For basketball fans of a certain age, there was a particular thrill to watching the Paris Olympics and seeing LeBron James and Steph Curry - the two great lions of this NBA generation at 39 and 36 years old, respectively - lead Team USA to gold. But those feelings of awe and inspiration soon turned to vexation as the NBA season began, and their storied NBA teams continued to stagnate and creep toward irrelevance.
At the start of February, Curry's Golden State Warriors were 24-24, outside the play-in picture in a deep Western Conference. LeBron's Los Angeles Lakers were a more respectable 27-19 but with a bottom-10 defense and a negative scoring margin that suggested they were much worse than their record. The two teams clearly needed dramatic shakeups if they were going to make something meaningful out of their all-time greats' precious twilight years. Fortunately for them, a set of unique circumstances presented opportunities for both to do exactly that.
Within the week, Luka Doncic was a Laker, and Jimmy Butler was a Warrior. Even with neither guy playing up to his standard, the Lakers have gone 13-4 to surge to third in the West, while the Warriors have gone 12-2 to jump into a top-six playoff spot. Notably, here are James' and Curry's stats before and after the trades:
"Acquire Hall-of-Fame talent and prosper" may seem like a self-evident concept. But as the Phoenix Suns can attest, things don't always work out that way. Here's a look at how Doncic and Butler have changed the course of their new teams' seasons, in large part by reinvigorating those clubs' aging legends.
Luka in L.A.
The Lakers are 9-4 with Doncic in the lineup and 4-0 without him since the trade, suggesting the mere act of acquiring a top-five player just entering his prime brought a psychological lift. Doncic hasn't even fully hit his stride yet, shooting 47% from 2-point range and 32% from deep as a Laker (compared to 56% and 35% for his career). He's still playing his way back into game shape after a seven-week injury layoff.
Before James suffered a groin injury that will sideline him for a week or two, we got to glimpse what even a rusty version of Doncic could do for L.A. and James specifically. Tellingly, in the pregame huddle before Doncic's Lakers debut, LeBron gave him the exact opposite advice he gave Kevin Love in Cleveland. He told his new teammate to be himself on the court and, rather than try to fit in, to "fit the f--k out."
It's easy to understand why. Doncic significantly reduced the burden of creation on James' shoulders and allowed him to lean into his resilient play-finishing abilities. James can now capitalize on the gravity and passing ability of the best creator he's ever played with. In the 11 contests together, Doncic has tossed James 28 assists. On a per-game basis, that would rank them as the top assist combo in the league for the season.
Doncic's hit-ahead passing, coupled with James still being a freight train in the open floor at age 40, is a huge part of that successful connection. With both on the court, the Lakers are by far the best transition team in the league when accounting for volume and efficiency. In those minutes, they're scoring 1.43 points per transition possession and adding an estimated 5.3 points per 100 via transition play (the Grizzlies lead the league overall at 4.2), according to Cleaning the Glass.
Those profitable open-court chances are coming mostly off live rebounds. Doncic creates a feedback loop with his unique ability to grab defensive boards (like few other guards in the league can) and kickstart the break the other way. It's helped mask the fact that L.A. ranks 21st in first-shot half-court efficiency since he debuted.
That pedestrian half-court scoring doesn't feel like a long-term concern. Again, Doncic is still getting his legs under him. Before the trade, head coach JJ Redick's offense got a lot of mileage out of three-man elbow actions involving James, Anthony Davis, and Austin Reaves. Those plays are even more dynamic with Doncic's improvisational genius replacing the more mechanical Davis. Utilizing a trio of shooting, driving, and playmaking threats as potent as Doncic, James, and Reaves can create all kinds of problems for opposing defenses.
For now, though, the Lakers are primarily being powered by what they're doing on the defensive end of the floor. When I wrote about their end of the lopsided trade, I suggested that adding Doncic could elevate and elongate the tail end of LeBron's career. I also considered it unlikely that the Lakers would seriously compete for a title this season because of their troubling lack of big men and a defense I expected to struggle. They ranked 21st in defensive efficiency before trading their five-time All-Defensive anchor for a guy who's historically been a defensive liability.
Instead, L.A. has produced the league's top-ranked defense since the trade. Jarred Vanderbilt's return a couple of weeks prior to the Davis-for-Doncic exchange, along with the Lakers' acquisition of Dorian Finney-Smith at the end of December, played a significant role in the team's defense trending up before the blockbuster deal. However, since Doncic first suited up for them, the Lakers have also surrendered 3.5 fewer points per 100 possessions with him on the floor compared to when he's on the bench, despite opponents shooting a higher percentage from 3-point range with him out there.
