On Monday night, the Golden State Warriors saw star wing Jimmy Butler go down with a torn ACL injury during their win against the Miami Heat, Butler's former team. Butler will now miss the remainder of the season due to the setback, which raises a plethora of questions about how Golden State will approach the upcoming NBA trade deadline.
Butler has long been known to be one of the NBA's most active players on Instagram, and he wasted little time weighing in on the situation on Tuesday morning, posting a viral “general soreness” meme with his face photoshopped in, along with a slew of other photos from Monday's win over the Heat.
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At this point, it remains to be seen how the Warriors will move forward in the wake of Butler's devastating injury. Even before this setback, many fans were already clamoring for Mike Dunleavy and the team's front office to swing a trade before the upcoming deadline, with names like Brooklyn Nets forward Michael Porter Jr. being floated as potential ideal fits in Golden State.
Now that Butler is out for the year, there seem to be two schools of thought for Golden State: one, that the team should have even more pressure now to make a win-now trade in order to get Stephen Curry some immediate help, or two, that the Warriors should finally recognize the end of their championship run with Curry and explore some more long-term deals, perhaps even involving moving Curry himself.
The NBA trade deadline is set for February 5.