DALLAS – Ask Steph Curry, Draymond Green or Steve Kerr the same question, and they would all give you the same answer.
Is there any person on the team who can replace fallen star Jimmy Butler, who was lost for the season with a torn ACL on Monday evening?
Of course not, as Butler’s blend of savvy scoring, versatile defense and underrated playmaking make up a rare package few possess. The 36-year-old averaged 20 points, 5.6 rebounds and 4.9 assists while guarding every position but center in 38 starts.
But on a team as deep as the Warriors, who boast an 11-man rotation, there may still be a way to survive his absence. All they have to do is look to a fictionalized version of a famed underdog team across the Bay.
In the 2011 film “Moneyball,” based on a Michael Lewis book about the 2002 Oakland A’s using analytics to thrive despite a low payroll, the team’s brain trust wracks their brains around how to replace departed MVP Jason Giambi.
After much discussion, Brad Pitt, the depicter of real A’s general manager Billy Beane, poses the simple query: “What we might be able to do is recreate him — recreate him in the aggregate.”
Instead of asking one player to match a superstar’s contribution, the A’s asked several players to thrive at one particular aspect of the game, with their collective talents combining to produce similar numbers as Giambi.
While Giambi left in the offseason as a free agent signing with the Yankees, Butler is a midseason loss to injury. That shortens the time the Warriors have to create and execute a plan, but it also shortens how long they have to cover for the loss.
But though basketball and baseball are vastly different games, the Warriors might be able to execute some variation of that tactic on the court. After all, they have the personnel (at least for now) to try it, assuming Jonathan Kuminga’s knee and ankle injuries sustained during Thursday’s loss to the Mavericks are not severe.
“This is not a case where we’re gonna start selling off assets,” Kerr said on his weekly radio appearance on 95.7 FM The Game. “That’s not the plan, that’s for sure. We think we can be really competitive and play at a high level.”
Making baskets
Let’s start with scoring, where Jonathan Kuminga’s ability to put the ball in the basket suddenly becomes far more valuable and his shortcomings a smidge more forgivable, assuming Kuminga is able to play after tweaking his knee in the second quarter of the Warriors’ 123-115 loss to the Mavericks.
After spending the last two months in Kerr’s doghouse and recently asking for a trade, Kerr was all but required to give Kuminga minutes on Tuesday night. He responded by scoring an even 20 in just 21 minutes. Before leaving the Dallas loss, Kuminga had scored 10 points in just nine minutes, and team said that it was not yet decided if he was going to get an MRI.
No, Kuminga will never be the playmaker or all-around defender Butler is, but his mentee is a bucket-getter on the wing and is the only player at the position group who can actually get to the rim.
Kuminga may not be on the roster for much longer, as the team is still seeking a trade for him, but as GM Mike Dunnleavy said, the market for Kuminga’s services is not robust.
“When you make a demand, there needs to be a demand on the market. So we’ll see where that unfolds,” Dunleavy said.
Should Kuminga be out for extended time, that might mean asking Brandin Podziemski to hunt for his shot, or relying on the inconsistent but still dangerous Buddy Hield to let it fly from long range.
Breaking down defenses
The playmaking ability Butler brings as a driver could be somewhat recreated by De’Anthony Melton, who has been a revelation since hitting his stride in January.
Though still limited to about 25 minutes per game as the Warriors remain cautious about his return from ACL rehab, Melton has quickly become the Warriors’ most dangerous threat going to the rim.
Melton averages 6.1 drives per game, fifth on the team despite the limited playing time. He averages 2.7 shots per game on those drives, which is fourth on the Warriors.
But the numbers still undersell the kind of dynamism Melton has shown when attacking the paint.
Defensive moxie
Unlike Butler’s offensive talents, which could be approximated by Melton, Kuminga and more shotmaking by Curry, Butler’s versatile defense cannot be replicated by just one player.
It will be up to energetic Gui Santos, rookie Will Richard, and the active (if not always effective) Buddy Hield to get stops on the wing.
It will not be easy, of course. Jimmy Butler is an All-Star-caliber player and a virtual lock for the Hall of Fame. The Warriors felt his absence in their 145-127 loss to Toronto on Tuesday, the day after Butler’s injury.
“I don’t know if it’s possible to replace the impact that Jimmy has,” Santos said Thursday during shootaround in Dallas. “But we can also try to do a little bit of what he was doing. It’s going to be tough to say that we’re gonna do that and have the same impact as with Jimmy, but I think we’ve got to figure out how to do that.”
If the Warriors are as deep as Kerr has often touted, they should have the personnel to pull off the Moneyball strategy for a few weeks before the trade deadline.
After that, perhaps a blockbuster deal could make that compensation no longer necessary.
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