Every kid I know from my generation has asked their mom for McDonald’s and gotten the same answer. Not “no” but something worse: “We got McDonald’s at home.” And you already know what’s in that deep freezer. A brick of hamburger meat, shoved behind the frozen peas since March, frosted over like Arnold Schwarzenegger in a Batman movie, absolutely daring you to be disappointed in it.
And the Warriors, depending on who you ask, are fitting the description of that perfectly unfazed mama.
The popular read on this Warriors offseason is that Draymond Green’s Warriors asked for a Happy Meal named LeBron James. But the King went to Philadelphia instead and the Dubs are standing in the kitchen with nothing but ice-crusted ground chuck and a bad excuse.
But here’s where the gamble of believing rookie Yaxel Lendeborg alone is enough gets real fascinating. Except what’s sitting in the freezer isn’t some forgotten pack of bargain-bin ground beef. It’s Jimmy Butler in cryostasis, and the Warriors have spent the last six months waiting for him to be healthy enough to actually cook with.
Golden State is, per the latest reporting, still the only team in the league that hasn’t added a new outside player this offseason. They re-signed Draymond Green on the exact contract he opted out of to chase James (or another splashy option) in the first place. So yeah, the easy piece to alliterate here is “Warriors weally whiffed.” Or perhaps even “I literally can’t believe Steph Curry doesn’t have Klay Thompson here alongside him at least for nolstalgic purposes”.
I’m not writing that piece folks, because I’ve got a hunch that whatever the Warriors see in the Curry-Butler pair has them curious (or brokenly resigned) to another go round with Dray, Brandin Podziemski, Gui Santos, a wounded Moses Moody, Will Richard and the fascinating super veteran big man tandem of Al Hoford and Kristaps Porzingis.
Think about what Butler represents when healthy, not that limping 2025 injury-report Jimmy we saw enthusiastically rooting from the sidelines. I’m conjuring up an image of the version that has consistently ratcheted up his play in April/May and treated postseason ball like a personal hit list. The Warriors have the guy whose entire basketball identity is built around what happens after the setback. He competes hurt, plays through pain that would sideline most stars, and has spent his career turning perceived slights into motivation that somehow lasts another year and a half.
The injury against Miami didn’t erase that identity but it absolutely interrupted it. Everything about Butler’s career says his response to an interruption is consistently louder than the interruption itself. The bet is Butler is still furious, still capable, and still exactly the kind of dark-horse variable that turns GSW into a feisty seven-seed into a team nobody wants to see in May.
To be clear, I don’t see these dudes coming anywhere close to a top seed next year, what with the way Father Time and the insanely vicious Western Conference is set up to keep them from ever winning a title again with Curry. But if they creep into the playoffs with a smidgen of health and confidence? After watching the recent champion New York Knicks play, let’s just say we all saw what a well timed postseason hot streak can do with a hot crowd can do.
Maybe the meat in the freezer isn’t actually some sad substitute for McDonalds. Maybe it’s the expensive cut that fell on the Safeway floor and the assistant manager gave it to somebody’s mama half price; she froze it six months ago because you could tell she was waiting for the right occasion. I’d be lying if I said believing this doesn’t require faith and amazing skills in NBA 2K to play it out on the virtual court. Fortunately, I have both, and I can see the possibilities. Butler will be the 37 at season’s start, the same age Jersey Joe Walcott was when he knocked out Ezzard Charles to become heavyweight champion back in 1951. That’s extremely relevant because Butler’s health represents what constitutes as the Warriors’ punchers chance when Stephen Curry takes his band of merry man on the path towards the preposterous 5th title run of the Steve Kerr era.
Now, if Butler’s knee says no in November the way it said no in January, this column potentially ages like the hamburger meat everyone’s already laughing about. But I’m pretty sure this team beats the Spurs in 5 games last year if fully healthy. Call me crazy.
Everyone keeps waiting for the Warriors to make their move, while the Warriors keep acting like they already made it. Maybe everyone’s just been staring at the wrong empty drive-thru window this whole time, like Dub Nation’s been s trying to get a Happy Meal. Mayhaps the only thing left to find out is whether what was already sitting in the freezer still tastes like a championship.
