Even though he was 36 years old and seemingly dwindling in the athleticism department, Jimmy Butler was still providing the Warriors with extremely impactful basketball. He held opponents' attention when playing off the ball as a cutter for Steph Curry and Draymond Green, and could take over playmaking duties and control the offense when sent out with the second unit. That's not to mention the defensive and rebounding capabilities Butler brought to the team, along with his veteran locker room presence.

That's why when Butler went down with a torn ACL on Monday night, so much hope seemed to be sapped out of a Warriors team that was otherwise looking like they were finally turning a corner and making a midseason push.

After the Warriors' blowout 145-127 loss to the Toronto Raptors on Tuesday night, Green talked about how the Warriors can move forward without Butler.

"I think number one, our first order of business is trying to figure it out. There's no one answer. The one answer isn't anyone here, that's not going to happen. Jimmy is who Jimmy is for a reason. To think that A. it's one person that's going to fix it or B. we're going to fix it in one day — it's not realistic. That would be kind of lessening the value of what Jimmy brings, and we know what that value is."

Ultimately, Green seemed to be at a loss for how exactly the Warriors would proceed, but knew it would have to be a team effort.

"Outside of that, I don't know. We got to go through it. We'll go through it, and we'll figure it out. That's the nature of the game we play. Injuries happen, and that's why you got 15 guys on the roster. Somebody else, or collectively we, got to step up. But I believe we can figure it out. What that means for us longterm, I don't know. If I had all the answers right now, I would gladly give them to you, but I just don't."

Green's seen major injuries to fellow star teammates in the past, such as Klay Thompson and Kevin Durant's injuries in 2019, but it doesn't seem like it ever gets any easier to deal with.

The blowout nature of the Raptors game skewed what Steve Kerr's rotations may look like in the post-Butler era, but some notable conclusions can still be drawn from the game.

Barring any trade — and Jonathan Kuminga's trade demand is still on the table — it seems that the Warriors will start either Brandin Podziemski or Will Richard in Butler's place. Richard drew the start on Saturday night against the Charlotte Hornets when Butler missed the game for personal reasons, while Podziemski started against the Raptors for more ball-handling and playmaking purposes.

Off the bench, Kuminga himself got 21 minutes, playing for the first time in over a month and contributing at the forward position that now has a big hole. Additionally, Buddy Hield reentered the rotation and had 25 points on 6-6 three-point shooting in just 19 minutes. Those two seem to stand as the biggest gainers in terms of raw minutes, though Curry is obviously also going to have much more on his plate in terms of carrying the Warriors' offense on many nights.

It's a rocky situation, to say the least, and all the Warriors can do is try to navigate it on the fly and maintain some of the momentum they were building up prior to Butler's injury.