After playing an integral role en route to a championship for the Warriors, Gary Payton II was slated to return to Golden State after a brief stint with the Portland Trail Blazers.
Payton was included in a four-team trade involving the Warriors, Hawks, Pistons, and Blazers before the deadline. The deal was also supposed to send former No. 2 overall pick James Wiseman from the defending champs to the Pistons.
All of that is suddenly in jeopardy, however, after the 30-year-old guard reportedly failed his physical. Here is what Shams Charania and Anthony Slater reported about the situation on Friday evening (via The Athletic):
“Payton, according to sources, had been playing through pain in Portland. Sources added that the Blazers training staff had been pushing him to gut through it, giving him Toradol shots. This had not been relayed to the Warriors during the negotiation process.”
The Athletic’s Jason Quick previously reported that Payton indicated he didn’t want to play for Portland any longer.
Trail Blazers general manager Joe Cronin said that player safety is “super important” to the organization and they were “super confident” that Payton was healthy, per Sean Highkin.
He added that the team would not have let Payton return to the court if they did not believe he was physically able to play.
Joe Cronin: "Player safety is super-important to us. We were playing [GP2], he was cleared, and we were super-confident he was healthy. We wouldn't be playing him if he wasn't healthy."
— Sean Highkin (@highkin) February 11, 2023
After missing the first 35 games of the season due to an abdominal injury, Payton made his debut with Portland on Jan. 2. He played just 15 games for the Trail Blazers, including only one in the starting lineup, before the trade deadline.
Teams will have 72 hours to make a final decision about whether or not they still want the trade to go through.
Golden State’s front office may have the necessary incentive to agree to complete the trade anyway because they would save quite a bit of money by trading Wiseman to Detroit.
