Rockets Seen as Possible Fit for Warriors' Stephen Curry After Jimmy Butler Injury

Stephen Curry has become quite the Houston Rockets' archenemy over the last decade. Actually, it's been longer than that.

Curry's Golden State Warriors first faced off against the Rockets in the postseason in 2015, during the Western Conference Finals.

The two teams would face each other again four more times in the playoffs, and Curry's Warriors won every time.

The two teams faced off in the opening round of the 2016 playoffs, the conference finals in the 2018 postseason, the second round of the 2019 postseason and the opening round of the 2025 postseason.

Again, the result has never changed.

Curry's eyes light up when he sees the Rockets on the schedule as a postseason matchup.

Curry has even faced different iterations of the Rockets, when the infrastructure has looked different. All the while, the Warriors are mostly the same.

Minus General Manager Bob Meyers.

And Kevin Durant, who helped Curry and the Warriors win two additional championships in 2018 and 2019.

If you ask NBA legend and Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas, Durant saved the Warriors' dynasty.

Durant has now made his way to the Rockets and is having yet another stellar season.

As is Curry.

The two have been giving Father Time a run for it's money.

And both have been lifting their respective teams to contender status, despite having co-stars in and out of the lineup.

The Rockets haven't had NBA champion point guard Fred VanVleet all season, due to a torn ACL.

And Golden State now finds themselves in a similar position. Without the services of a star-level starter in Jimmy Butler, due to a torn ACL.

The Warriors' could be forced to turn to Jonathan Kuminga, in hopes of replacing some of Butler's scoring prowess and ability. Or they could look around the league and try to strike up a deal with the Sacramento Kings.

Neither of which will get it done, in terms of replacing Butler.

Could it be time to part with Curry, in order to allow him a legitimate shot at contending for a title? Not to mention the haul and/or package they'd fetch for the game's greatest shooter historically, who has shown no signs of regression.

According to Sam Quinn of CBS Sports, that could be the Warriors' best move.

And Quinn believes Houston would be a perfect fit for Curry.

"The obvious basketball fit would be Houston. It would reunite Curry and Kevin Durant, though on Durant's turf, potentially making the mercurial 2014 MVP a bit more amenable to sharing his team and credit. The Rockets badly need more shooting."

Quinn began speculating the specifics of such a deal.

"They have a mountain of draft picks and young players to send. Jabari Smith's poison pill contract would make it complicated, but if you worked in Brooklyn or Utah as a third team, you could construct a trade in which the Warriors got Smith, Reed Sheppard, valuable picks and some contracts."

He then shared that Curry, Durant, Alperen Sengun, Amen Thompson and Tari Eason would be the league's best starting lineup. He also noted that the rivalry between the two teams makes such a hypothetical deal "probably unfathomable".