Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry looks at the official, during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Utah Jazz Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Egan)
Rick Egan/Associated Press
Stephen Curry reportedly wore a solemn expression as he left the locker room in Salt Lake City to resume his pregame warm-up routine Wednesday night.
That’s understandable. Curry had just lost a friend. He had just learned that Andrew Wiggins — and three other Golden State Warriors — were being shipped out, in a multi-team trade that will bring Miami’s Jimmy Butler to the Bay.
There’s no team in the NBA, maybe not in all of sports, that embraces the concept of camaraderie like the Warriors, whose core has been kept together for ages. Wiggins joined the team five seasons ago and had become a junior member of the Warriors’ core. He’s not a teammate, he’s a brother.
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But basketball life goes on, and this is a Steph Curry trade. There’s no gain without pain, and the gain in this trade is for, and by, Curry. There is zero way the Warriors made this deal without Curry’s approval.
It’s all about Steph, and that’s the way it should be.
This is a Steph Curry Window trade. If you don’t like it, go tell Curry — and Joe Lacob, or Mike Dunleavy, or Steve Kerr — that Curry doesn’t deserve another shot at a championship.
The Warriors, after a few years of dancing along Two Timelines, have junked that awkward game plan.
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It’s now three senior-citizen future Hall of Famers — Draymond Green (34), Jimmy Butler (35) and Curry (36) — going for it. Each has a contract tying them to the Warriors for this season and two more. They’re not here for a long time, they’re here for a good time. (Thank you, George Strait.)
By keeping Green out of the trade package, the Warriors signal their sense of urgency. He’s fragile now, but Green is still the high-impact defensive player the too-small Warriors need, a super-valuable offensive coordinator, and a spiritual leader.
Entering Wednesday, this team had no player in his NBA development stage, except maybe Quinten Post. Everyone else is young but seasoned, ready to play a strong supporting role. Foremost among them, Jonathan Kuminga, who now seems to be a vital element of the Curry Window run, assuming he and the Warriors can survive his looming, Brock Purdy-like contract situation.
The Warriors, after years of playing both sides, are off the fence. This is Team Now.
After treading water approaching Thursday’s trading deadline, with GM Dunleavy looking like he might be in over his head, the Warriors have gone all Michael Phelps.
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It might not work. The team’s three stars are on the NBA’s All Load Management team. Butler brings some baggage with him, having diva-d his way out of Miami.
But Butler’s a smart player, and if he doesn’t see this as an opportunity to maximize his golden years, he’s crazy. If he embraces the challenge, we’re all in for some fun.
It’s been brutal for the Warriors for long stretches this season, watching opposing defenses going full barnacle on Curry, with no Warrior consistently able to step up and make those defenses pay for mugging Steph. Butler is a legit make-‘em-pay scorer.
To make this deal pay off, Butler will have to be healthy, he’ll have to want to run, he’ll have to embrace and adopt to the Warriors’ unique pace-and-space style of play, the style that made Curry famous, and vice-versa. Butler will have to buy into the team’s rah-rah mentality, accept Green’s tough-love leadership (right, Jordan Poole?) and Curry’s place in the hearts of the fans (right, Kevin Durant?).
Oh, the Warriors will miss Wiggins. There was no cooler story in the team’s run to the 2022 NBA title than the emergence of Wiggins, formerly scorned as a chronic underachiever, rising to the challenge against the Celtics. In some ways, Wiggins for Butler is cringy. Wiggins is six years younger, gives you the same 18 points a game as Butler, and can defend the league’s athletic marvels.
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Lately, he’s been showing signs of playing like the ’22 Wiggins, providing force, attacking the rim. A Warrior who can collect free throws, finally! Nobody on the team ever doubted Wiggins’ passion and loyalty.
He’ll miss them, too. The Warriors stood behind Wiggins during long absence dealing with personal issues.
But the Warriors recently have seemed on the verge of a breakthrough, and Butler could be the element they need. If you believe the Warriors traded a dynamic, young-ish role player for an over-the-hill grump, you just got outvoted by Curry.
Curry never played the entitlement card. In fact, he was publicly supportive of the Warriors’ conservative approach, not wanting the team to mortgage its future just to make him happy. Curry is aware that many sports stars don’t get to ride into the sunset backed by a supporting cast built to maximize the ride-out.
You won’t find many superstars as aware of reality as Curry is. He knows that when it’s all over, he’ll have at least four rings, and no complaints.
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But he a crazy competitive dude. For Curry, the last few weeks have been a strange mixture of patience and impatience, joy and frustration. He realized that the Warriors were in a tough spot, trade-wise, their options limited, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t hoping for some help.
He wants another shot, and the Warriors know he deserves it, and so they made this deal, with Curry’s blessing.
The Curry Window has been Windexed.
Reach Scott Ostler: [email protected]; X: @scottostler
