How does the Jimmy Butler trade affect fantasy basketball?
BREAKING NEWS: Jimmy Butler is being traded to the Golden State Warriors for Andrew Wiggins, Kyle Anderson and a protected first-round pick. With this, Butler is also signing a two-year, $121 million contract. The Pistons also are getting Lindy Water III and Josh Richardson and the Jazz will get Dennis Schroder and send out P.J Tucker. It sounds confusing because it is confusing. This trade was the movie that the Warriors needed to get into a win-now mode that is necessary for their future. The Heat on the other hand, are trying to get past the Jimmy Butler era and trying to win with new players. In this article we're going to be talking about this trade and how it will affect fantasy basketball.
In 25 games this season, Jimmy Butler has been… less than impressive. He's averaging 17 points, five rebounds and five assists per game with a steal a game. His shooting splits are 54/36/80, which is alright, but nowhere close to the last couple of seasons. We suspect that Butler never really wanted to play for the Heat this season, and the decline of his stats show that. The other thing is Butler is now 35 years old and probably only has 2-3 prime years left. He'll try to get these years with the Warriors, and expect his stats to increase the rest of the year. We predict him to go back up to about 20 points while shooting way more efficiently as well.
Andrew Wiggins is the other big piece in this trade, and the stats show that he might be playing just as good if not better than Jimmy Butler this season. He's averaging 18/4/2 while having shooting splits of 45/36/73. Wiggins has been great for the Warriors in six seasons and was a huge piece of the 2022 title run. But with that being said, he was necessary for this trade and overall, Butler is better than Wiggins. Wiggins with the Heat will try and fill in what Butler was. We don't expect any of his stats to improve drastically, but he does fit well with this team.
The other players in this trade don't really affect fantasy basketball that much besides Dennis Schroder. Schroder is rostered in 62% of leagues this season and is averaging a sneaky 14 points with about six assists per game. Now with the Jazz who don't really have a starting point guard, he could thrive. Don't be surprised if Schroder averages around 20 points per game in this back half of the season, so pick him up or trade for him immediately.