It looks like it's going to be an uphill battle for the Golden State Warriors to get back on track in the aftermath of Jimmy Butler's ACL injury. In the two games since, the Warriors have played a blowout loss at home against the Toronto Raptors and dropped a demoralizing one on the road against the Dallas Mavericks, in which they had a 7-point lead in the fourth quarter.

Ultimately, the questions point to how they can replace or recreate Butler's offensive capabilities. Butler had been working well with the second unit, especially, to bring control to that squad and bolster the non-Steph Curry minutes. Without his playmaking and overall offensive ability, the Warriors as a whole have seemed somewhat lost at times, even on both ends of the floor.

After the Mavericks game, De'Anthony Melton discussed what the Warriors need to do in order to bounce back and stop reeling from the loss of Butler.

"We just got to pay a little more attention to details. Just talking after the game (about) ways that we can put ourselves in better spots and ways we can put our team in better spots. We got to understand the personnel that we have without Jimmy (and) the effort, the discipline, and the focus that it takes. We can't have some of these lapses in coverages and offense and stuff like that. It's only the second game without him, so it's going to be an adjustment for somebody like that, so much gravity that he pulls. We're just going to keep working and keep figuring it out."

It's, of course, easier said than done, but Melton hasn't exactly been one to blame ever since he returned from his own ACL injury in early November.

Especially over the past few weeks, Melton has been on a tear, averaging 15 points on 50% shooting from the field and 40% from beyond the arc over the past 10 games. His plus/minus per game in that timeframe is 11.7, over 3 points higher than the second-best mark that Butler had at +8.

The starting lineup is back to its flexible ways for Steve Kerr since the Butler injury. Brandin Podziemski entered the starting lineup in place of him on Tuesday against the Raptors, and Kerr went small ball by putting Draymond Green at center and inserting Gui Santos at the forward position on Thursday against the Mavericks.

Melton seems to be an obvious choice to enter the starting lineup in order to provide more scoring and ball-handling punch in the absence of Butler, but the minutes and workload restriction seems to be the biggest thing preventing this.

Melton still plays between 18 and 25 minutes a game, not having played more than 26 minutes in any game this season. It's unclear when the minutes restriction will be lifted, considering Melton has looked fully healthy and raring to go in the past few weeks, but it would no doubt be a good experiment for him to get a few starts when he is ready for it, at the very least.