Two-year title window? Jimmy Buckets thinks that’s conservative

Jimmy Butler doesn’t think the “age thing” will limit the Warriors from continuing to compete for championships any time soon.

Jimmy Butler turns 36 years old before the start of the 2025-26 season. Steph Curry turned 37 in March. Draymond Green turned 35 10 days earlier. But when it comes to the length of the Golden State Warriors’ championship window, Butler has the same philosophy as the late, great Aaliyah: Age ain’t nothing but a number.

Butler told reporters Thursday he didn’t “think this age thing is anything with the way we take care of our bodies.” That’s a bold proclamation after the Warriors’ postseason run was derailed by a hamstring injury to Curry, and Butler was hampered by a pelvic contusion that cost him two games. True, falling on your ass pelvis can happen at any age, but bouncing back is a lot easier in your twenties.

But Jimmy Buckets did have a point when he said that the upcoming season would be a good test. The Warriors had to trade away four players in the deal that brought in Butler from the Miami Heat, making do with patchwork lineups that saw multiple players get promoted from two-way contracts. They were also limited by the team being hard-capped at the first luxury tax apron, which made it impossible for the team to even add buyout candidates after the trade deadline.

There’s a chance for all this to work out great. The Warriors could have gone to the conference finals without Curry’s injury, while Steve Kerr thinks his team “could have gone the distance.” They could have been fresher had they played better earlier in the season, and not had to play the older players heavy minutes after Butler joined the team, just to make the playoffs at all. Golden State won three playoff games on the road, indicating that pushing for home-court advantage might not be crucial.

But staying out of the play-in tournament, keeping series from going seven games, and adding players who can cover for their older stars could indeed extend their window. Butler hasn’t played more than 65 games since the 2016-17 season, while the team can’t reasonably expect Curry to play more than 70 games.

Can they reasonably expect to compete next season? Of course. Even in 2026-27, having an aging core isn’t ideal, but having three future Hall of Famers of any age is still a nice foundation.

But more than two years? The biggest problem with that might be that 2026-27 is a contract year for Butler, and historically, they don’t always go well.

Perhaps that’s the best way to take Butler’s proclamation. He may well believe in medical and training advances can extend older players’ careers, but Thursday may have simply been Butler’s opening salvo in his campaign to get signed past 2027. This age thing might not be anything when it comes to extensions.