PORTLAND, Ore. — Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr spent a portion of Sunday’s postgame news conference taking the blame for his team’s up-and-down performance this season.
After watching the Warriors give up 136 points to the Portland Trail Blazers in another loss, the veteran coach said he wasn’t doing a good job of helping the Warriors “connect the game.” No matter how many different lineup combinations Kerr tries, none of them seem to consistently work.
The Warriors have developed a long list of problems early in the season, which is why the group has stumbled out to a 13-14 start, but as Kerr tried to deflect the building tension from his players, he offered a window into one particular element worth eyeing as the Warriors head closer to the midway point of the season: Jimmy Butler.
When asked about Butler’s performance following Sunday’s game, during which the six-time All-Star went just 3 of 11 from the field, Kerr tried to take more responsibility for Butler’s cool night.
“I got to find a way to get him more into the groove of the game,” Kerr said. “11 shots.”
Then, Kerr stopped himself. In many ways, Kerr’s pause was reflective of the ongoing discussion surrounding Butler’s start to the season. On one hand, the box score says that he’s not taking enough shots on a team that desperately needs more consistency from the rest of the roster behind the greatness of Stephen Curry.
On the other hand, Butler’s numbers say that he’s still finding ways to impact the game. For example, in Sunday’s loss, Butler went 10 of 11 from the free-throw line, grabbed seven rebounds, dished out four assists and had three steals in 35 minutes.
“I don’t know,” Kerr continued. “I don’t really consider Jimmy’s game to be dependent on how many shots he gets. But we do need his scoring; we do need his playmaking. I thought we did a better job last year of putting him in position to attack and create shots for people. And we need to get back to that type of control of the game where we’re going to him in the half court, especially when Steph’s out … we’re not able to consistently put the ball in Jimmy’s hands and let him control games like we did at the end of last year.”
Butler has taken 11 or fewer shots in 13 of his 23 games this season. He prides himself on being able to make the right basketball play for his teammates, and shies away from trying to force too much isolation within the system, but there’s been a point in many games already this season when the Warriors could use the proud veteran asserting himself more. They’re now at a tenuous point in the season where they need him to do so.
Like Kerr, Draymond Green tried to take the blame as to why Butler hasn’t been able to find more of his own rhythm within the Warriors’ system that he still hasn’t even been in for a full year.
“I think I got to do a better job of knowing, paying attention to the flow of the game, when he hasn’t touched the ball. ” Green said, while lamenting the fact he had eight turnovers on Sunday night. “When he hasn’t touched the ball for multiple possessions, getting him a touch and making sure he’s in the flow. I’ve always been that guy here to kind of make sure the ball moves around and the ball is getting to the right places, and I didn’t do a good job of that tonight.”
But then, Green said the quiet part out loud. As much as the Warriors are still trying to make Butler feel comfortable with what they’re trying to do offensively, they want him to be more assertive when the time comes. Butler has shown flashes of that this season, but the Warriors would be better served if he showed that side of his game even more as the group searches for some kind of offensive identity besides the one that Curry provides.
“And then, as I do a better job of that,” Green continued. “I also need Jimmy to be more aggressive and demonstrative and go take the ball. Or come get the ball. And say exactly where he want the ball. And he will — he does. He doesn’t shy away from that. So, we’re putting it together. It’s Game 27. Nobody’s panicking.”
When asked about getting Butler into even more of a role offensively, Curry, like Kerr and Green did before him, pushed any blame towards Butler to the side.
“It’s not just a Jimmy thing,” Curry said. “There’s gonna be nights where he’s a go-to scorer. There’s gonna be nights where he’s a facilitator. There’s gonna be nights where, for certain stretches, he’s one or the other. But he’s such a unique player because he can still dominate a game even if it doesn’t show up in the stat sheet. And he’s gonna find ways to get everybody else involved. So, we just have to be organized around him.”
Curry blamed the defense for Sunday’s loss — believing, correctly, that if the Warriors score 131 points, they should win the game no matter who is on the floor. The question for Butler, who will always draw more of a spotlight because of his personality and the $54 million dollar annual salary he’s earning this season, is whether he will find the rhythm he needs in order to help get the Warriors’ offense in order before it falls even deeper into a hole of mediocrity.
The key for Butler, and a routine predictor of success throughout the back half of his career, is to keep an eye on the health of his left knee. It’s been a lingering issue for him through the years, and has already caused him to miss several games this season. Butler has shown a strong ability to fight through the soreness and still play at an exceptionally high level over the last decade. The Warriors have to hope that he can find the mindset once again as they search for answers on a roster where Butler has proven he is one of the only sure offensive weapons the group has each night behind their star.
For Kerr, in order to get Butler going, he believes it all comes back to being more “particular” with certain sets where they know they can get Butler the ball.
“I think the Minnesota game, he went like four straight possessions without touching the ball when Steph was not on the floor,” Kerr said. “And that’s on me. That’s also on our players to understand. I can’t call a play every time, nor do I want to. And so, we have to find a way, in collaboration, as a staff, players, to make sure we’re playing through Jimmy and getting the game under control. You saw it tonight; it was just a track meet. That team is way more athletic than we are. And they’ve beaten us all three times because we have not been able to control them in penetration and turnovers and all that stuff. So, we go to find a way to get the game under control.”
Butler has the power to do that for the Warriors. The question he’s going to have to answer is whether he’s still capable of being able to impose that control on a game on a nightly basis?