SAN FRANCISCO — Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr had a goal for his team before the new year began: be a top-four seed in the Western Conference. Despite his veteran-laden group starting 14-15 and sitting at eighth entering Monday’s game against the Orlando Magic, Kerr remains hopeful that his original goal can still come to fruition.

“We all know where we are.” Kerr said after Sunday’s film session. “Look, our goal coming into the season was to be a top-four seed, and I still think it’s well within our reach. But it can be daunting if you look and you go, ‘Man, we’re five, six games back.’ But we know how fast things can flip if we can take care of our business and find some momentum because everybody else is gonna go through tough stretches too.”

The Warriors sit seven games behind the fourth-place Los Angeles Lakers in the loss column, but Kerr and his players are holding out hope that better days are ahead for the group after a 119-116 win over the Phoenix Suns on Saturday night. The reason for the renewed optimism within the organization is that former All-Star Jimmy Butler looks re-engaged on the offensive end and has 56 points over his last two games.

Kerr noted earlier this week that the coaching staff showed the Warriors clips of how they played last season after Butler was acquired to remind them of how the offense can work when they look for him more. Kerr said Sunday he felt the difference was in Butler’s mindset recently — being more aggressive in trying to find ways to score.

“Just being himself,” Kerr said. “Being aggressive. He has such a great feel for the moment, for the game, I think the last two games he’s shown that. He’s understood he needed to be more assertive, more aggressive, and he’s been excellent.”

It’s an assessment that Warriors star guard Stephen Curry agreed with. His numbers — he’s averaging 19.8 points, 5.6 rebounds and 4.8 assists a game heading into Monday’s contest — have stayed high throughout the season, but the Warriors have noticed a renewed sense of aggression from Butler.

“It’s the same Jimmy,” Curry said after Saturday’s win. “But just a little bit more emphasis on looking for his shot. … He’ll tell you he’s playing the exact same way, but he is looking to score more because we’re able to get organized around him.”

Butler agreed that the spacing has been better, and he’s getting the ball a little bit more than he was in recent weeks, but he has maintained a mostly calm demeanor as the Warriors deal with the ups and downs that have plagued the early part of the season. Like Kerr, Butler is convinced that the group can get rolling soon if they focus on fixing some of the issues that have plagued them early in the year. Notably, as Kerr and others have pointed out, late-game execution and finding more space for Butler to operate offensively, especially when Curry is off the floor.

“It’s not as bad as it looks,” Butler said of the Warriors’ rocky start. “It’s a couple possessions here and there, a couple turnovers here and there, but that’s just the game. That’s been our season thus far.”

As the Warriors finally look to turn a corner following Saturday’s win, they will do so with Jonathan Kuminga available to play again after missing Saturday’s game because of an illness. Kerr said Kuminga was with the group on Sunday and was feeling better. After a brutal schedule to start the season, Kerr is optimistic that after their upcoming three-game East Coast swing, they will benefit from a slew of home games in January and February. Seventeen of their first 29 games have been on the road.

“I hope so,” Kerr said. “We said that before the last homestand, too. We finally finished our crazy start to the season, whatever it was 15 games in 29 days, 28 days, and we came home, and we lost a bunch of home games. So, it has to be action and not words.”