The NBA playoffs start on April 15. The dreaded play-in tournament will be held April 11-14. That gives Gary Payton II and the Warriors about a seven-week runway to rehab his core muscle.
For the first time since he got traded back to the Warriors earlier this month, Gary Payton II spoke to reporters Wednesday afternoon in Los Angeles. Turns out he had the same reaction as most people.
“Blindsided,” Payton said, via NBC Sports Bay Area. “Shocked me just like it shocked everybody else. I believe like 10 minutes right before the deadline I was notified.”
When the trade news initially broke, we first learned the Warriors shipped James Wiseman to Detroit for Saddiq Bey and flipped him for five second-round picks from the Atlanta Hawks. Then Golden State parlayed those picks into Payton just before the noon deadline, bringing back the fan favorite who won a ring with the squad last year.
Golden State will return to action on Thursday against the Clippers, but Payton is still a ways off from getting back to the floor. C.J. Holmes of the San Francisco Chronicle shared a video from the Q&A, as Payton detailed how the core muscle affected him this season.
“It was just longer than expected coming out of surgery,” Payton said. “Just experienced pain longer than usual. … But getting better day by day. We’re gonna take it day by day and the pain’s going less and less.”
Payton underwent offseason surgery to his abdomen in September and didn’t make his season debut for the Portland Trail Blazers until Jan. 2. Though he played in 14 of 17 games before the deal, including a matchup against the Warriors the day before the deadline, Payton failed his physical with Golden State.
“That was one of the games that I wanted to play,” Payton said, via Madeline Kenney of the Bay Area News Group. “Just kinda thug it out. It was fun.”
Payton also clarified that he took Toradol, a non-steroid anti-inflammatory drug, but it wasn’t ingested through shots.
“Just me being a competitor, I wanted to get out there,” Payton said. “No shots, though. I just had to get through it and get it done. The medical stuff wasn’t really that big of a deal. I wanted to play. Go out there and help my teammates, help my coaches. I think I was a bigger factor on the court than not on the court. Me being at 50 percent was better than nothing.”
The Warriors eventually filed a complaint against the Blazers for their conduct in the trade, as they felt Portland didn’t fully disclose the severity of his injury before including him in the deal.
After Patrick Beverley picked the Bulls over the Warriors after getting traded and bought out, Golden State's best option for a perimeter defense upgrade is likely to just wait for Payton.
GP2’s update comes on the same day we got some injury-related news for the Splash Brothers. While Steph Curry will miss the next four games and be re-evaluated in a week, Klay Thompson will continue to play in both games of back-to-backs, starting with the Thursday and Friday’s games against the Lakers and Rockets.
