Things have been moving incredibly slowly for the Golden State Warriors this offseason, with headlines surrounding the franchise currently starting and ending with the restricted free agency of Jonathan Kuminga.

Yet while Kuminga’s future and the franchise’s expected subsequent signings are claiming the attention, a certain detail was overlooked last week in what could become the most important part of Golden State’s next six months.

The Warriors are now eligible to trade Jimmy Butler

As of August 6, the Warriors are now eligible to trade Jimmy Butler following his blockbuster acquisition from the Miami Heat in February. That marked six months from the day Golden State acquired the 6x All-Star, but his trade ineligibility stemmed from the huge two-year, $111 million extension that he signed upon his arrival, rather than the trade itself.

That extension is significant to the point where Butler won’t hold a lot of value on the market, not that the Warriors will be looking to shop him anyway given the veteran forward completely reshaped their season from lottery-bound disaster to taking out the two-seed Houston Rockets in the first-round of the playoffs.

However, that’s not to mean that Butler and his contract won’t be an interesting piece to monitor in the event that Golden State have tangible negotiations with rival teams on superstar players.

Take Giannis Antetokounmpo, for example, whose future isn’t completely guaranteed at the Milwaukee Bucks, with the likelihood of a trade soaring if the franchise gets off to a poor start next season.

If the Warriors want to acquire Antetokounmpo as has been long dreamt, then Butler is going to be the easiest path to matching salaries before you get into the abundance of young players and picks they’d also have to give up.

Then you have another superstar who Golden State have been linked to for over 18 months – LeBron James. The 4x MVP’s future at the Los Angeles Lakers has also been a significant source of speculation this offseason, with the Warriors again mentioned as a team with some level of interest.

Again, reaching James’ $52.6 million salary would be best achieved by using Butler’s contract. The teams would then have to haggle over picks, but James’ no-trade clause does give the acquiring team some sort of leverage in that scenario.

The Warriors are from giving up on Butler or looking to move on from him, but there is a level of upgrade that can now be explored in the coming months that they didn’t necessarily have access to before last week.