Two knees. That was all it took to derail Golden State’s 2025-2026 campaign. Moses Moody went down first. Then Jimmy Butler, and that second blow landed at the cruelest possible moment, dragging San Francisco into a messy finish with no real playoff path left to chase.
The wing tore the ACL in his right knee back in January. Since then it has been a slow climb, no return date pinned to the calendar, no shortcut waiting at the end. One target keeps him moving: the 2026-2027 season.
BREAKING: Jimmy Butler will miss remainder of the season with a right torn ACL. 🙏🚨 (via @ShamsCharania) pic.twitter.com/xxF3ueqX4n
— House of Highlights (@HoHighlights) January 20, 2026
“I’m making incredible progress,” Butler told a team event. Four words, but heavy ones for a roster that still leans on him. He is 36 now. He knows exactly how far he still has to walk.
Jimmy Butler gives an update on his ACL rehab. Said he believes he is a month and a half from running. Believes he’s able to dunk jumping off his left foot but isn’t supposed to land on right foot.
“We’ve been making some incredible progress.” pic.twitter.com/nxbFfGbs9b
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) June 25, 2026
A rehab that tests the mind as much as the knee
Control. Pressure. Turning a tight moment into a personal duel. That is the Jimmy Butler the league knows, which is exactly why sitting still might be the hardest assignment he has ever drawn. The torn ligament is one fight. The waiting is a whole other one. “This rehab is tough,” he admitted. “You put in a ton of work and you still know how much is left before you get back to where you want to be.”
Excuses were never his thing. His game got built on grit, repetition and shoving past whatever limit sat in front of him. And yet here he is, relearning a body that no longer snaps back the way it once did. He framed it with a small, almost offhand example that says everything. He figures he can still dunk taking off from his left leg. The trouble starts on the way down, landing on the right. Tiny technical detail. Enormous problem for a player who lives on burst, contact and chaos.
Golden State keeps the faith with the questions piling up
The noise around the franchise never really dies down. Butler’s deal, a final year worth roughly $57 million, keeps the rumour mill spinning. Some already picture the Warriors flipping that salary into another star to ride shotgun with Stephen Curry. The official word, for now, runs the other way. Butler stays in the plan.
Jimmy Butler’s expectations for the @warriors next season:
“We got Steph on our team… sh*t, we’re gonna win. I’m a firm believer in that.
Steph is one of the greatest players to ever play this game. His talent is game-changing alone and you legitimately always have a chance… pic.twitter.com/o63rZDf2en
— Emily Chang (@emilychangtv) June 26, 2026
The front office still believes the comeback lands, and Butler carries himself like a man who wants the rest of his story written in the Bay. Owner Joe Lacob turned up too and vouched for the group’s ability to climb back. Butler kept it plain. “If we’re healthy, we’re hard to beat. We just have to stay healthy. As long as we’ve got Steph, we’ve always got a chance.”
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A bond he did not see coming
Butler has not bothered hiding how much he rates the organisation since he arrived. Plenty of jerseys hang in his past. This stop, he insists, feels like none of them. “It’s not good, it’s great. It’s truly the best,” he said. The pull, for him, runs deeper than the names on the roster or the shine on the logo. It sits in the structure, the way the place is run, the standards that press on every small thing.
It reads almost like a love letter. “When I say I don’t want to be anywhere else, this is it.” Bold talk from a guy long tagged a hired gun, the type who folds the tent and walks the second the fit goes stale. Not this time. This time he wants to dig in.
His return could flip the whole thing
Every decision matters now for Golden State. Curry’s future, the shape of the next era, the simple question of staying in contention, all of it hangs over the building. One thing is not up for debate. A Jimmy Butler anywhere near his peak rewrites the math.
Jimmy Butler on his ACL rehab: “As soon as I can get back on the floor, being Robin to Steph’s Batman, I will be back.”
— Dalton Johnson (@DaltonJ_Johnson) June 25, 2026
Before camp opens, the wing also wants to pull his teammates back together at his place in San Diego, the way he has before to tighten the group. Classic Butler, he is already picturing Curry in his “Robin cave,” a wink at their Batman-and-Robin routine. Underneath the joke sits something heavier. He does not just want back in the NBA. He wants back with the Warriors, wants that old edge handed back to him, wants one more chapter worth remembering stitched onto a career already stuffed with scraps. Right now, his toughest game is being played nowhere near a court.
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Credits: Photo by TAYFUN COSKUN / ANADOLU / ANADOLU VIA AFP
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