{"id":123699,"date":"2025-02-14T11:39:10","date_gmt":"2025-02-14T16:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=123699"},"modified":"2025-02-14T11:39:10","modified_gmt":"2025-02-14T16:39:10","slug":"warriors-draymond-green-jimmy-butler-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/02\/14\/warriors-draymond-green-jimmy-butler-comments\/","title":{"rendered":"Warriors&#8217; Draymond Green Salutes &#8216;Franchise Changer&#8217; Teammate"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The evidence is still in its early stages, but four games in, newly acquired Golden State Warriors forward\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/butleji01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Jimmy Butler<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> has<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/greendr01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Draymond Green<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0singing his praises. Butler joined up with Green and\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/c\/curryst01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Steph Curry<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0following an ugly exit out of South Beach. Unfortunately, the trade included beloved Warriors player Andrew Wiggins in the process. However, on the other side <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">of things now<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">, Golden State already looks different. Butler is already igniting his presence and energy on the floor. The question is: how long will Butler&#8217;s run in The Bay last before it too takes a dark turn?<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Warriors&#8217; Draymond Green Salutes &#8216;Franchise Changer&#8217; Teammate<\/h2>\n<h3>Warriors Trade for Jimmy Butler Has Draymond Green Hyped Up<\/h3>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Butler is a great basketball player; no one disputes that. Is he Hall of Fame-bound? It&#8217;s possible. He reinvigorated the Miami Heat after the\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jamesle01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">LeBron James<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0era, and before that, he was already showing how different he was as a player in terms of his work ethic and standards. However, there is a knock, if you want to label it as such, that overshadows Butler&#8217;s greatness and career. He has the ability to latch onto a new group and a new team and provide a jolt of production and culture. However, it&#8217;s not long until that aura only Butler can create soon begins to wear off. It happened in\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/02\/10\/timberwolves-marc-lore-alex-rodriguez-step-forward-ownership\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Minnesota<\/span><\/a><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/02\/10\/76ers-josh-harris-joel-embiid-playoffs\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">, Philadelphia<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">, and now, Miami. Is it fair to question how long Butler&#8217;s aura will last before it evaporates in Golden State? The answer is yes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">One man, on his way to the Hall of Fame, is looking at things differently now that Jimmy has arrived with the Warriors.\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Bhpj_eWoPxw&amp;pp=ygUnZHJheW1vbmQgZ3JlZW4gdGFsa3MgYWJvdXQgamltbXkgYnV0bGVy\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Green had nothing but high praise<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0toward his new teammate when speaking with the media recently. His comments followed Golden State&#8217;s win over the\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/02\/13\/kevin-durant-rockets-offseason-possibility\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Houston Rockets<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0to close out the season&#8217;s midway point just in time for the NBA&#8217;s All-Star break.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cHe\u2019s [Butler] a franchise changer, h<\/em><em>e\u2019s done that everywhere he\u2019s gone and he is helping revitalize what we got here. The belief amongst this team, now that he\u2019s arrived, as opposed to what it was before he got here, it\u2019s night and day.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<h3>For Now&#8230;<\/h3>\n<p>Green isn&#8217;t wrong\u2014Butler has initiated change in each of his pitstops since beginning his NBA career with the Chicago Bulls. He&#8217;s already showing signs of making a significant difference on the Warriors. Their playoff chances increased by trading for him. What Green left out is that despite Butler&#8217;s &#8220;franchise-changing&#8221; abilities, his trademark is not staying around for too long. The Warriors extended him, so obviously, they feel good about Butler&#8217;s presence in Golden State for a little while. Still, you can&#8217;t blame someone for being wary about everything\u2014Butler&#8217;s greatness comes with a track record.<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">For now, Golden State has found a new lease on life, and there are no signs of chemistry issues between Butler, Curry, and Green. As for Steve Kerr,\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/story\/_\/id\/43837418\/warriors-draymond-green-calls-new-teammate-jimmy-butler-franchise-changer\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Butler&#8217;s addition has him feeling like the days<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0of\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/duranke01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Kevin Durant<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">, although he and Butler play a much different game. The vibes are similar, at the very least. For now, it&#8217;s a 27-game march to the playoffs, hopefully avoiding the play-in along the way.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00a9 Jerome Miron-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The evidence is still in its early stages, but four games in, newly acquired Golden State Warriors forward\u00a0Jimmy Butler has\u00a0Draymond Green\u00a0singing his praises. Butler joined up with Green and\u00a0Steph Curry\u00a0following an ugly exit out of South Beach. Unfortunately, the trade included beloved Warriors player Andrew Wiggins in the process. However, on the other side of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5081,"featured_media":123700,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25,1608,62],"tags":[409,142,69,38,48],"class_list":["post-123699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-warriors","category-basketball","category-nba","tag-draymond-green","tag-jimmy-butler","tag-kevin-durant","tag-lebron-james","tag-stephen-curry"],"modified_by":"Aaron J Zacharias","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5081"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123699"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":123703,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123699\/revisions\/123703"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}