Can Jimmy Butler’s playoff legend lift Warriors past play-in tournament?

SAN FRANCISCO – For the past two months, visiting teams who pass through the Bay Area have mentioned his name with reverence. 

His own teammates and coaches speak of him with a level of awe more befitting an ancient deity than a basketball player. 

And as the 82-game regular season gives way to the postseason, “Playoff Jimmy” — the alter ego that Jimmy Butler takes on from late April into June — is almost here.

Starting on Tuesday in the play-in tournament home game against Memphis, the Warriors (48-34) hope they will finally get a glimpse of Butler – who arrived in a February trade – at his crunchtime best as the franchise attempts to win a fifth championship in the Steph Curry era. 

Butler has spent the last half-decade carrying middling regular-season teams to playoff successes that far outweigh their talent level, taking two different Miami teams from the No. 8 seed and the play-in to the NBA Finals.  

He has given veteran-laden Golden State a glimpse of his ability during the regular season, when he was the catalyst of a turnaround that saw the Warriors go from No. 10 in the West to competing for a top-six playoff seed during the season’s final week. 

Though Butler is dealing with a thigh injury, expectations are still high for the future Hall of Famer. 

“It’s been completely different,” Draymond Green said. “You have a guy who can kind of slow the pace of the game down for us, and get us into good things.”

Butler’s stats have been excellent since arriving from South Beach, averaging 17.9 points and 5.9 assists per game.

But his impact has gone beyond the stat sheet. 

Warriors coach Steve Kerr has repeatedly said the 35-year-old wing has “saved” the team’s season and “clarified” the Golden State pecking order, defining roles on offense and defense as the Warriors went 23-8 since his debut.

Butler has also given the Warriors a dependable and versatile on-ball creator next to Steph Curry for the first time since Kevin Durant left after the 2019 season.

When the Warriors need a player to get to the rim and find the open shooter, Butler can do that. 

When they need someone to score in isolation, Butler can do that too. 

Defending 1-through-4? 

Not an issue, either, for a player who has bought into the Warriors’ championships-above-all-else mentality. 

“So now it’s always about my guys,” Butler said in March. “Whatever y’all need me to do. Dray’s the same way, Steph’s the same way. All of us who have been in the league for a little bit, it’s only about winning at this point in time in our career.”

But Playoff Jimmy? He brings those same intangibles while also putting up eye-popping numbers. 

“He’s an alpha, and he’s out there and he wants the ball and wants to get to the foul line,” Kerr said. “You don’t even have to run offense, you just have to get him in space. What a luxury that is.”

In 64 playoff games with the Heat, he averaged 24.7 points, 6.8 rebounds, 5.7 assists and 1.9 steals per game against top competition, improving upon his regular-season averages.

He scored 40 against Milwaukee in a conference semifinal upset in the 2020 bubble, and then scored 40 and 35 in No. 8 seed Miami’s two victories over the Lakers in the Finals that year.