NBA Power Rankings Roundup: Where do the experts rank the Warriors at the trade deadline?

The Golden State Warriors were one of the big surprises in the early weeks of this 2024-25 NBA season, winning 12 of their first 15 games. And with that 12-3 record, Steph Curry & Co. sat atop the Western Conference standings on November 22.

In the two-plus months since, however, the Dubs have dropped off dramatically.

Even with winning three of their last four, Golden State entered Wednesday night's matchup with the Utah Jazz just one game over .500 at 25-24, a mark that had them in 10th place in the West, which would barely get them into the Play-In Tournament if the season ended right now.

During the first month of the season, the Warriors were consistently among the league leaders in scoring, averaging 119.6 points per game during their 12-3 start. Now, however, they rank just 19th at 111.2. And while they still rank eighth in scoring defense, allowing 111.4 points per game, it's not a good thing when that total is higher than the offensive output.

But nobody's focusing on simple stats with this team right now, as all attention is now on Jimmy Butler, whom the Warriors acquired on Wednesday night in a trade that sent Andrew Wiggins, Dennis Schroder, Kyle Anderson, and a protected first-round pick to the Miami Heat. The Detroit Pistons were also involved in the deal and will reportedly receive Lindy Waters III and Josh Richardson.

After watching what went down this past weekend with the massive blockbuster deals involving the likes of Luka Doncic, Anthony Davis, De'Aaron Fox, and Zach LaVine, it was clear that the Warriors were looking to make a big splash of their own.

But things seemingly weren't working out so well. Earlier this week, it was reported that talks surrounding Butler, who most thought would end up with the Phoenix Suns, had stalled because he refused to sign an extension with Golden State.

But that's apparently not the case, as ESPN has reported that Butler declined his 2025-26 player option and has agreed to a two-year, $121 million extension to remain with the Warriors through the 2026-27 campaign.

We won't lie to you here. The point of this piece, as clearly stated in the headline, is to see where the Warriors rank in some of the major NBA Power Rankings. And we'll still do that.

But it certainly needs to be noted that all of the rankings you'll see below were released prior to Golden State's acquisition of Butler. So, please keep that in mind as you continue.

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NBA.com: 16

Over at NBA.com, who dropped their latest rankings on Monday, the Warriors rank 16th, up three spots from the previous week.

Writer John Schuhmann made sure to highlight Golden State's big win over the Oklahoma City Thunder last week but also noted the fact that this team hasn't won more than two straight games since November.

Schuhmann also made mention of Butler near the end of his analysis, which was effectively a prerequisite for anything written about the Warriors this week, noting what we mentioned above about him not wanting to remain in Golden State beyond this season. Oops.

ESPN: 18

ln their most recent rankings, which were released Wednesday morning, ESPN has Golden State in the 18th slot, up from the 19th position the previous week.

Their entire analysis was focused on the trade deadline, and there was an interesting quote included from none other than Draymond Green, who said that Golden State chairman Joe Lacob has to be "pissed sitting at .500."

"You'd be a fool to sit back and think everything [is OK]," Green continued. "Not with that guy. ... You gotta expect they'll be aggressive. ... Luka Doncic just got traded. So everyone thinks everything is possible."

Spot on, Mr. Green. Spot on.

CBS Sports: 15

CBS Sports' most recent NBA Power Rankings were released last Thursday, but as we've included them in our previous roundups, we didn't want to leave them out.

They also mentioned the Warriors' win over OKC and then went into how Steve Kerr has been using almost every option he has in the lineup, given the team's overall issues with injuries, specifically mentioning rookie Quinten Post.

Kerr certainly has more work cut out for him in the lineup department, doesn't he?

Yahoo! Sports: 17

Yahoo! Sports has the Warriors sitting in 17th in their most recent edition, up two spots from last week.

As ESPN chose to do, senior writer Ben Rohrback opted to use Draymond Green's words to express the vibe surrounding Golden State heading into the deadline. So, there's nothing new to report from this one.

Now, we just wait to see if this trade was worth it. While acquiring Butler was certainly a splashy move for the Warriors, they won't climb up any of these rankings if they don't win more basketball games. We'll check back in on all of these NBA Power Rankings again soon.