stride where Wembanyama is fouled at the rim, the Hawks burn their last timeout with an absurd challenge, Big Vic makes the first for the lead and intentionally misses the second to prevent the Hawks from getting a good shot off. Ballgame.
The Fox addition looked really, really promising.
Cavaliers 118, Pistons 115 — The set-up: Donovan Mitchell is out, this is a war, Cade Cunningham hits clutch free throws to tie the game with five seconds remaining, no timeouts remaining. Darius Garland has it.
Sheesh.
Part of the reason the Cavs needed Garland’s heroics were because Jarrett Allen got hit with a Flagrant-2 with a minute left after absolutely trucking Ausar Thompson.
Double sheesh.
Wizards 119, Nets 102 — The Wizards’ tank job has met its match: the month of February.
Bulls 108, Timberwolves 127 — Ant Man with damn near a trade deadline 50.
Julius Randle is out a couple more weeks. Minnesota is a half-game out of No. 6, and three games out of No. 11.
Pelicans 119, Nuggets 144 — Let’s check in on our top MVP candidates. Nikola Jokic with a sweet little 38-8-10.
Suns 109, Thunder 140 — … and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander dropped his third 50-point game of the past two weeks.
Warriors 128, Jazz 131 — Brutal loss for Golden State, despite being a little shorthanded. They let Jordan Clarkson and Isaiah Collier and Keyonte George score at will.
Magic 130, Kings 111 — Hey cool, all three teams chasing down the Mavericks embarrassed themselves. In the first three games of Orlando’s West swing on this road trip, the Magic scored 90, 99 and 99. Guess the dam broke in Sactown.
Zach LaVine in his Kings debut: 13 points on 4/13 shooting, -26. Welp. Get them next time [next time is the red hot Blazers] Fuuuuuuu
The Deadline
It doesn’t appear there’s anyone else left to trade. However, if there are, the deadline is at 3 PM Eastern.
Link
I’ll have links of trade deadline coverage on Friday. Just one link today, though: in the wake of an executive order from the White House and the NCAA’s instant capitulation, here’s Michael Waters’ great recent piece on Defector on what the trans sports ban movement actually intends to do.
Schedule
Six games with a TNT doubleheader. All times Eastern.
Mavericks at Celtics, 7:30, TNT
Rockets at Timberwolves, 8
Magic at Nuggets, 9
Warriors at Lakers, 10, TNT
Kings at Blazers, 10
Pacers at Clippers, 10:30
Be excellent to each other.
I love a good Ziller Zinger of a title
Larry Bird on refusing a trade with the Cavs: “Them guys playing with LeBron look a whole lot better than what they really are.”
It was true in 2013 and it’s still true today.