The Athletic: Warriors validate Jimmy Butler Trade with the Playoff series angrily over Rockets

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Houston – Fairness too Golden State Warriors Owner Joe Lacob, that was the farthest from a round of victory.

For the beginning he stood still and played the role of the chief cheeky leader in the corner of the Toyota Center, where the players whose massive salary checks he covered went back to the changing room of the visitors to celebrate their game 7 over the Houston Rockets. And secondly, he was asked to think about this last moment of “meaningful basketball”, as Steph Curry likes to call him, and not the other way around.

But when Lacob started talking about the player, whose arrival made it possible in February and whose presence in the middle says so much about why this organization has been elite for so long, the man himself ran without saying as much as a hello.

“Jimmy!” Lacob shouted Jimmy Butler when the little striker of the warriors stopped and turned.

They hugged each other. They shook their hand. It was almost three months since Butler came into the city – and Lacob decided to listen to his general manager Mike Dunleavy when he insisted that this deal was worth the risk – and the time had finally come to express the obvious part loudly.

“Sometimes you do it right,” he said The athlete With a laugh. “It's all I can say.”

If the warriors had not found a way to get out of the first round, the entire conversation about Butler and the existence of his warriors in the summer would have been different. Sure, it was nice that he helped them to miss the playoffs entirely Dominate their gaming against Memphis.

However, the entire premise of this partnership was about this version of Golden State, which convinced the masses that it was a legitimate title candidate. And regardless of what happens next to the Minnesota Timberwolves in the second round, it is undeniable that these warriors were really in the championship mix in the year 1 of Butler experiment.

For this reason, Lacob agreed to give Butler a two-year extension of $ 121 million that runs through the 2026-27 season and turned an eye to all the disorder that counted with him in Miami (and Minnesota) before the culture of the Warriors to help the 35-year-old get back on the track. And that's why the sight of Butler and Lacob, who for the first time was together in a series win, was only seventh No. 7 seeds, who had been a series victory since 1984 when it comes to their overall plan.

All of the Warriors stakeholders really have to believe in the collective blanket of this group in order to avoid the feeling that it could have been a mistake. This is the hard reality of this squad, since the advanced age mean all of its most important players that there is no time like the present.

These speeches “We'll get them next year” just not right if their stars are all at the back of their fourth decade. And while the regular season of the Warriors with Butler nothing less than elite was 23: 8 record, the third best net assessment of the league, the number 1 defense and the eight-best offensive survived this Rockets team, which looked so capable of sending them home, as confirmation that butler was actually the way.

This game 7 was another new performance in an absurd list of them. A 103-89 victory That was the NBA equivalent of a father who won the game of picking up against his youthful son when everyone in the family thought that these days had long since passed. The old man in the middle, the 37-year-old Curry, found out the defense of the rockets of the rockets and somehow survived the persistence, the sportiness and the length of the young Amen Thompson (he ended with 22 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists and a plus-16 mark).

His long-time partner of Warriors, the 35-year-old Draymond Green, chose the perfect time to present His generations of defensive skills While there are important crimes at the same time (eight of his 16 points were in the first quarter). Buddy Hield, the 32-year-old, who had signed a two-year contract last summer to fulfill the deceased Klay Thompson, earned practically all $ 21 million that he received in one evening (33 points; 9-of-11 tariff). Butler had 20 points, eight rebounds, seven templates.

For Lacob it was not even important that Butler was not the star this time. What aimed and what Lacob then recognized in our chat was that the decision of the warrior to make this balance between despair and calculation that led to it had been added.

“Yes, there were (concerns about Butler),” said Lacob. “But they make their analysis, they make their decisions and it was a bit of risk. But we have to take risks in this life. And he is worth every damned penny. It's all I can say. He is fantastic.”

The warriors fell without a butler towards the irrelevance, whereby the chatter became louder every month, in which all their most important people think about the concept of driving somewhere else. Warriors trainer Steve Kerr was a popular choice in the circles of the league to finally replace Gregg Popovich in San Antonio. Green has recognized his concern about the possibility that he may have been traded. Curry, whose Epic performance in the Gold Medal game at the Olympic Games in Paris last summer Was a memory that he was still really great, had every reason to ask if that would be the last one sensible He could play game in his career.

“We are still trying to do it,” said Curry. “So you can see that there is such a Care factor for every man in this team that begins with me, Draymond, (Kevon) Looney, who was here with us, and now obviously (with) Jimmy and his playoff experience. So I had to rely on it as long as this journey continues.

“You know that you can find out the chess board between the series and stay on it and not let the rope let go to turn the side from one game to the next and meet the moment. It's so much fun here.

The feeling of Butler is, to put it with the least, mutually.

“I welcome the way everyone was included (when they arrived),” said Butler. “And we started. We never fluctuated. Self -confidence never went anywhere.

As Indiana Pacers trainer Rick Carlisle recently said, Butler would probably have been in the MVP race if he had started the season with the Warriors and had played as well as he had been with it since his arrival. The question now for him and for you is whether you can keep it against a younger Timberwolves team that is even deeper and more experienced than the emerging rockets.

“It's nice,” said Lacob about the Rockets. “But we have 12 more (victories). That is all I can say. Four below, 12.”

SAm amick is a senior nba author for the athletic. He reported the club in the USA, Sports Illustrated, AOL Fanhouse and The Sacramento Bee for over two decades. Follow Sam on Twitter @sam_amick