Gary Payton II Reportedly Traded to Warriors from Blazers for 5 NBA Draft Picks
Gary Payton II is reportedly heading back to the Golden State Warriors.
According to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski, the Portland Trail Blazers traded Payton back to his former team Thursday in exchange for five second-round draft picks. Payton spent the previous two seasons with the Warriors and then signed with the Trail Blazers ahead of the 2022-23 campaign.
The Oregon State product didn't make his season debut until Jan. 2 because of surgery for a core muscle injury and has played just 14 games this season.
He averaged 3.7 points, 2.6 rebounds and 1.1 steals while shooting 56.8 percent from the field and 53.3 percent from deep in those contests. While it isn't realistic to expect the career 33.5 percent shooter from three-point range to keep up those shooting totals with a larger sample size, more consistency from beyond the arc would add another element to his game.
Yet Payton is best known for his defense, and nobody knows that better than the Warriors.
He often anchored their second unit off the bench with that hard-nosed defense and was always willing to defend the opponent's best ball-handlers and perimeter players if needed. That took the pressure off Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson on the defensive end of the floor.
Opponents shot 2.2 percent worse than their normal averages when he guarded them last season, per NBA.com.
Golden State needs more perimeter depth for the foreseeable future with Curry expected to miss weeks with a left leg injury, and Payton provides just that. He is also familiar with what it takes to play in the team's system, and there shouldn't be much of an adjustment period like there is after some trades.
Payton helped the Warriors win the championship last season by returning in the NBA Finals from the fractured elbow he suffered in the Western Conference Finals against the Memphis Grizzlies.
He did a little bit of everything in key moments against the Boston Celtics, notching 15 points, five rebounds and three steals in a pivotal Game 5 win and posting six points, three rebounds, three steals, two assists and one block in the closeout Game 6.
It is still championship-or-bust for the Warriors with their core in place, and Payton will hope to help them win back-to-back titles following this trade.