It's not that Doncic has magically morphed into an all-world defender. He still gets targeted in ball-screen action and is liable to get cooked by quick guards when he switches. But his size and smarts are legitimate assets in a team defense context, at least when he commits to making timely help rotations and keeping his hands high. There's a lot to be said for being 6-foot-7 and 240 pounds and simply being in the way.
And this is another area where we can point to the way Doncic's presence has elevated James, even if it's harder to quantify. Whether due to the decreased offensive responsibility, the energizing nature of the trade, or some combination of the two, James was playing his best defense in at least a couple of years before his injury; pressuring the ball, prowling on the weak side, and blowing stuff up at the rim. With Jaxson Hayes and Trey Jemison being the team's only true centers, James' rejuvenated activity level allowed those small-ball lineups to flourish.
That injury is a blow that Doncic's presence will soften greatly. The Lakers have outscored opponents by 16 points per 100 with him on the floor and James on the bench, per Cleaning the Glass. When they're both healthy, the ability to have at least one of them on the court at all times is basically a cheat code.
Add it all up, and the trade has turned the Lakers from an aimless team with a second-round ceiling and a hazy future to one with a real chance to deliver LeBron his fifth ring before all's said and done.
Butler in The Bay
At 35, Butler isn't a transformative force on the level of a 26-year-old Doncic. But he's transformed the Warriors all the same while unlocking a near-peak version of Curry that we weren't sure still existed. Even against a softish schedule, the eye test and statistical indicators surrounding this new partnership have been extremely encouraging.
Since the Warriors acquired Butler four days after the Doncic trade, they have the league's third-ranked defense and fifth-ranked offense, good for a plus-11.7 net rating that puts them behind only the Cleveland Cavaliers in that span. They've won 12 of 13 games with Butler in the lineup despite the fact that he's put up relatively pedestrian counting stats (roughly 18-6-6), shot 5-for-25 from 3-point range, and had bouts of extreme passivity in those 13 contests.
Being a star who can thrive offensively without dominating the ball always made Butler an intuitive fit with head coach Steve Kerr's offense. It's the combination of things Butler can do when he has the ball - namely, run pick-and-rolls, drive toward the basket, draw fouls, and pass - that set him apart from everyone else orbiting Curry in that system. Butler has injected a much-needed dose of rim frequency and free-throw generation into a team that ranked 26th and 28th in those departments before the trade. (They're up to 13th and seventh since Butler debuted.)
Having to take Butler seriously as a scoring threat means more defensive attention has to be paid to him when he's playing off Curry. His gravity inside the arc makes it more dangerous for defenses to send multiple bodies at Curry beyond it. That should help explain why Curry has an effective field-goal percentage of 60.4% when playing next to Butler compared to 56.8% when playing without him and why he's had his three highest-scoring games of the season since the trade.
Butler is an amplifier; he isn't the type of star who takes possessions away from co-stars. In Golden State, he's doing the exact opposite. His pristine ball protection has benefited a team that's had turnover issues throughout the entire Kerr era. The Warriors have the league's 10th-lowest turnover rate since Butler debuted, and he's coughing it up just 1.4 times a game. He's also adding possessions with his rugged work on the offensive glass, where he's pulling down more offensive boards (2.5 per contest) than any Warrior besides Kevon Looney. More possessions means more opportunities for Curry to do stuff like this.
And Butler's ability to prevent the Warriors from drowning when Curry hits the bench takes some pressure off the soon-to-be 37-year-old's on-court minutes. The Warriors scored just 103.6 points per 100 with Curry on the bench before the trade. That didn't dissuade Kerr from keeping his aging star on a tight 32-minute-a-game program, but he's probably sleeping better now that his team's scoring at an elite clip during the other 16 minutes, posting a 122.5 offensive rating with Butler on and Curry off.
Meanwhile, a defense that was already excellent has gotten even better. Thanks to Butler's physicality and smarts, he remains one of the best team defenders in the game. He and Draymond Green form a two-man weak-side wrecking crew, and the Warriors are forcing an ungodly rate of turnovers with both of them on the floor prowling passing lanes and bull-rushing opponents with aggressive back-side help. It's helped cover Curry's vulnerabilities at the point of attack and the lack of a rim-protecting center on the roster.
Butler has done all that for the Warriors while still easing into his niche in their ecosystem and playing his way back into game shape. The prospect of him dialing things up for the stretch run and playoffs should have fans feeling optimistic about this team's chances of winning at least one round this spring.
Joe Wolfond covers the NBA for theScore.
