SAN FRANCISCO– To put it kindly, the Golden State Warriors are not young, at least in NBA terms. The Warriors enter the 2025-26 season with the second-oldest average age in the league at around 27.53 years old, ahead of only the Los Angeles Clippers.
And with four of their most crucial players in Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, Jimmy Butler III, and Al Horford all above the age of 35, one of the biggest question marks heading into this season will be how the team gets its older roster through the regular season and to the postseason in one piece.
One solution to that may be playing at a slower pace. After the Dubs' practice on Thursday at the start of NBA Training Camp, head coach Steve Kerr fielded a question about how he foresees the Warriors' pace and tempo this season given the advanced age of their roster.
“I think Jimmy, frankly, is going to dictate the pace,” Kerr said. “Last year… I told you guys, I told the team, we want to be the fastest team in the league. And we played that way. We really pushed the ball. With Jimmy, we're not going to be that team. We're going to play at a good pace, but Jimmy controls the game, and the benefit of that far outweighs playing at a 100-mile-an-hour speed.”
Steve Kerr foresees the Warriors playing at a slower pace, in part due to the style of Jimmy Butler:
"We’re going to play at a good pace but Jimmy controls the game. And the benefit of that far outweighs playing at a 100 mile an hour speed." pic.twitter.com/HcN8yo8MXd
— Kenzo Fukuda (@kenzofuku) October 2, 2025
Golden State's statistical splits before and after Butler joined them speak for themselves. The Warriors' offensive rating jumped from 18th (112.1) in the league before the trade to eighth (118.2) for the rest of the season. They went from 28th in free-throw rate before Butler to second in the NBA the rest of the way. They went from second to last in percent of points coming from free throws (13.3%) to second in the league to close the year (17.4%).
A different dimension for Warriors
Butler adds a dimension to the Kerr-led Warriors they've never really had– a true savant who can control the tempo whenever he's on the court. While Curry thrives in harnessing chaos and speed with his frenzied, constant motion style of play, Butler is almost the opposite. He makes his money through surgically picking apart a defense from the post and reading how an opponent reacts. It's why he's one of the most efficient isolation players and why he's one of the best at drawing free throws.
And one of the reasons why the Warriors were so successful down the stretch of last season was because they were able to marry the two styles together, a credit to both players' adaptability.
“There's going to be a lot of possessions that just end with Jimmy's getting the ball, isolating, getting fouled, creating a shot for someone,” Kerr explained. “He's a deliberate player. Doesn't mean he can't get out and run, but his command of the game just connects the game for us, connects the defense to the offense. We'll play fast when we when we need to, but we'll play through Jimmy often, and that may mean a little bit more deliberate pace.”
The defensive part of what Butler brings is equally important. The Warriors went from 15th in the league in forcing turnovers to first from February on. When we think about how real Golden State's run was to end the season and whether or not it was a flash in the pan or something more, the improvements in opponent turnovers and the free-throw rate are two very tall green flags– two green flags that directly correlate to what Butler brings.
Getting the Warriors' vets to the finish line
A more “deliberate pace,” as Kerr described it, can also help mitigate some of the wear and tear on the older players. Earlier this week, Kerr acknowledged that's something the team is more than aware of heading into this season.
“Guys are going to be needing to take games off,” Kerr said. “Older guys tend to get banged up a little bit more, so we have to be able to win games without some of our key guys this year. It's already been something that we discussed as a team. I feel really confident with the young guys that we have that they can step up and fill shoes when those shoes are correct.”
For Curry, who will turn 38 years old in March of this season, he understands the Warriors have to get off to a good start so they aren't grinding themselves down to barely make the playoffs.
The biggest thing is we don't want to be in a position where you're chasing down the stretch of the season,” Curry said at media day this week. “If you can all be in control of that, where the last two months, even though we had a great record, it felt like every game was a playoff game for two straight months, and then you transition into a very tough seven-game series, and then you're 48 hours from a Round 2, Game 1. It was a very condensed high level of basketball.”
“So we want to be able to try to get through the 82 with a little bit more of ability to kind of control the ebbs and flows of it. How we get there, like, we'll figure it out.”
That solution may very well be Butler, whose whole thing is controlling the ebbs and flows.
