A bombshell was dropped in the NBA world on Friday evening when Shams Charania reported that the four-team trade between the Golden State Warriors, Portland Trail Blazers, Atlanta Hawks, and Detroit Pistons is in jeopardy. Why you ask? Well, Gary Payton II appeared to fail his Dubs physical and faces up to three more months sidelined with a core injury. A report also surfaced stating the Blazers staff forced GP2 to play through the ailment.
However, GM Joe Cronin quickly set the record straight, saying no such thing ever happened. Via Sean Highkin:
“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.”
Chauncey Billups also doubled down:
“We would never push a guy to play. Whether it's medical or he just doesn't feel like playing. I'd be scared of me doing that, and then something bad happens.”
Payton missed the first three months of the season because of the core injury, making his Blazers debut on January 2nd. He only played 15 games for Portland before Thursday's blockbuster trade, which reunited him with Golden State. James Wiseman landed in Detroit, Saddiq Bey went to Atlanta, and Kevin Knox ended up in the PDX.
The Warriors have until Saturday to decide if they want the trade to go through or not, even though GP2 is on the shelf for the foreseeable future. If not, all players will return to their former teams. It would be quite the situation.
If that does happen, Cronin says the Blazers would welcome Payton II back with open arms:
Joe Cronin on whether GP2 has a spot on the team if the trade is rescinded: “Oh, yeah.”
It will be very interesting to see what happens in the next 24 hours.
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