SAN FRANCISCO – It wasn’t part of the original plan, but the timing was impeccable.

There stood Andre Iguodala, receiving adulation from coaches, teammates and family members on the night that his No. 9 Golden State Warriors jersey was raised to the rafters at the Chase Center, just moments after the newest member of the organization, Jimmy Butler, made his home debut in a dominant 126-102 win over the Dallas Mavericks.

Iguodala, the 2015 NBA Finals MVP and the first of the Warriors’ unforgettable dynasty to receive the ultimate franchise honor, shared this monumental moment with Butler, the man tasked with giving the remaining core one last shot at glory.

The similarities between the two players are both glaringly obvious – the ideal basketball size, the chiseled build, the powerful athleticism – and intriguingly subtle – the elite basketball IQ, the mastery of fundamentals, the charismatic leadership.

Warriors coach Steve Kerr often referred to Iguodala as “the babysitter,” someone who could rein in the glorious madness brought to the court by Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson. Even with Thompson now playing for Dallas, Butler is already proving himself as the same kind of counterweight.

“That’s what Jimmy has really added to our team is this sense of calm,” Kerr said. “It really, frankly, complements the chaos of Steph and Dray. And I think that’s part of our strength as a team, is the chaos that Steph and Dray create. But if it’s not balanced, then it can be counterproductive. And so Jimmy is kind of balancing that out.”

On Sunday, Butler’s mere presence brought out an energy and optimism from the Chase Center crowd that’s been depressingly absent since the early weeks of the season when Golden State jumped out to a 12-3 start. Since then, it’s been a steady nosedive from which Butler has only recently helped them recover. The Warriors are 5-1 since his arrival as they move toward their goal of reaching the Western Conference’s No. 6 seed, which would avoid the Play-In Tournament.

And it wasn’t just the crowd that was hype. Curry hit PJ Washington with the “night night” at the end of the third quarter, a likely retaliation for Washington invoking Curry’s signature celebration after the Mavericks beat the Warriors two weeks prior.

Steph Curry’s ‘Night Night’ in the 3rd quarter

“When they’re on the floor, usually good things happen,” Curry said of the similarities between Iguodala and Butler. “You love players like that who understand the game, have high IQ, lift the level of everybody around them. That’s a hard thing to do and it’s such a commodity in the league.”

Butler, who had 18 points and five assists on Sunday, has also given Kerr and the Warriors something they’ve desperately needed for the last two seasons – an offensive engine when Curry is on the bench. Virtually every lineup that has featured Butler without Curry has been utterly dominant, and the fact that Green and Butler are generally on the court at the same time means that other teams have an incredibly difficult time scoring against them.