Stephen Curry’s championship window with the Warriors has probably closed, one way or another

When Jimmy Butler collapsed on the ground Monday night and began dropping F-bombs while holding his right knee, which was confirmed as a torn ACL on Tuesday, the Warriors’ season, which was at least starts to trend upwardfinished. One has to wonder if the same can be said of Golden State’s Stephen Curry era.

I know, on some level, it’s too early to start talking about finality for a guy who is still far from his end as a superstar player. But we all think so. If the window for a fifth championship was still slightly cracked, even if only in theory, it almost certainly came down to two improbable scenarios.

The first would be to trade Butler, which is unlikely but at least worth considering. Now you might be wondering who would want to trade for a historically disgruntled 36-year-old player who is listed for almost $60 million next season and won’t even be able to play for the next 10-12 months? A team with its own crappy contract that needs to be gotten rid of.

Our Sam Quinn described some possible exchanges that would fit this build, with Anthony Davis and Joel Embiid at the top of the list. Personally, I think the Sixers are starting to like their chances with a currently dominant Embiid in the East this year, although it would probably be a smart move to get out of that contract before the next inevitable injury arrives.

But let’s say the Sixers would be up for it. Would the Warriors do it? Certainly not. Embiid is owed $59.5 million next season, $64.3 million the following season and $69 million in 2028-29 when he’ll be 34 and virtually certain to be completely broke. He’s barely holding on at 31 years old. Even the rest of this season healthy is a long road. And that’s before you even consider the shape of a lumbering big man in a Steph Curry offense.

Davis is easier to imagine. He’s also nowhere near staying healthy in the playoffs (hell, he’s not even healthy right now), but he should be back this season and he comes off the books a year before Embiid even if he exercises his $62.7 million player option in 2027-28.

At full strength, Davis is interesting enough to appease puncher fans even if there’s almost no way he’ll stay healthy — not to mention the problems he’d pose as a clumsy shooter next to Draymond Green.

I’m sure the Kings would be willing to talk about a deal for DeMar DeRozan or Domantas Sabonis for Butler and Jonathan Kuminga, who Sacramento coveted this summer. If there’s one trade that could possibly keep the Warriors in contention this year and beyond, it could be Lauri Markannen. Unfortunately, Danny Ainge shows up to these meetings in a ski mask and the Warriors didn’t hold on to their dream of two timelines that long just to get robbed.

Who knows if the Warriors will even discuss these or any deals with Butler, much less make any of them. For now, general manager Mike Dunleavy says he has no plans to trade Butler.

Even that is just a smokescreen designed to retain some form of leverage in a potential deal rather than announcing your desperation, to convince you that all of these pieces are just going to magically fall into their perfect place, stay healthy and deliver another championship run to a team that currently resides in the No. 8 seed in a bruising Western Conference is a major reach. My father would call it a pipe dream, and the older I get, the more I realize that man is rarely wrong.

And so, if a Butler trade doesn’t happen or doesn’t put Curry in a realistic position to compete for a fifth career championship with the Warriors, then his only chance to do so would be with another team.

Now I have a lot of thoughts on the franchise trading icons front. First of all, you don’t consider doing this for a second unless the player has requested to opt out or the return sets up your next decade when your current window closes. This is why Nico Harrison was an idiot. The Luka Doncic trade checked none of those boxes.

And Curry means incalculably more to the Warriors than Luka does to Dallas. Trading him would shake the Bay Area and the basketball world within it. That said, I grew up in Northern California, I’ve been a Warriors fan my whole life, I look up to Steph Curry, athletically speaking, almost religiously, and I would have no problem with him finishing his career elsewhere.

I’m an adult with a family and bills. Sport no longer has such an impact on my life; they entertain me, and Curry targeting the Rockets’ number 5, just as an example, would entertain me greatly. Tampa Tom Brady was awesome. If Curry were to ever open this conversation about relocation, we could reopen the one about him winning a fifth ring.

So far, every indication he’s given is that he values ​​finishing with the Warriors more than possibly ending up with a fifth ring. This could change. Curry is as competitive as it gets. He’s still an elite player. The Warriors could still get a major return, much like Boston did when they traded Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, which could pave the way for the next era. Again, maybe a conversation will happen at some point. I seriously doubt it.

Either way, until then, the best the Warriors can do is try to stay competitive during Curry’s final chapter (no one wants to see Kobe’s final years with the Lakers). They could even take another step closer to Jonathan Kuminga at the deadline. But here’s the reality: By the time Butler hit the floor Monday night, much more than this season had ended. It seems likely that Stephen Curry is done chasing championships with the Warriors.