Midway through last season, the Golden State Warriors swung a blockbuster trade to acquire Jimmy Butler from the Miami Heat, and it turned everything around.
The Warriors appeared to be finished prior to the move, but the Butler acquisition revitalized them, and now, they are viewed as legitimate contenders heading into the 2025-25 NBA campaign.
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However, not everyone is necessarily buying into the Butler hype. That includes Bleacher Report’s Grant Hughes.
Hughes named Butler as Golden State’s biggest “faller” going into the new season and feels that his age is clearly catching up to him.
“If you watched him closely last year, you also noticed undeniable signs of physical decline,” Hughes wrote. “He’d routinely get near the bucket and pump fake several times in search of a foul because he didn’t trust his vertical lift. Defensively, he surrendered blow-by drives a little more often than was comfortable.”
Hughes added that Butler definitely makes the Warriors better but that he is also 36 years old with a ton of mileage on his body, which is definitely concerning with the Dubs attempting to contend for a championship.
Butler played in a grand total of 55 games last season and has not appeared in 70 contests since the 2016-17 campaign. What’s more, he has participated in under 60 contests in four out of the last six years.
The six-time All-Star is widely known for being injury prone, so the Warriors can probably expect Butler to miss some time due to some nicks and bruises next season, at the very least.
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Golden State is relying on a very old core that also consists of Stephen Curry and Draymond Green, both of whom have dealt with their own respective medical issues over the past several seasons.
That’s why it is rather difficult to put full belief in the Warriors as title contenders at this juncture.
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