The Golden State Warriors still have a window of opportunity to acquire Miami Heat star Jimmy Butler this offseason, but it will likely require them to give up a piece they are unrelentingly holding onto.
Warriors yet to make serious play for Heat’s Jimmy Butler
According to Legion Hoops, the Heat are having anything but a walk in the park as they scour the market for trade suitors for Butler:
“The Heat are struggling to find a trade partner for Jimmy Butler, and a ‘path is clear’ to keeping him beyond the trade deadline,” Legion Hoops published on X on Monday afternoon. “@Polymarket’s heavily predictive markets have dropped him to only a 52% chance of getting traded.”
Warriors firm on leaving Jonathan Kuminga out of trades
Per CBS Sports’ Colin Ward-Henninger, the Warriors pulled back on expanding their trade for Dennis Schroder to also include his former Brooklyn Nets teammate Cam Johnson because it would have required talented fourth-year forward Jonathan Kuminga to have been included in the deal.
Kuminga is highly esteemed in the eyes of the Warriors’ coaching staff and front office. That was a major reason why he was recently reinserted into the starting lineup. However, Ward-Henninger thoroughly accentuated how inefficient the 22-year-old has been beyond his face-value peripherals:
“Kuminga has taken 1.3 midrange jumpers per game this season, which ranks third on the team behind Curry and Andrew Wiggins, and has made just 25% of them. The fourth-year forward is also one of nine NBA players this season to average 13 or more field-goal attempts with an effective field goal percentage less than 49% (minimum 20 games). He’s also shooting just 48% on 2-pointers, a mind-boggling figure for someone with such athleticism around the rim. In plain English, he’s been disappointingly inefficient after a breakout 2023-24 campaign in which he averaged a career-best 16.1 points per game on 53% field goals,” Ward-Henninger unearthed.
- Warriors stars put up career-worst performances vs. Grizzlies
- Warriors to face surging Grizzlies with star PG back from injury
- Warriors’ brass optimistic newly-added PG will help young star thrive in new role
Recent developments may make Butler trade expedient
Kuminga also made things interesting with a cryptic Instagram post he recently published, which suggests that he may desire to have his reins loosed elsewhere. That begs the question of whether the Warriors should jump on the present opportunity to form another superteam and chase championship No. 5 in the Stephen Curry-Draymond Green era.
Currently, Butler would be an upgrade over Kuminga across the board. That, plus his remarkable postseason play would form a two-headed offensive monster next to Curry that could close out pivotal playoff games and series next spring. Nevertheless, as the trade deadline nears, Golden State will be faced with the hard decision that they’ll either capitalize or forbear to act on.
