The Golden State Warriors find themselves in an intriguing situation with Jonathan Kuminga following Jimmy Butler III's season-ending injury.
Butler tore his ACL in the third quarter of the Warriors' matchup against the Heat on Monday night. Even though Golden State blew out Miami to obtain the win, the team received unfortunate news that the veteran star forward will miss the remainder of the 2025-26 NBA season.
This paves the way for Kuminga to possible return to the fold. After being active in the rotation to start the campaign, he fell out of it as the overall team fit was messy with Butler present. ESPN's NBA insider Shams Charania provided more insight on the situation during the Jan. 20 segment of SportsCenter.
“The Warriors are back on the roller coaster that is their saga with Jonathan Kuminga, and whether they go all in again with Kuminga to see, can he play in the absence of Jimmy Butler? The focus is going to squarely be on him. He demanded a trade last week, the first day he was eligible to be traded on January 15. My sources tell me the relationship between him and Steve Kerr is fractured beyond repair,” Charania said at the 1:30 mark.
“Do you go back to Jonathan and coming in now, given the state in the relationship, or here in the immediate future, do you try to find a deal out there on the marketplace that can help the Warriors win and compete without Jimmy Butler? That's a gaping hole for this team. So two teams that have interest in Jonathan Kuminga, the Dallas Mavericks and Sacramento Kings. So does a player say, DeMar DeRozan, does that fit the bill of what the warriors could need without Jimmy Butler? But one way or the other, the warriors are about to find out where they stand with Jonathan Kuminga.”
SportsCenter AM on the Golden State Warriors' crushing blow, a season-ending torn ACL for Jimmy Butler: pic.twitter.com/ZwVBCQsmuJ
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) January 20, 2026
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What lies ahead for Warriors after Jimmy Butler's injury?
Golden State Warriors bench between plays against the Miami Heat during the fourth quarter at Chase Center.
Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images
The Warriors yearn to remain in the playoff picture with their veteran star core of Stephen Curry and Draymond Green. However, their hopes become difficult with Jimmy Butler III out for the rest of the year.
Golden State has a 25-19 record on the season, holding the eighth spot in the Western Conference standings. They are three games above the Portland Trail Blazers and five games above the Los Angeles Clippers while trailing the Phoenix Suns and Los Angeles Lakers by 1.5 games.
Rolling with four consecutive wins, the Warriors will hope to remain stable without Butler. They host the Toronto Raptors on Jan. 20 at 10 p.m. ET.