With so much of last season’s chatter focusing on the frequent unavailability of Draymond Green and the seemingly distracted Andrew Wiggins, the absences of another key member of the Warriors’ rotation were practically relegated to footnotes.
Remember Gary Payton II? Remember how impactful he can be?
It seems the Warriors do.
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“They haven’t forgotten what he brings,” GP2’s father, Gary Payton Sr., told NBC Sports Bay Area. “They just want to see more of it, because he was hurt so much last year. When I was in Paris for the Olympics, that was the first thing (Warriors coach) Steve Kerr said. He said, ‘Your son is great. He brings a lot of things that we need. He changes games.
“‘But we can’t keep him on the floor. Gary, if we can keep him on the floor, he’s going to make us better. That’s why we want him here.’”
Keeping GP2 healthy is a priority as Golden State prepares to open training camp next week, with the season opener on Oct. 23 in Portland. He is, after Draymond Green, the team’s most effective defender.
Though he’s only 31, it is reasonable to believe GP2’s injury history was a factor in the Warriors’ offseason pursuit and signing of free agent De’Anthony Melton, who is a strong perimeter defender but comes with his own injury history.
Golden State Warriors
GP2 last season missed 38 games – 11 more than Green – with a variety of injuries. He missed three games with a foot injury, 13 more with a right calf injury and 16 more with a grade 2 strain of his left hamstring. Left calf tightness forced him to miss the final three games of the regular season and the Play-in Tournament loss to the Kings in Sacramento.
Golden State was 2-2 in those games and 17-17 in the other 34 games GP2 missed. Put another way, the Warriors were 27-17 when he was on the court, which is comparable to their 33-22 record posted when Draymond was on the court.
GP2 is, according to multiple league sources, having a good summer. One source: “He looks good.” Another, more cautious, source: “So far, so good.”
His father is somewhere in between.
“He’s doing good,” Payton Sr. says. “Just a few nicks here and there. A little thing with his elbow, but nothing he can’t play through. His conditioning is good. I believe he’ll be ready (for training camp).”
Payton’s impact is immeasurable. He might be the only 6-foot-3 player in the league capable of excelling at point-of-attack defense, catching lobs on offense and swatting the shot of a driving 7-foot-4 Victor Wembanyama.
GP2, you may recall, was ubiquitous at both ends during Golden State’s pivotal 21-0 run in Game 6 to subdue the Celtics and clinch the 2022 NBA Finals in Boston: Two steals, two points, two rebounds and one assist, while defensively silencing four different Celtics, including Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum.
No question GP2 wants to play 70-plus games. For one, he wants to shake the “injury prone” tag. For two, he opted into the final season of his contract at $9.1 million and wants another lucrative deal. For three, he wants that deal to come from the Warriors.
There was a time when the Warriors didn’t recognize his value. Coming off the ’22 Finals, they low-balled GP2 – a one-year contract at $6 million per a league source – and he chose to sign a three-year, $26.1 million pact with the Portland Trail Blazers.
Seven months later, the Warriors missed GP2 enough to trade for his return, acquiring him in a four-team deal in which they surrendered James Wiseman, their highest draft pick since taking Joe Smith No. 1 overall in 1995.
Payton has since missed more than half of Golden State’s scheduled games. His absence is felt in multiple ways, mostly on defense. GP2’s 102.3 defensive rating in 2021-22 was a full point better than anyone else who played at least 70 games.
That’s the defender Kerr longs to see, the man Payton wants to be and the player the Warriors need him to be.