The Golden State Warriors aren't quite running it back in 2022-23.

Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson are entrenched with the defending champions, of course, with the extension-eligible Andrew Wiggins and Jordan Poole soon set to join them. The Warriors re-signed Kevon Looney to a team-friendly three-year deal in free agency, while Moses Moody and Jonathan Kuminga are poised for regular rotation minutes in 2022-23. Even James Wiseman is ready to play.

But just because Golden State's key principals and young prospects remain hardly means its title-winning core is completely intact as summer winds down.

Otto Porter signed a two-year, $12.3 million contract with the Toronto Raptors, an unsurprising departure considering the Warriors' limited means of giving him a raise. It wasn't entirely shocking when Nemanja Bjelica went back overseas nor when Damion Lee, seeking more playing time, took a one-year deal from the Phoenix Suns.

Gary Payton II leaving for the Portland Trail Blazers, though, wasn't just the first and most notable time in recent years that Joe Lacob refused to right a bigger check. His return to the Pacific Northwest left Golden State without its most disruptive perimeter defender and opportunistic finisher on the other end, too.

Good thing general manager Bob Myers and the Warriors' front office worked so quickly to fill the roster holes left by Young Glove.

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Warriors' Best 2022 NBA Offseason Move

Donte DiVincenzo isn't Payton. He's nowhere near that top level of quick-twitch athlete, and lacks the length that helped Payton play much, much bigger with Golden State than his listed height of 6-foot-3.

Squinting makes it easy to see how DiVincenzo can thrive in many of the same ways Payton did, though, even offering Golden State an extra dose of offensive dynamism.

DiVincenzo is a dogged, active defender both on and off the ball. He'll likely take on the opposition's primary ball handler whenever he's on the floor, letting Andrew Wiggins to slide over to a less-threatening matchup until crunch time.

DiVincenzo's competitive fire and solid all-around athleticism allow him to check bigger players in a pinch, too, key when Steve Kerr wants to play small and Moody or Kuminga don't have it going. Like Payton, he's an outstanding rebounder, consistently ranking among the best in basketball at his position on both sides of the glass. DiVincenzo is also a factor running the break himself or sprinting the sidelines to finish in transition.

That versatility extends to offense, where DiVincenzo can run second-side pick-and-rolls against a scrambling defense and participate in small-small actions with Curry as an on-ball screener. He has experience running inverted pick-and-rolls with Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks, yielding comfort as a short-roll finisher and playmaker that will help Golden State exploit the winning numbers advantage so frequently provided by Curry's gravity.

Don't expect DiVincenzo to play that role as often as Payton. The Warriors went that direction often last season in part due to Payton's presence shrinking the floor next to another non-shooter like Green or Looney. Defenses will have to account for DiVincenzo when he's spotted up on the weakside in a way they didn't for Payton, making Golden State's regular churn of split cuts, back screens and hand-offs all the more effective.

DiVincenzo is at 36.7% on catch-and-shoot triples since his rookie season, per research at NBA.com/stats. Don't be surprised if he's closer to 40% with the Dubs, feasting on a steady diet of open spot-up looks while translating his major improvement at the free throw line last season to beyond the arc.

The Warriors could have stood pat after deciding that matching Payton's contract with Portland incurred too steep a luxury tax penalty. He was only their seventh or eighth man in 2021-22, after all, and Moody and Kuminga are waiting in the wings. They'd have been good enough to repeat this season without directly addressing Payton's exit in free agency.

But Lacob dipped into the taxpayer's mid-level exception to sign DiVincenzo instead, adding approximately $25 million to Golden State's tax bill for a player who likely won't be on the floor during the most critical moments of his team's title defense. Other billionaire owners would've blanched at the same transaction, content possessing the league's highest payroll for a second year running after hoisting the Larry O'Brien Trophy.

Not Lacob, just one of the countless reasons why the Warriors remain the league's gold standard—and the perfect place for a reclamation project like DiVincenzo, and Payton before him, to revive his career.